Revisiting the Warnock rule
Abstract
Is it time to reassess the 14-day rule for human embryo research? The seminal 1984 Warnock Report established that research on human embryos should be limited to the first 14 days of development (Box 1). Since that time, the rule has been broadly adopted and adhered to across the research community. With the introduction of new methodologies into human embryology, however, our ability to culture human embryos in vitro has progressed rapidly, to the point where we now are reaching the 14-day Rubicon. In August 2016, two groups in the UK and in the US reported experiments on human embryos that were sustained in culture for 12–13 days after fertilization. To comply with British law, the UK lab destroyed its embryo on the 13th day. In the following article, Nature Biotechnology brings together a group of experts to discuss whether, in the light of these advances, it is now time to reassess the 14-day rule.
Additional Information
© 2017 Nature Publishing Group. Corrected after print 10 November 2017.Errata
Nat. Biotechnol. 35, 1029–1042 (2017); published online 9 November 2017; corrected after print 10 November 2017. In the version of this article initially published, J.E. Lunshof's affiliation was given as "Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA"; the affiliation should have included her main affiliation at the University of Groningen and read, "Department of Genetics, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), Groningen, The Netherlands, and Department of Genetics, Church laboratory, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA." In addition, "Divinity School, University of Chicago," should be "University of Chicago Divinity School." The errors have been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 94574
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20190408-161923858
- Created
-
2019-04-09Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2023-06-01Created from EPrint's last_modified field