German academies call for end of ban on embryo research

Important questions can only be addressed with embryo research, say German research bodies

German scientists should be able to conduct research on early stage human embryos in the laboratory, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities have said.

Current embryo-protection rules should be re-evaluated, they said, urging that researchers should be allowed to use surplus embryos created in the course of fertility treatments and which are no longer needed for that purpose.