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UK Scientists Allowed Clone Human Embryos : 13th Sep 05
British scientists have been granted permission to clone human embryos for medical research in what is thought to be the first such licence given in Europe. Researchers at the University of Newcastle in northern England will be allowed to create embryos as a source of stem cells to cure diseases after being given permission by the government's regulator, a spokeswoman for the university said.
Britain’s reproduction regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), gave permission to proceed. The scientists said they plan to duplicate early-stage embryos and extract stem cells from them.
The embryos will be destroyed before they are 14 days old and will never be allowed to develop beyond a cluster of cells. Irish Times. August 11. http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2004/0811/breaking37.htm
Embryo Experimentation Banned under Irish Medical Council Guidelines
Similar research in Ireland would almost certainly be blocked by the Constitutional protections for the unborn, although it could require a test case in the courts. Experimentation on embryos from whatever source is also banned by ethics guidelines agreed by the Irish Medical Council, although these only apply to doctors registered with the Council.
The Government established an advisory group, the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction. The Commission is preparing a major report to advise on in vitro fertilisation, embryo research and related issues. Its report is overdue but expected some time this year.
Prof Jack Scarisbrick, national chairman of the pro-life group Life, described the UK move as a further step down a “slippery slope”.He said: “Therapeutic cloning involves the manufacture of a new kind of human being, one generated without parentage in the normal sense, with the express purpose of destroying that life once stem cells have been stripped from it”. Irish Times. August 12. http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2004/0812/3491198057FR12CLONENEWS.html
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