Fast-track act

Following last week's ruling in the High Court that effectively made it legal for human cloning to take place in this country, legislation making human reproductive cloning has been introduced to Parliament on a fast-track procedure. The Human Reproductive Cloning Bill was published and introduced to the House of Lords last Thursday. The second reading and committee stages of the bill took place today.

The bill proposes that a person who transfers an embryo that 'has been created otherwise than by fertilisation' into a woman will be committing a criminal offence. Anyone found guilty of the offence will be liable to up to ten years in prison, a fine, or both. It is expected that the bill will pass through the Lords with little opposition, and will be heard in the House of Commons on Thursday, perhaps gaining Royal Assent by the end of the week.

Opponents of the bill say that it does not go far enough, as it only forbids the implantation of cloned embryos, not their creation. Peter Garrett, from the charity Life, said that there was nothing to prevent cloned human embryos being implanted in animals, or even men, or their export to other countries where cloning is not banned.

The government has said that it will also introduce measures to regulate the cloning of human embryos for therapeutic purposes, a matter which is currently unregulated following last week's court judgement. This matter will be considered when the results of the government's challenge to last week's High Court ruling are known and the House of Lords Select Committee on cloning has reported.