Italian maverick seeks work in UK

Severino Antinori has voiced his intentions to clone humans in the UK in a letter to a Scottish newspaper. He said that he wanted to work in this country because many of the world's fertility and cloning experts are based here. Antinori told the newspaper that he and his colleague, Dr Panos Zavos, would ask for permission to practice in Britain in order to force it to explain its opposition to human reproductive cloning. He said ' if they say no I would like to know why. If there is a scientific reason I will understand. If they refuse for religious reasons, I will not'. If permission was not granted they said they would perform the procedure elsewhere, either in Asia or an unspecified Mediterranean country.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) confirmed that Antinori has not applied for a licence, saying that 'he'd get short shrift if he did'. James Yeandel, an HFEA spokesman, added that 'we clearly stated following our consultation and following the birth of Dolly the sheep that we wouldn't allow reproductive cloning in the UK'. Practising without a licence could result in a fine and/or a jail sentence.

Antinori was barred from a scientific debate on cloning by the Royal Society of Edinburgh last week. In a letter to the Scottish newspaper criticising the decision and explaining his intentions, he said that 'since our announcement that we intend to use reproductive cloning as a means to help infertile couples, we have received nothing but opposition from those in the animal cloning field'. The Roslin Institute told the same newspaper that it did not want to appear on the same platform as Antinori 'as we do not want to give him any credibility'.