14-day limit prohibition for human embryo research abandoned June 1, 2021 The international scientific body governing stem cell research is abandoning the absolute 14-day limit on culturing human embryos in the laboratory, putting pressure on Canada’s law prohibiting the practice. “As happens so often in human affairs, opening the door on a controversial but somewhat defensible position (not from the Church’s point of view though) bumps up against a boundary which is first deemed arbitrary and then seen as limiting true science. So the push is on to expand the pool of available research material,” Redemptorist bioethicist Fr. Mark Miller told