Politics
Tuesday February 27, 2007
British Government Drops Plans to Ban Human/Animal Hybrids
Caves in after open letter from small group of 45 scientists, ethicists and politicians
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
By Hilary White
LONDON, February 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The British government’s plans to ban the creation of human/animal hybrid embryos are over after a group of 45 scientists, ethicists and politicians published an open letter in January saying that a ban would hold back the advancement of British science.
The Times reports that the government is now dropping plans to ban the experiments and will instead offer funding for a public debate before new legislation is drafted.
The open letter, published in the Times in response to the government’s December 2006 announcement that it planned to draft legislation to ban hybrids, was signed by academic ethicists, members of the House of Lords Select Committee on Stem Cell Research, the head of a biotechnology company and a number of scientists awaiting permission to carry out the research.
The letter said the research was necessary for improving the efficiency of therapeutic cloning techniques and that the Parliamentary committee had “concluded after a long inquiry that such research was ethically acceptable” and ought to be regulated by the existing agency.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has already received several requests from researchers to begin experiments with hybrids, including one from Dr. Ian Wilmut, the creator of Dolly the cloned sheep and one of the signatories of the Times letter.
Britain is regarded by many scientists and ethicists as having the most permissive national regulatory agency in the world. In recent years, the HFEA has allowed the creation of genetically modified “designer” babies to be used as tissue farms for sick siblings; the creation of cloned human embryos for stem cell experiments and the eugenic selection and destruction of “defective” human embryos in IVF treatments.
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
UK Parliamentary Report Recommends Animal-Human Hybrids, Sex Selection and More
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/mar/05032406.html
Creator of Dolly Granted License to Clone Humans For Experimentation
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/feb/05020806.html
English Scientists Ask Permission to Create Human/Cow Clones
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/nov/06110707.html
UK Cloning Doctor Wants to Create Human/Rabbit Hybrid Clones
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jan/06011306.html
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.