BioCentury
ARTICLE | Politics, Policy & Law

U.K. mulls brave cloning stance

August 21, 2000 7:00 AM UTC

OXFORD - While the British government has pandered to so-called public opinion on the issue of GMO foods and held back agbio development, British ministers are clearly prepared to stick their necks out and support changes in the law that would make it easier for researchers to work on embryonic stem cells. The difference in approach is attributable to the potential life saving and preserving results of therapeutic cloning, because the ethics of the technology is more of a minefield than agbio could ever be.

Last week, a British government expert group led by Liam Donaldson, chief medical officer of England, recommended that existing curbs be eased to allow research using embryos, whether they are created by in vitro fertilization or cell nuclear replacement. This would be accomplished by extending the categories of research permitted by the U.K. Human Fertilization and Embryology Act 1990 (see Online Links, below). ...