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Cloning—with caution
Stem-cell research approved
On February 27, a committee of the House of Lords gave the green light to stem-cell research on embryos in Britain, a move which pro-lifers have condemned as “horrible.”

The committee said research on human embryonic stem cells should be allowed under strictly controlled conditions, but any cloning of embryos should be kept to a minimum. Although reproductive cloning remains banned in Britain, so-called therapeutic cloning may now go ahead. Therapeutic cloning involves the cloning of a human being who is then killed and his cells harvested.

The committee said the procedure should be allowed for research purposes, since the results of such experimental work could one day benefit people with mitochondrial diseases—a narrow category of disorders that affect a person’s metabolism.

Pro-life groups have criticized the decision. Peter Garrett, director of research at the charity Life, told the BBC: “This committee is a put-up job. It is part of a larger effort to con the public into believing that therapeutic cloning is not cloning. The whole exercise has been a cosmetic one from start to finish.” Jack Scarisbrick, Life’s chairman, condemned the plan as a “horrible, horrible” prospect.

Less than a week after a House of Lords committee issued its decision, the first two licenses were granted to clinics in Scotland and England for cloning research.

Applications by the Center for Genome Research in Edinburgh and Guy’s Hospital in London were approved on the understanding that the clinics would use only “spare” embryos left over from fertility treatments, according to the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA).

The Center for Genome Research at Edinburgh University aims to increase knowledge of embryo development and to develop treatment for ailments such as Parkinson’s Disease, said the HFEA. At Guy’s Hospital the project will not only aim to find treatments for infertility and miscarriages, but will also deposit samples in the stem cell bank to develop treatments for neural and pancreatic diseases.

An HFEA spokesman told the BBC its license committee gave “careful consideration to the scientific, medical, and ethical issues of the applications.”

Conception for a cure
Having a child to cure a sibling
Religious and pro-life groups have criticized Britain’s Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA) for allowing Shahana and Raj Hashmi to use in vitro fertilization (IVF) to conceive a baby, since the couple has admitted that their real goal is to produce tissues that could be used in the treatment of their toddler.

Three-year-old Zain Hashmi has beta thalassaemia major, which creates potentially fatal levels of iron in his blood. His condition can be cured only by a bone-marrow transplant from a perfect genetic match, and so far a search has failed to find a suitable donor.

The HFEA, Britain’s fertility watchdog, allowed the couple to go ahead with the embryo selection process to ensure their next baby is genetically identical to Zain. Such genetic screening is a process that was formerly illegal in Britain.

A spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Leeds, where the couple live, told The Times: “The use of the umbilical cord or its cells after the child has been born does not necessarily cause a problem.” He continued, “However, the artificial nature of the conception of the child would cause difficulty for Roman Catholic theologians since it cannot be accommodated within the Church’s teaching on the transmission of human life.”

Claire Foster, the assistant secretary of the Church of England’s Board for Social Responsibility, said, “Something important is being sacrificed here: the baby is going to be used as a means to another’s end.”

In an interview with The Mail, the Hashmis insisted they were not attempting to play God. Mrs. Hashmi said, “This baby is going to be a special gift from nature, not a designer baby. We are not destroying anything. We are not hurting anybody.”

According to reports, several other British couples are now applying to be considered for the embryo selection process following the HFEA’s decision.