15 Morningside Road, Edinburgh EH10 4DP, Tel: 0131 447 6394 or 0774 298 4459
London - 24 November 2003
Organisers: Centre for Bioethics and Public Policy
SCHB participant: Dr Calum MacKellar, who gave a presentation entitled "Cloning Legislation in Europe: A Discussion"
Chaired by Prof John Wyatt, Consultant Neonatal Paediatrician at University College London
Biotech and Human Nature: Public Policy’s Greatest Challenge - Prof Nigel Cameron, CBPP Chairman
The Force of the Slippery Slope - Baroness Warnock, Chair of the Warnock Report advising the Government on bioethics
The Right to Use our Genes as We Please, a Fundamental Right - Dr Brigitte Boisselier, Director of Research, Clonaid
Cloning Legislation in Europe: A Discussion - Dr Calum MacKellar, Director of Research, SCHB
The Politics of Cloning - Lord Alton, Crossbench Peer
The conference was introduced with Prof. Wyatt, Consultant in Neonatal Paediatrics at University College London, emphasising the relevance of the ethical discussions concerning cloning to the questions of (1) the kind of society we want to live in, (2) the relationships between parents and children and (3) the limits of technology and the manipulation of human life.
The conference then continued with a presentation from Nigel Cameron covering the international legislative situation relating to cloning. He indicated that in Germany and France, national legislation was at odds with what was being promoted in the UN. He also noted that every child had the right not to be a clone. Thus concerns of equality, eugenics and the distinction between persons and things should be considered.
He then indicated that the cloning procedure was seen as a symbol of things to come by the public in the ethical discussions concerning new biotechnologies and medical developments.
Prof. Cameron summarised the last 20 years of bioethical debates in which abortion and euthanasia played a leading role. These issues concerned the taking of human life and were, he suggested, on-going. But now, there were also debates about the making and manipulating of human life through, for example, genetics. Even further ahead, but already on the horizon, he proposed that the re-making of humanity and the blurring of distinctions between human life and machines would be an important bioethical issue.
He concluded by indicating that there was a need to separate the regulatory and advisory roles of the HFEA as well a need to find new methods for developing democracy in these areas.
The next talk was given by Baroness Warnock who was influential in the drafting of the Warnock Report advising the government in bioethics. In her presentation, Lady Warnock undertook to analyse the concept of a slippery slope. Thus, she contrasted the slide in time in which no discernible moral steps took place but where the result was a noticeable difference from what one had intended and the ‘thin end of the wedge arguments’ in which there was a first step.
With respect to the HFE Act, Lady Warnock explained that a regulatory limit in time on the use of embryos for experiments was not ideal (since it was arbitrary) but had to be established in order to stop irresponsible scientists undertaking unethical experiments. She also suggested that the existence of a potential slippery slope was not a sufficient argument to prohibit a procedure. Finally, she proposed that the HFE Act should not be updated but that any additional regulations should be left to the courts.
The next speaker was Dr. Brigitte Boisselier the Director of Research of Clonaid. She suggested that any person had a fundamental right to use his or her genes as they pleased. This, she suggested, would address the rights of some couples who were sterile and who were desperate to clone a child with their own genes.
Dr. Boisselier then announced that 5 babies had already been born though the cloning procedure and that another 8 were being considered. Concerning the biological risks relating to reproductive cloning she indicated that even with natural births, considerable risks existed. In other words, the new procedure of cloning should be seen in this light. Indeed, she stated that her results showed a 40% success rate for reproductive cloning.
After lunch, Dr. Calum MacKellar from the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics reviewed the present legislation relating to both therapeutic and reproductive cloning in the Council of Europe as well as in the European Union. In this respect he noted that the UK was one of the only countries in Europe in which therapeutic cloning was possible. He further indicated that all the reasons for banning cloning may not yet have been recognised. Thus he emphasised that parents should first seek to understand the reasons behind their aspirations for a child and especially a child of their own (whether the child was created through cloning or otherwise). Once these questions were addressed, Dr MacKellar suggested that cloning would then be seen as an act of unethical creation.
The final presentation of the conference was given by Lord Alton, a crossbencher in the House of Lords, on the politics of cloning. He indicated that science was often racing ahead of ethics especially with respect to the regulations concerning stem cells and therapeutic cloning. Lord Alton also emphasised the reality that many of the individuals who were in favour of giving greater protection to human embryos were not often chosen for the different governmental committees and quangos. Furthermore, he suggested that a lot of ‘spin’ was being undertaken concerning the usefulness of techniques such as therapeutic cloning without any real facts being presented.