British first to outlaw human cloning

Britain wants tight controls on genetic health research, writes PAUL WAUGH.

LONDON - Britain will become the first country in the world to ban human cloning under Government plans to ease fears about genetic technology.

Alan Milburn, the Secretary of State for Health, was to announce overnight that he would bring forward legislation within months to outlaw the practice, at present restricted to those granted licences.

But Milburn, in a speech to scientists and doctors in Newcastle upon Tyne, says that the Government will back the human genome project, saying it would benefit National Health Service patients.

The Government plans to build on British advances in this field.

Scientists believe the project, which will provide a map of every human gene, will transform medicine by allowing drugs to be developed to combat many diseases.

Four genetic "knowledge parks," to cost £10 million ($35.24 million), will be created to work with hospitals, universities and drug companies.

More than £20 million will be spent recruiting new medical staff and genetic scientists to enable the health service to keep up with medical advances.

But Milburn has made it clear that while Britain should aim to become a world leader in the genetic revolution for health care, there should be strict boundaries to reassure people.

Although human reproductive cloning is banned by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, its policy could be overturned at any time and a licence issued.

The Health Department believes the only way to ensure that cloning never takes place is to ban it.

"It should be banned by law, not just by licence," Milburn says in his speech.

The 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act's definition of an embryo as a "live human embryo where fertilisation is complete" did not foresee the cloning in 1997 of Dolly the sheep by cell nuclear replacement.

Ministers have been disturbed by reports that scientists in Italy and the United States were preparing to clone a baby using cell nuclear replacement.

By introducing legislation banning the "encouragement" or practice of such cloning, the Government hopes to send a signal to the international community that the science is morally unacceptable.

Milburn says the Government is keen to help foster and develop genetic research to offer revolutionary treatments and therapies.

The Secretary of State claims that genetic research offers a "new frontier" for the NHS and holds out the prospect of a radical approach to tackling disease.

Geneticist Richard Dawkins welcomed the proposed law.

"My impression is that those British scientists working in this field do not want to get involved in human reproductive cloning and positively object to it," he said. "It seems sensible therefore to do this."

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Online feature: Cloning humans

Professor Severino Antinori

Human Cloning Foundation

bioethics.net

Religious Tolerance looks at cloning