UK: Scientists Given OK for Therapeutic Human Cloning

The ethics of human cloning are not entirely certain, but not everyone is willing to submit to religious pressure and prohibit it entirely. In Britain, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has granted a license to scientists at the University of Newcastle for therapeutic human cloning.

The BBC reports:

The cloning technique, known as cell nuclear replacement (CNR) involves removing the nucleus of a human egg cell and replacing it with the nucleus from a human body cell, such as a skin cell. The egg is then artificially stimulated. This causes the egg to divide and behave in a similar way to a standard embryo fertilised by sperm. The eggs used are left over from IVF treatment. They are donated by couples, and would otherwise have been destroyed.

Julia Millington of the ProLife Party ... said: "It is perverse that, in the current climate of concern for the protection of animals, the HFEA is allowing experimentation on human beings without even a murmur of public opposition." ... Josephine Quintavalle, of the pro-life group Comment On Reproductive Ethics, told the BBC: "It is very worrying indeed. ... "No human life should be sacrificed for the benefit of anybody else, no matter how dramatic the promises are.

If anyone were to take seriously the proposition that such immature embryos really qualified as a “human life” that deserved to be protected just like any adult life, then it would be necessary to enact a complete ban on all abortions, any fertility treatments that use multiple eggs, and all types embryonic stem cell research. I don’t mean just a ban on government funding, but a complete criminal prohibition — just like murder is prohibited.

How many of these “pro-life” groups publicly acknowledge these goals, though? Not many — either because they don’t really want them (which indicates that they don’t believe their own overblown rhetoric) or because they fear they’ll lose public support because most people wouldn’t go along with them (which indicates that they know they are extremists and are trying to hide that). Either way, they aren’t behaving in a very honest manner.

Read More:

• Guide to Ethics and Morality
• News About Ethics
• Bioethics