Parkinson's victim offers to be guinea pig

Mar 27 2008 by Chris Robinson, The Journal

A NORTH businessman who suffers from Parkinson’s disease has condemned the use of hybrid embryos for medical research, even though scientists claim the technique could eventually lead to a cure for the condition.

Scientists at Newcastle who have been given permission to carry out the research last night insisted it would be done in safe clinical conditions in a bid to find a cure for numerous conditions.

But Ken Bell, 80, the former managing director of Ken Bell Seafood Company, said researchers should test on him rather than risk breaking the species barrier during cell research on human-animal embryos.

Mr Bell, of High Street, Gosforth, Newcastle, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s a decade ago, said: “It is not religious reasons, it is scientific reasons I’m talking about and no one is talking about the species barrier.

“We have no evidence that this will do any good. If we are lucky it will do some good, but more likely it will do some bad.

“The danger of fiddling with a science barrier is too great for the hope of curing Parkinson’s. It would be putting young children, those who are unborn, to a threat of a pandemic in the hope that I might get a cure. There is no guarantee.”

Mr Bell, who was awarded an MBE in 1988 for services to exporting, once funded research into finding a test to discover BSE-CJD. The test was pioneered by North scientist Dr Harash Narang who established a link between mad cow disease and its human form Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill is due to go before the Commons within weeks but has attracted widespread controversy from religious bodies.

However, scientists at Newcastle University support the proposal and argue that the use of the animal human embryos, which would be used to extract stem cells and grow tissue, could lead to cures for diseases including multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s.

They received the green light from fertility regulator the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority in January for a one-year study which will create embryos that are 99.9% human and 0.1% animal to ease the shortage of fresh human eggs for research.

The team, headed by Dr Lyle Armstrong, applied for approval to use cow eggs as a means to understand the way embryonic cells can convert into other different types of cells.

Mr Bell said he fears that diseases which humans are immune to at the moment could be passed on through breaking the species barrier.

He added: “If it’s a choice of risking a pandemic in a way that you should find a cure some day, then I wouldn’t risk a pandemic.

“I would do anything to have a cure, but not to risk a pandemic. I would rather they experiment on me.

“You have to accept there is a species barrier and anything that lowers or breaks that is very dangerous. It’s like a germ warfare.

Mick Warwicker, spokesman for the Institute of Human Genetics at Newcastle University said: “If the Bill becomes law we will not be able to create any type of living creature.

“Our scientists will grow clusters of cells in a dish which will have to be destroyed within 14 days.

“This will be done in clinically clean conditions so there is no possibility of a pandemic.”

Supporting research

SELF-MADE millionaire businessman Ken Bell has a long history of backing research by leading scientists.

The former Scotswood butcher’s boy spent more than £100,000 on a campaign of advertising and research into food irradiation which he believed was used to conceal contamination.

He also went on to fund a university research project into irradiated food.

In 1986 his Jesmond-based company, Ken Bell International, agreed to sponsor a three- year course at Brunel University, to investigate whether food had been put through the process which extended their shelf life by giving it low level doses of radiation.

Research was carried out under the direction of former Newcastle University Professor Robin Wilson.His campaign was also raised in the Commons by the then South Shields MP David Clark, Labour’s Shadow Food and Agriculture Minister.

Mr Bell, also backed the research of virologist Dr Harash Narang who discovered the link between BSE and its human form CJD.

Dr Narang, who now lives in the USA, was working for the Government’s Public Health Laboratory Service in Newcastle when he revealed the link and later lost his job.