From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Fri Sep 08 2000 - 09:47:33 MDT
> scerir wrote:
>
> STRASBOURG, France, Sept 7 (Reuters) -
>
> The European Parliament on Thursday condemned a call by Britain's chief
> medical officer to allow British scientists to clone human embryos for use in
> medical research.
snip
> Leading an attack on the recommendation, German Christian Democrat deputy
> Peter Liese told the European Parliament: ``Up until now, every responsible
> human being considered it unacceptable to clone human embryos for any
> reason.''
I'm still wondering why they have not outlawed twins, especially those produced
as a result of artificial insemination or use of fertility drugs, which are, in
actuality, artificially induced clones, and not 'natural'....
> Liese accused the British of breaking ranks with this consensus, paving the
> way for an erosion of respect for human life. British Conservative deputy
> Charles Tannock told a news conference on Wednesday that the distinction
> between ``therapeutic'' cloning and cloning embryos to make a baby was
> spurious as one step would probably lead to the other. ``(This) could
> eventually lead to the Orwellian nightmare of cloned babies,'' he said.
> But a fellow Conservative, John Purvis, told the European Parliament the
> research proposed in Britain would lead to important medical benefits which it
> would be unethical to deny.
This is odd, since Orwell never wrote about cloning babies. That was Aldous
Huxley in Brave New World.
> Philippe Busquin, the European commissioner in charge of the European Union's
> research programmes, said EU rules already excluded spending research cash on
> human cloning for either reproductive or therapeutic reasons.
So europe is really little different from the republican controlled congress....
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