Editor's Summary
29 November 2007
Public morality
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) was set up by the UK government to regulate fertility clinics. Operating at the interface between science and politics, its decisions also define moral standards for society. Dame Mary Warnock, who chaired the committee behind the formation of the HFEA, discusses the problem that society faces when scientists wish to pursue research that some members of society find repugnant. Ignorance and prejudice should not be allowed to dictate the outcome, and it is important to recognize that these are matters of public not private morality.
Essay: The ethical regulation of science
Occasionally science makes procedures possible that are so radical that those at the interface between science and politics are called on to define moral standards for society.
Mary Warnock
doi:10.1038/450615a
