Spain will permit embryonic stem cell research from the end of next month, the Spanish health minister said. Elena Salgado told a medical congress in Grenada that the government was now only awaiting approval by a consultative body of a decree on “informed consent”. This would outline the process by which patients agree to participate in clinical tests after being fully informed, the minister told reporters. Spain will initially have two centres of research -- one in Catalonia specialising in regenerative medicine, and the other a stem cell bank at Granada. The latter follows the examples of Sweden and Britain which already have similar facilities.
