Pro-life groups and scientists had warned that the UK legislation would inevitably lead to reproductive cloning, SPUC national director John Smeaton said. Tragically, this prediction now appears to be coming true even sooner than many of us had feared. SPUC is opposed to therapeutic as well as reproductive cloning. All human cloning is a blatant denial of human dignity. It is to the great shame of our country's leaders that Britain has taken the lead in this repugnant technology.
Scientists believe that stem cells can be used to treat degenerative diseases.
Every child must be born with his or her genetic individuality. They should not be simply a photocopy of someone else. Bishop Elio Sgreccia, head of the John Paul II Institute for Bioethics at Rome's Gemelli hospital, said human cloning raised profoundly disturbing ethical issues. The world's first international anti-cloning agreement came into effect earlier this month when five European parliaments ratified a Council of Europe measure called the Protocol on the Prohibition of Cloning Human Beings. Twenty-four of the 43 Council of Europe member states have signed the protocol, but it only took effect once ratified by five legislatures.