New legislation to ban human cloning was due to be introduced into the UK parliament this week after a High Court ruling that cloning was not covered by current regulations.
Last week's ruling surprised the government and research bodies in the United Kingdom. The secretary of state for health, Alan Milburn, responded by announcing plans for urgent legislation making human cloning a specific criminal offence, unless the ruling was overturned on appeal.
The ruling upheld a claim by an organisation “campaigning for absolute respect for innocent human life.” The ProLife Alliance claimed that organisms created by cell nuclear replacement—the technique that resulted in Dolly the sheep—were not embryos because they were not created by the fertilisation of an egg by a sperm.
In cell nuclear replacement, the nucleus from one cell is transplanted into an unfertilised egg from which the nucleus has been removed. The ProLife Alliance, which is a registered political party, argued that this meant that human embryos created by cell nuclear replacement fell outside the protection of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990.
Mr Justice Crane agreed that organisms created by cell nuclear replacement were not embryos as defined in the act so were not covered by its regulations. After taking scientific advice, he argued that “CNR [cell nuclear replacement] of the kind under consideration does not normally involve fertilisation.”
In his ruling he said: “It has become clear that CNR has potential for research purposes that was not known in 1990.” The ProLife Alliance warned that the ruling meant that human reproductive cloning based on cell nuclear replacement could potentially be carried out in the United Kingdom.
The director of the organisation, Bruno Quinatavalle, said: “The upshot of the judgment is that there are no safeguards to stop any form of cloning in this country.”
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority reported, however, that it had received no licence applications for stem cell research using embryos created by cell nuclear replacement.
Health minister Lord Hunt said: “We are totally opposed to human reproductive cloning and have said that we will introduce legislation to make this a specific criminal offence. The judge granted leave to appeal against his decision, and we intend to do so.”
Scientific bodies supported this position. The vice president of the Royal Society, Sir Brian Heap, said: “As we have stated previously, the Royal Society believes that the government should ensure that the law explicitly prohibits human reproductive cloning in the United Kingdom.”
The judgment has no effect on the provisions of the 1990 act, which continue to regulate the use of embryos created by fertilisation using sperm and eggs. Stem cell and other research will also continue to be allowed and regulated by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. 