In January 2024, LML director Prof. Kathy Liddell presented at a Public Dialogue for the Governance of Research using Stem Cell Based Human Embryo Models (G-SCBEM). Prof. Liddell provided a brief presentation to support the participants’ deliberation, sharing her thoughts on some of the important considerations for a governance model.
During the presentation, Prof. Liddell urged the participants to consider the following questions when giving their views:
- Standard setting – what should be allowed, disallowed, subject to conditions, or actively encouraged with SCB-EMs? What cannot be left to scientists’ free choice? What exceptions/discretion might be needed?
- Key definitions – How could/should SCB-EMs be defined? And, if it is ethically relevant, how could/should one write definitions so as to draw a distinction between SCB-EMs that are more like a human embryo, and SCB-EMs that are more like a bunch of human cells?
- Legitimacy – Who decides the rules? Who decides if the rules have been broken? Has due account been given to the wide variety of views in society about the moral significance of human embryos, and variety of views about the trustworthiness of science and industry?
- Securing compliance – Who will check if the rules are being followed? How?
- Sanctions/consequences after non-compliance – What should happen if a scientist breaks one or more of the governing rules? Does the governance system have the legal powers to make that happen?
- Time-scale – How long will it take to set up the governance system? What happens in the meantime?
- Future proofing – How will the system adapt to scientific developments?