Posted on 03/14/2003 4:05:24 AM PST by RJCogburn
Five law lords rejected the final appeal yesterday by the Pro-Life Alliance against the law that allows experiments with cloned human embryos. The alliance successfully argued in the high court in 2001 that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, which regulates research on embryos, did not cover cloned embryos produced by cell nuclear replacement (CNR), the technique used to produce Dolly the sheep.
The ruling, which would have left human cloning totally unregulated, forced the government to rush through legislation banning the use of cloning to produce a baby.
It also threatened to wreck the use of early-stage cloned embryos for research, aimed ultimately at producing human tissue for transplant, until the court of appeal overturned the ruling last year.
The alliance appealed to the lords, the final appeal court, which unanimously rejected its appeal yesterday.
When the act was passed in 1990 CNR was unknown. The act regulates the use of embryos produced outside the body and defines an embryo as "a live human embryo where fertilisation is complete".
The alliance argued that embryos produced by CNR, which does not involve fertilisation, were therefore not covered.
I agree. I wonder what folks will say someday when we are able to grow an new cloned individual from any cell in the body - all the DNA is there so it is possible.
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