Sir, As individuals with a professional interest in bioethics, we are astonished by the call for permission to use cells taken from patients — including child patients — to produce, without consent, human or human-animal embryos for research (letter, Jan 21).

At a time when an “opt-out” system for organ donation is attracting strong opposition, it is extraordinary that deriving a clone or other embryo from a non-consenting child or older patient should be seen as acceptable ethically. There is a big difference between authorising research on one’s own cells alone, as with standard adult stem-cell research, and authorising the creation and destruction of human embryos or hybrid human entitites. Consent for the latter, highly controversial practices should never be presumed.

There is a section of the scientific community which seems increasingly intolerant of any strong ethical constraints on how it chooses to do its work. We know that such views are not shared by other scientists, and trust that society can achieve a permanent ban on non-consensual use of tissue to create embryos.

Dr Helen Watt
Director, Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics

Prof John Haldane
Director, Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs, University of St Andrews

Prof David Jones
Director, Postgraduate Programme in Bioethics, St Mary’s University College

Dr Calum Mackellar
Director of Research, Scottish Council on Human Bioethics

Prof David Oderberg
Department of Philosophy, University of Reading

Dr Jacqueline Laing
Department of Law, Governance and International Relations, London Metropolitan University

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