UK clears human embryo cloning for research

UK clears human embryo cloning for research
DPA

LONDON, JANUARY 23: British scientists will be allowed to clone human embryos for medical research after a government-sponsored Bill on the issue cleared the last legislative hurdle on Monday night. In the House of Lords, the upper house of the British parliament, peers voted 212 to 92 against a delaying amendment, meaning that the new rules will take effect within weeks.

Britain becomes the first nation in Europe to permit cloning of embryos up to 14 days old. Cloning of developed human beings remains banned. The House of Commons had already approved the new rules in December.

Despite passing the measure, the House of Lords will appoint a committee to study stem cell experimentation even as research gets underway using those now-legal methods. The new regulations were opposed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Anglican Church, as well as Britain's Roman Catholic, Jewish and Muslim leaders. Supporters of the legislation believe that research on embryonic stem cells holds the best hope to produce new, healthy tissue for people suffering from diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis and leukaemia.

Junior Health Minister Lord Hunt of Kings Heath said the rules represented ``the balance we must make'' between respect for human embryos and respect for people who could benefit from stem cell research. ``There is no slippery slope here,'' the BBC quoted him as saying.

Lord Alton, who proposed the delaying amendment, said during the debate that human embryos would become ``just another accessory to be created, bartered, frozen or destroyed,'' the BBC reported. ``These are not trivial questions that preoccupy a few moral theologians. They are at the heart of our humanity.''