UK vows to ban human cloning

LONDON, England -- A ban on human cloning -- the first of its kind -- has been pledged by the UK government to allay public fears.

Health Secretary Alan Milburn said the current system needed to be strengthened by law "to ensure that genetic advances are used for good rather than for evil."

Human cloning is currently banned by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.

Health officials say legislation would place the UK as the first country in the world to ban human cloning.

Milburn also suggested the government might introduce a moratorium on the use of genetic tests by insurance firms.

The government would bring forward legislation as soon as possible, he added.

The moves come as concern gathers for what Milburn calls the emergence of a "genetic underclass."

Regulations were still needed despite the UK's potential to become a world leader in a genetics revolution that "is not going to go away," and even though such research provided "potentially major health gains," he added.

These gains, reflected by an announcement of an extra £30 million ($43 million) in genetic research funding, include increased early diagnosis and preventive medical techniques.

Ethical questions

Several top scientists welcomed the news of the ban.

"I've heard...[human cloning] might be used to replace a precious child lost in a road accident, which rather fills me with horror," said Professor Richard Gardner, chair of the Royal Society working group on stem cell and therapeutic cloning.

Gardner said there were serious ethical questions raised by the development of human cloning.

"It introduces an entirely novel situation where one individual is, in effect, precisely imposing his or her genetic constitution on another."

However, pro-life groups dismissed the government's announcement as "pure political spin" aimed at pleasing voters ahead of an expected general election on June 7.

They also said the limited "therapeutic" cloning of human embryos already allowed under UK law passed last January was tantamount to human cloning.

LIFE, a leading pro-life charity, says that this form of cloning effectively creates human beings and then kills them.

"Far from becoming the first country to ban human cloning, we have become the first to legalise it for the purposes of destructive research procedures," the group said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Human Cloning Foundation
Human Genetics Advisory Commission
Chief Medical Officer's Expert Group on Therapeutic Cloning - Stem Cell Research: Medical Progress with Responsibility

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