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This report is part of a series examining the ethical, policy and scientific issues that arise in the controversial field of human embryo research. A list of acronyms used is available here.
Human embryo research guidelines are not found in any international rule or code. Instead they are developed by each nation and aim to serve their internal interests and goals. What is allowed or prohibited varies by country, but many countries, especially in North America and Europe, were influenced by or chose to replicate a variation of the 14-day limit.
The 14-day limit originates in the 1979 U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW) report related to in vitro fertilization (IVF) (DHEW 1979). This report suggested that the United States should allow human embryo research up to the 14th day of development, although this rule was never codified into U.S. law. However, scientists still use the 14-day limit as a guide for their work. The 14-day rule is more often associated with the 1984 U.K. report authored by the Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Warnock 1984). Referred to as the Warnock report after the committee’s chair Dame Mary Warnock, the report also recommended restricting human embryo research to the 14th day post fertilization (dpf). Unlike the U.S. report, these recommendations led to the U.K. government passing the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act of 1990 (HFE Act), which set the 14-day rule into law.
In this paper, we provide a detailed history and analysis of the U.K.’s Warnock report—one of the seminal policy and philosophical reviews of human embryo research—and its impact on policy and public discussions. We also survey other national policies associated with IVF and human embryo and human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research. While each nation determined their own policy for human embryo research, many, but not all, were guided by the Warnock report and the 14-day rule. Some chose similar limits while others imposed more restrictions. A few others—similar to the United States—never passed explicit regulations but their scientists abide by the limit as part of an international consensus that is promoted by scientific societies including the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR).
