Related articles and links |  1 of 2

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the two most senior Roman Catholic archbishops, an Orthodox archbishop, Protestant officials and leaders of the Muslim, Sikh and Jewish communities were among 11 religious leaders whose plea was disregarded. They had warned that the issue had not been fully addressed and that "one slight miscalculation" could lead to irreversible implications for future generations.

The move was approved on January 22 by a big majority in the upper chamber, the House of Lords, following its acceptance in December by the lower chamber, the House of Commons.

It will allow the "therapeutic cloning" of embryos up to 14-days-old. The technique involves creating genetically identical embryos from which will be taken stem cells for research into diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, and cancer.

The technique is similar to that used by the Roslin Institute in Scotland to create Dolly the sheep—the world's first cloned mammal—in 1997.

Supporters of research on human embryos argue that therapeutic cloning has nothing to do with reproductive cloning - the creation of a cloned human being - but Lord Alton, in the House of Lords debate, complained about treating human embryos as "just another accessory to be created, bartered, frozen or destroyed."

Referring to existing UK law on embryo research, he said: "Since 1990, when miracle cures were promised for 4,000 inherited diseases, between 300,000 and half-a-million human embryos have been destroyed or experimented upon. There have been no cures, but our willingness to walk this road has paved the way for more and more demand."

The House of Lords approved the measure to allow human cloning by 212 to 92, a majority of 120. It was a "free vote" - peers were not compelled to vote along party lines - but the government had made it clear that in its view Britain's world leadership in the field of embryo research depended on the measure being passed.

According to the Catholic Herald newspaper, the religious leaders wrote their letter "after Prime Minister Tony Blair refused four separate requests to meet them to discuss the moral implications of human cloning." Blair had said that "diary commitments" made a meeting impossible.

The faith leaders' open letter, sent to members of the House of Lords on January 15, was signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey; the Archbishop of York, David Hope (the Church of England's second-ranking prelate); Archbishop (and cardinal-elect) Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales; Cardinal Thomas Winning, head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland; Archbishop Gregorios of the Greek Orthodox Church; the general secretary of the Baptist Union, David Coffey; the moderator of the Free Churches Organization, Anthony Burnham; the general secretary of the Evangelical Alliance, Joel Edwards; the president of the Muslim College, Dr Zaki Badawi; Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks; and the director of the Network of Sikh Organizations, Indarjit Singh.

The letter said in part: "There is widespread agreement that the huge philosophical and ethical implications of such developments [cloning of human embryos] have not been considered fully. Scientific opinion is also divided about the alleged benefits of therapeutic cloning - pointing to the morally uncontroversial use of stem cells from other sources."

next page... |  1 of 2

March 5 2001, Vol. 45, No. 4