Lawford Davies Denoon

Lawford Davies Denoon is a London-based law firm which describes itself as specialising in life sciences (biotechnology). Its areas of expertise include human tissue and embryo research, in vitro fertilisation, and Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products, defined as medicines based on gene therapy, somatic cell therapy or tissue engineering.

Owner Alexander Denoon is a director and trustee of the Science Media Centre (see Science Media Centre).

Supporting human-animal hybrid embryo research

The firm's staff have become a resource for media stories that are supportive of development of contentious technologies, such as the creation of cloned human-animal hybrid embryos for research.

Partner James Lawford Davies provided a quote to the SMC for media use, disagreeing with the Dept of Health's suggestion of a ban on the creation of human-animal hybrids for research purposes and complaining that "the proposals do little to move forward from the status quo".

Another lawyer who was to join Lawford Davies Denoon was Julian Hitchcock. During his previous employment as a senior life sciences lawyer with Mills & Reeve, Hitchcock lamented the outcome of a public consultation in which "a largely uninformed public was simply (and improbably) asked, 'whether the law should permit the creation of human-animal or chimera embryos'." The public had not liked the idea.

Hitchcock blamed this outcome on the researchers' "complacency and failure to engage with the public". As a result of the consultation, the UK government had proposed banning the creation of hybrid embryos in its forthcoming human tissue and embryos bill. In addition, the regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, had shelved applications to create such embryos by scientists at King's College London and Newcastle University.

According to an article in the Financial Times, "Opinion started to change when scientists, realising belatedly what was at stake, started campaigning on the issue. In particular they persuaded the House of Commons science committee to hold an inquiry, which came out unanimously in favour of regulated research using hybrid embryos."

A second public consultation, conducted by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, "showed that many people who initially found the idea of hybrid embryos repugnant changed their minds once they were told what the research actually involved", according to the Financial Times article.

As a result of these events, the government reversed its position, saying that new human tissues and embryos bill would permit the creation of human-animal and other types of mixed-species embryos in some circumstances.

Hitchcock approved of this result: "The thoroughness of the HFEA's consultation, which differed from the government's in providing an explanation of the work involved, has reached a very different - and welcome - result which augurs well for stem cell research and enterprise. It will hopefully persuade the Chief Medical Officer (Sir Liam Donaldson), who has previously voiced doubts about chimera/hybrid research, that the public truly is on board."

Someone else who approved of the turnaround in public opinion was Fiona Fox, director of the Science Media Centre. She was quoted in the same article as saying: "The HFEA consultation on public attitudes to human-animal embryos shows that when the public feel they understand the science and can see which diseases the researchers are trying to tackle, support swings strongly in favour of allowing research."

The Financial Times heralded the public attitude swing as an example of "The power of scientific lobbying to change public and political opinion" – a point that was underscored by the fact that "the fertility regulator [HFEA] is set to approve the controversial principle that human-animal embryos can be created for research."

Human Genetics Alert gives a different view of the scientific and ethical issues around cloned human-animal hybrid embryos in a briefing, "Cloned human-animal hybrid embryos: Scientific and Ethical issues".

People

• Alexander Denoon - owner - also director and trustee of Science Media Centre
• James Lawford Davies - partner
• Julian Hitchcock - also member of Emerging Science and Bioethics Advisory Committee (ESBAC)

Affiliations

• Emerging Science and Bioethics Advisory Committee
• Science Media Centre

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