UK cloning research challenged by lawyers' group

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June 2005

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UK cloning research challenged by lawyers' group

UK cloning research challenged by lawyers' group
After 10 months of research, scientists at the United Kingdom's Newcastle Fertility Centre at Life reported in May that they had successfully created their first human clones. They were awarded a licence for their research by the UK fertility watchdog, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in August 2004.

That license is currently being challenged by a UK Christian lawyers group, the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship (LCF), seeking to end the center's research. An application for judicial review of the licence was lodged with the British High Court on the grounds that the HFEA had unlawfully withheld information about the licence and that the licence was unlawfully granted, therefore invalid from the start.

If the High Court accepts the LCF's arguments, it will revoke the licence and rule that the activities of the Newcastle scientists were unlawful from the beginning.

Earlier this year, the United Nations voted in favor of banning all forms of human cloning.

Commented Andrea Williams, Barrister and Public Policy Officer of the LCF: "It is a matter of serious concern that despite the UN ban on human cloning, the legal challenge by [LCF], and the level of controversy surrounding cloning research, [the Newcastle Fertility Centre at Life] team continued with the project. We are hopeful that the High Court will appreciate the serious implications of what [the center] has done as it strikes at the heart of our humanity and our respect for life and human dignity."

LIFE, the UK’s leading pro-life charity, believes news that scientists at the Centre for Life in Newcastle have successfully cloned human embryos represents a sad day for Britain.

A spokesman said: "What has happened should make all decent people ashamed of being British. Cloning has been banned by many civilized countries such as the [United States], Germany, and Italy and earlier this year the United Nations approved a declaration urging all member states to outlaw all forms of cloning. We have crossed a moral Rubicon. We are witnessing a new and lamentable form of manipulation and trivialization of human life.

"Of course we are regaled with all the usual promises about curing terrible diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. We all want to find cures for them. But this end does not justify the means. Human beings should not be manufactured to supply 'spare parts' for others.

"In truth the quest for human cloning has little to do with curing or therapy, despite what the enthusiasts claim. It is about power, breaking moral barriers, Nobel prizes. It is runaway science. A morally healthy society should reject all forms of cloning.

"LIFE believes we must distinguish the hype surrounding cloning and embryonic stem cell research from the reality that is adult stem cell research. Adult stem cells are already being successfully used to treat an ever-growing number of human conditions. This is the real way forward towards that medical revolution which the cloners say is just around the corner."

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