§ Lord Alton of Liverpoolasked Her Majesty's Government:
In the light of recent votes in the United States' House of Representatives, the French Senate and the German Parliament in favour of a complete ban on all forms of human cloning, including therapeutic cloning, what progress is being made towards developing an international consensus on the issue of human cloning. [HL2066]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathThe United Kingdom already has a legal ban, the Human Reproductive Cloning Act 2001, that prevents any attempt to carry out reproductive cloning.
The United Nations is working towards a convention to ban reproductive cloning. The UK is very much in favour of this initiative but does not agree with those who wish to see an extension of any ban to cover therapeutic cloning.
The UK Government agree with the House of Lords Select Committee report of 2002 that there is a powerful case for the use of therapeutic cloning, under strict regulation, as a research tool. Such research is permitted under the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Research Purposes) Regulations 2001 for the purposes of increasing knowledge about serious diseases and their treatment.