Cloning judgement welcomed

London, 15 November 2001--The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) welcomed reports of the challenge brought by the ProLife Alliance against the government's human cloning regulations. Initial reports indicate that the challenge has been upheld in the High Court.

The judgement follows a change in the regulations brought in earlier this year designed to allow research on cloned human embryos.

The ProLife Alliance case was based on the argument that the embryology law does not cover 'Dolly the sheep' type cloning for humans. The government's effort to sanction the process in humans through the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act has collapsed.

Commenting on the outcome, Paul Tully of SPUC said: "This judgement forces the Government to make good its promise to introduce primary legislation on cloning, which has been put on the back burner. The ProLife Alliance has created the opportunity for a comprehensive ban on cloning to be considered by Parliament.

"Advances in research on stem-cells from non-embryo sources have continued to undermine claims that no cure can be found for Parkinson's without research on cloned embryos. It is frankly dishonest to claim that cloned embryos must be created and dismembered to obtain stem cells when similar cells can be derived from adult tissue samples.

"By seeking to promote cloning for medical research the UK government and scientific establishment have made us a pariah state in this field. Cloning embryos for research would not only be immoral itself, it would inevitably lead to some scientists using exactly the same techniques to bring cloned embryos to birth. We congratulate Bruno Quintavalle and the ProLife Alliance for their action in the matter."