Committee decides 'therapeutic cloning' can go ahead

A select committee of the UK House of Lords decided last week to allow scientists in the UK to create and carry out research on human embryo clones. The committee was established last year to examine whether cloning embryos was necessary for the development of stem cell research.

The select committee decided that the potential benefits to science and medicine that can come from experimentation on cloned and surplus human embryos outweighed the ethical objections. It also rejected claims made by some pro-life and religious groups that developments in adult stem cell research have made research on embryos unnecessary.

The report concluded that because of the potential that stem cells have to become any kind of body cell or tissue, and the impact the development of stem cell research may have on modern medicine, research on embryonic stem cells should be allowed to take place under strict conditions. It also recommended that the use of cloned embryos should be kept to a minimum and that licences should only be granted for this where there was a 'demonstrable and exceptional need that cannot be met by IVF'.

The select committee called upon the UK Government to keep the necessity of using stem cells derived from embryos - cloned or otherwise - under review, and to carry out a further review of the science towards the end of the decade. The committee also believed that the Government should be instrumental in securing an international ban on reproductive cloning.

Critics denounced the report as 'a whitewash', saying that its recommendations were merely 'cosmetic' because the committee was made up of supporters of human cloning. But the report was welcomed by the scientific community. Richard Gardner, chairman of the Royal Society working group on stem cell research, said 'there is now the very real prospect that the UK can become a world leader in stem cell research'.