Setback to proposed UK cloning law?
The upper house of the UK parliament, the House of Lords, may delay the draft regulations approved by the country's government on research involving cloning of human embryos. Following calls for the research to be delayed due to ethical considerations, particularly from religious leaders, certain peers in the Lords are calling for further investigation into the proposed regulations before approving or even voting on the bill. The vote in the House of Commons approving research on stem cells (taken from embryos) was passed by 366 to 174 members in December 2000 and had the support of UK prime minister, Tony Blair. This decision now needs to be ratified by the House of Lords, which can slow the process down by asking for an inquiry to be held into the subject before voting on it - which is what one peer has already done. An amendment has been tabled by Lord Alton requesting that the issue be looked into by a select committee. But those supporting the regulations have pointed out that all these points have already been debated in the House of Commons, the lower house. One of the conclusions of that debate was that a significant progress could be made in combating degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Stem cell research would be a fast and efficient way of tackling these conditions as the cells would be accepted by the body, rather than attacked as alien cells.