March 5 2001

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The Archbishop of Canterbury, the two most senior Roman Catholic archbishops, an Orthodox archbishop, Protestant officials and leaders of the Muslim, Sikh and Jewish communities were among 11 religious leaders whose plea was disregarded. They had warned that the issue had not been fully addressed and that "one slight miscalculation" could lead to irreversible implications for future generations.

The move was approved on January 22 by a big majority in the upper chamber, the House of Lords, following its acceptance in December by the lower chamber, the House of Commons.

It will allow the "therapeutic cloning" of embryos up to 14-days-old. The technique involves creating genetically identical embryos from which will be taken stem cells for research into diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, and cancer.

The technique is similar to that used by the Roslin Institute in Scotland to create Dolly the sheep—the world's first cloned mammal—in 1997.

Supporters of research on human embryos argue that therapeutic cloning has nothing to do with reproductive cloning - the creation of a cloned human being - but Lord Alton, in the House of Lords debate, complained about treating human embryos as "just another accessory to be created, bartered, frozen or destroyed."

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The House of Lords approved the measure to allow human cloning by 212 to 92, a majority of 120. It was a "free vote" - peers were not compelled to vote along party lines - but the government had made it clear that in its view Britain's world leadership in the field of embryo research depended on the measure being passed.

According ...