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Pro-lifers attack government on cloning
Westminster, 19 April 2001--Pro-life campaigners have launched a scathing attack on plans to introduce new legislation on human cloning.Paul Tully, general secretary of the Society for the Protection of
Unborn Children, said: "Mr Alan Milburn's announcement is a blatant
attempt to obscure the Government's promotion of human cloning. He
introduces secondary issues like life insurance and NHS staffing and
speaks in vague terms of a 'genetic revolution' and 'genetic
underclass'. It seems to be a desperate attempt to talk about
everything but the ethics of creating cloned human beings in the
laboratory.
"The government clearly supports human cloning to generate
embryos for spare-parts surgery, and 'reproductive cloning' which is
already practised as part of genetic screening techniques licensed by
the embryology authority.
"It is clear from the Government's actions, if not from Mr
Milburn's words, that the new legislation will neither stop the
creation of cloned human embryos, nor give them proper protection once
they have been created. Reports suggest it will reinforce the prejudice
against clones by demanding that they are destroyed after they have
been plundered for 'spare parts'.
"There are a number of serious concerns we have over these proposals: Will the law require informed consent before a carbon copy of a person is generated? It is appalling to think that genetic copies of people could be generated without permission. However, such permission would be a double edged sword: if it were required it would create a 'right to be cloned' climate, with those unable to afford the technology demanding that the NHS pay for creating a 'spare parts duplicate' of them."
