Cardinal calls for total ban on cloning

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor has criticised the Government's Bill on cloning as a squandered opportunity. In today's Daily Telegraph, the Cardinal takes up an uncompromising stance, stating: "If the Government is serious about wishing to ban human cloning - whether for research or for birth - then it must ban it altogether." The High Court last week rejected the Government's proposal to allow human cloning only for experimental reasons. The Cardinal states that the Government's emergency Bill fails to address the fundamental issues: "The Government's proposed Bill does nothing to stop the creation of a human clone: it merely prohibits the transfer of the cloned human embryo to the body of a woman. The clone may be treated in any conceivable way, with no time limit on experimentation, as the High Court judgment makes clear. Experimental cloning is left wholly unregulated. The Bill merely prevents an attempt, in this country, to give the clone a chance of being born." The Cardinal argues that the cloning of human embryos is both unnecessary and wrong. Unnecessary because adult stem cells are available for researchers and have proved successful so far. Wrong because using embryo cells will lead to the destruction of human life, a totally unacceptable position. To read the full article see: Human cloning is immoral and Parliament should ban it (Daily Telegraph 23.11.2001)