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8 February 2005
The Scottish Council on Human Bioethics (SCHB) indicated, today, that it was very concerned about the possibility for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to grant another licence enabling British scientists to clone human embryos.
This follows an application to create such embryos by Professor Ian Wilmut to the HFEA which will be considered today. This is the context of a legal challenge to the procedure going to the courts soon. [1]
Dr. Calum MacKellar, Director of Research of the SCHB, indicated that very serious ethical problems are created by the cloning of human embryos" adding that "the research would inevitably help maverick scientists who want to clone human persons."
The Scottish Council on Human Bioethics is also concerned that the proposed experiments would breach European Law. Indeed, Article 18.2 (Research on embryos in vitro) of the European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine [2] states that:
The creation of human embryos for research purposes is prohibited.
In this respect, Dr. MacKellar indicated that "the UK is one of the only countries in Europe where embryonic cloning is even being considered" adding that "the UK is already starting to be seen as an ethical rogue state in Europe."
The SCHB is of the opinion that it would be preferable for the HFEA to wait until the legal challenge to embryonic cloning is heard in the courts before any decision is made. It would also like to see more public discussions taking place about the different issues related to embryonic cloning.
1. Court challenge to cloning licence – Scotsman (8.1.05): http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=146972005
2. European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Word/164.doc