UK government confirms ban on human reproductive cloning

British Medical Journal, July 3, 1999 by Susan Mayor

The UK government last week reaffirmed its policy that human reproductive cloning is ethically unacceptable by retaining a ban on this type of procedure. A new expert advisory group has been set up, however, to assess the potential benefits of cloning techniques for therapeutic purposes.

The government was responding to a report on cloning published last year by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and the Human Genetics Advisory Commission that recommended cloning embryos for the development of cells and tissues for medical purposes (12 December, p 1613).

The report suggested that cell nucleus replacement techniques--cloning techniques used to develop tissues--should be permitted, but it rejected the use of cloning for human reproduction.

Explaining the government's response, the minister for public health, Tessa Jowell, said: "The government reaffirms its policy that human reproductive cloning is ethically unacceptable and cannot take place in this country. However, we recognise that regulations to allow therapeutic research should be very carefully considered."

The chief medical officer, Liam Donaldson, has been asked to set up an independent expert advisory group to seek the views of a range of experts in the United Kingdom and other countries to provide the government with a clearer idea of the potential benefits of therapeutic cloning techniques.

This group is being asked in particular to consider human embryo research for the development of treatment for mitochondrial diseases and for diseased or damaged tissues or organs. It is expected to report back to the government by early next year.

Members of the original advisory group support the government's decision that further consideration is needed. Christine Gosden, professor of medical genetics at the University of Liverpool, and a member of the group, said: "Stem cell research is in its infancy. There is a great deal of animal work to be done before more work with human eggs."

She argued that the field is so fast moving that time for full consideration is essential, pointing to the recent discovery that Dolly--the first sheep to be cloned from an adult cell--has shortened telomeres.

Copies of the government's response to the report are available from the Stationery Office, price 2.40 [pounds sterling], or on the Department of Health's website (www.doh.gov.uk/cloning.htm).