European legislators have criticised a British government proposal which would, for the first time in the world, allow the creation of human embryos with three parents. Members of the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly expressed their opposition by signing a declaration. [Telegraph and Care]

CORE said: “We are absolutely delighted that this Declaration against germline modification of the human embryo has been successfully registered.

“Colleagues from Italy, including Prof Assunta Morresi, from Italy’s National Bioethics Committee, who interviewed Prof Stuart Newman from New York for the Strasbourg meeting, have already expressed their full support. Various groups of US opponents of germline engineering, not least the Center for Genetics and Society, represented by Dr Marcy Darnovsky, are also hugely encouraged by this initiative, particularly as this very issue will be discussed by the US Food and Drug Agency later this month.

“We will continue to encourage as many [Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe] delegates as possible to add their names to an initiative which clearly unites a very broad spectrum of concerned citizens of the world.”