§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the ethical implications of cloning human tissue by injecting human DNA into the egg cells of cows are being examined in the United Kingdom; and, if so, by whom. [HL9]
§ Baroness HaymanResearch or treatment involving human reproductive cloning is not permitted in the United Kingdom. Mixing human gametes (sperm or eggs) with the gametes of any animal is strictly controlled by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 provides:
that no person shall mix human gametes with the live gametes of any animal without a licence (S4)
that no person shall place any live gametes other than human gametes in any woman or place a human embryo in any animal (S3)
no person shall alter the genetic structure of any cell while it forms part of a human embryo (Sch 2)
Research involving the cloning of human DNA is not new. In their joint Consultation Document on Cloning Issues in Reproduction, Science and Medicine, the Human Genetics Advisory Commission and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority pointed out that "there are some routine techniques long practised by the scientific and medical communities…[including]…generating multiple identical copies of genes or gene fragments…(DNA and RNA)".
§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
What international instruments or other justiciable texts, if any, preclude the cloning of human beings; and, if none, what steps are being considered to establish one. [HL10]
§ Baroness HaymanThe Protocol to the Council of Europe Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation Universal Declaration on the human genome and human rights both preclude the cloning of human beings. The United Kingdom has played an active role in developing both the Protocol 53WA and the Declaration, and support the principles that they both enshrine.
In the United Kingdom, we regard the deliberate cloning of human individuals as ethically unacceptable and such cloning is effectively banned under the terms of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990. The 1990 Act expressly prohibits nuclear replacement of a cell of an embryo. Other forms of cloning cannot take place because the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has made it clear that it will not licence any treatment involving such techniques or any research to develop cloning for human reproductive purposes.