British scientists have been given permission to treat stroke patients with injections of cells from an aborted baby, it emerged last night.

In a world first, stem cells from a 12-week-old foetus will be injected into patients’ brains.
Experts believe the cells will regenerate areas damaged by strokes and restore movement and mental skills.

But anti-abortion groups condemned the trials as ‘sick’ and said it was barbaric for society to use aborted foetuses this way.

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A quarter of a million Britons have a severe disability caused by a stroke.
Until now there has been no way of repairing the damage created when the brain is starved of oxygen.

In the two-year trial, starting next year, four groups of three patients will be given stem cells developed by the biotech company ReNeuron in Surrey.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

The ‘blank cells’ can turn into any type of human tissue. The ones needed for the trial havebeen grown in culture after they were taken from a foetus’s brain.

ReNeuron could use cells from an adult, but says foetal cells are more adaptable.

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