Currently the cloning technology (nuclear transfer) is being proposed for hypothetical 'therapeutic' purposes, in order to obtain multi-powerful stem cells which it is thought could be reorganised to create replacement tissue for medical treatment. Whether reproductive or 'therapeutic' cloning is proposed, either process requires the creation of a cloned human embryo.

Unacceptable (morally)

The creation of a human being exclusively for the benefit of another is a violation of the ethical requirement not to use others only as a means. Wrong may not be done, even if good comes of it.

The law of this country states that the human embryo has a special status, and we are advised that at all times when contemplating technologies involving the embryo, we should be guided by: '..the respect which is due to human life at all stages in its development.' (Code of Practice, 1998, Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority)

In 'therapeutic' cloning, a human embryo is created and then destroyed, a destiny impossible to equate with concepts of 'special status' and 'respect'. Absolute respect for human life has underpinned our civilisation for thousands of years, and is not the exclusive prerogative of religious groups.

Inviolable values, based on rational reflection alone, were good enough for such great thinkers as Plato, Aristotle and Kant.

Unnatural

Cloning is very unnatural, achieving human reproduction without the use of the male gamete (sperm). Do we want to do away with the male altogether? (see also Unsafe below). Good science has always chosen to intervene as little as possible in order to achieve its goals. It is a colossal intervention in the natural order to change from sexual to asexual reproduction.

Unnecessary

There are perfectly ethical ways of obtaining stem cells to cure disease, which do not involve embryo destruction, so no matter what moral value one places on the human embryo, we do not need to use it.

The adult central nervous system, long thought not to contain cells capable of dividing, in fact harbours stem cells. Such cells may help treat Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, and haematopoietic stem cells from bone marrow may one day provide transplants to replace blood and immune cells.

This research is moving ahead at a great pace. It is also worth noting that other exciting cures are being developed not involving stem cell technology in any way.

Unsafe

Animal cloning is very unsuccessful (1.4%-2%), with particularly poor outcome in primates, and abnormally high prenatal and antenatal death rates. With such results it must be far too early to move to human cloning. Is the absence of sperm in the nuclear transfer process possibly causing these problems?

Professor Wilmut, creator of Dolly the Sheep, acknowledges that, "We're using a system which actually evolved taking a sperm … The sperm head is packed in a particular protein called a protomine, whereas we're putting in twice as much DNA packed in different proteins when we do nuclear transfer, so it's perhaps not surprising that it doesn't work terribly well." (quote from talk given at Royal Society of Medicine,17 May 2000)

It will always be very difficult, risky and expensive to obtain human eggs for cloning, and were 'reproductive' cloning to be approved, the emotional traumas for the carrying mother of miscarriage, induced abortion and abnormal births, would be considerable.

Unpopular

On an international level, and specifically from the European perspective, most countries are opposed to cloning. Dr Peter Liese, German MEP and chairman of the largest bioethics coalition in the European Parliament, spoke in London recently, reminding us of European opposition to cloning.

He referred extensively to a variety of decisions taken in recent years by the European Parliament, including a resolution, passed in 1997, which states: 'the cloning of human beings, whether experimentally, in the context of fertility treatment, preimplantation diagnosis, tissue transplantation or for any other purpose whatsoever, cannot under any circumstances be justified or tolerated by any society, because it is a serious violation of fundamental human rights and is contrary to the principle of equality of human beings as it permits a eugenic and racist selection of the human race, it offends against human dignity and it requires experimentation on humans.'