-Caveat Lector-
{{Reminds me of the movie 'The Matrix." AKE}}
House of Lord OKs Embryo Cloning
Updated 7:15 PM ET January 22, 2001
Carrying Placards of Cloned Sheep, Anti-Cloning... (AP)
By EMMA ROSS, AP Medical Writer
LONDON (AP) - The House of Lords approved a proposed change
to government regulations Monday that makes Britain the
first country to effectively legalize the creation of cloned
human embryos.
The measure is aimed at allowing research on so-called stem
cells - the unprogrammed master cells found in early stage
embryos that can turn into nearly every cell type in the
body. Like all other embryos used in research, the clones
created under the new regulations would have to be destroyed
after 14 days, and the creation of babies by cloning would
remain outlawed.
The change passed late Monday after an amendment that would
have delayed it was defeated. The new regulations take
effect Jan. 31.
Before the measure won approval, an impassioned debate on
the topic ran on into the night.
Many lords said they were concerned that ethical worries
were being sidelined in the rush to be at the forefront of
medical research. They proposed an amendment that would have
withheld approval of the government's proposal until after
the ethical, moral and scientific issues surrounding the
research had been studied by a specially created committee.
The amendment was defeated by 212 votes to 92, with the
lords saying the ethical issues should be debated by a
special committee later. That cleared the way for the
cloning measure's approval.
Fertility expert Lord Winston, who chairs the House of
Lords' science and technology committee, spoke out strongly
in favor of embryo research.
"There is no doubt that on your vote, my Lords, depends
whether some people in the near future get the treatment
which might save them from disease or, even worse, death,"
he told the lords.
The change relaxes the rules that limit medical research on
human embryos under the 1990 Human Fertilization and
Embryology Act, which permitted research on donated embryos
only for strictly limited purposes, including studies on
infertility and the detection of birth defects.
Regulators will now be allowed to expand the types of
research permitted under the Act so that scientists can use
embryos to investigate the potential of stem cells, which
experts say could revolutionize medicine, offering the
possibility of transplants that would prevent or cure scores
of illnesses from Parkinson's disease to diabetes.
The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority, which
polices embryo research, has promised to consider cloning
applications for some types of research, such as stem cell
experiments. Those would inevitably involve cloning of
embryos, because the goal is to treat patients with
perfectly matching tissue transplants.
Peers heard during the debate that it could take up to a
year before the first research permits were granted and that
a breakthrough in the field could take a further 10 years.
An embryo is essentially a ball of stem cells that evolves
into a fetus when the stem cells start specializing to
create a nervous system, spine and other features - at about
14 days. Scientists hope that by extracting the stem cells
from the embryo when it is three or four days old, their
growth can be directed in a lab to become any desired cell
or tissue type for transplant.
The hope is that one day it will be possible to grow neurons
to replace nerve cells in a brain killed by Parkinson's
disease, skin to repair burns and pancreatic cells to
produce insulin for diabetics.
Scientists would create a clone of a sick patient by
removing the nucleus of a donor egg and replacing it with
that of a cell from the patient. The egg would be induced to
divide and start growing into an embryo. The cloned cells
would be genetically identical to the patient's and
therefore theoretically overcome problems of transplant
rejection, which happens because the immune system fights
foreign tissue.
"The human embryo has a special status and we owe a measure
of respect to the embryo," said health minister Lord Hunt of
Kings Heath, who supports the change.
"We also owe a measure of respect to the millions of people
living with these devastating illnesses and the millions who
have yet to show signs of them. This is the balance we must
make."
�2001 AP All rights reserved
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