Halt the human clones

URGENT new laws are needed to curb scientists who are on the verge of creating human clones, a senior MP warned today.

Labour MP Dr Ian Gibson said reforms of research into the cloning of human embryos are called for, or the Government risks being caught out by scientific developments.

The news comes as the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority (HFEA) meets today to discuss an application from a team in Newcastle.

The team wants to clone human embryos to harvest the stem cells for research into cures for diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Meanwhile, American fertility doctor Panos Zavos plans to open offices in London to counsel couples. He claims to have created a cloned human embryo and implanted it into a woman's womb, though the experiment subsequently failed.

It is feared his premises in Tottenham Court Road will operate as a "travel agent" to recruit desperate couples to his clinic abroad, where he claims to be able to clone babies.

Dr Gibson, chairman of the science and technology select committee, said: "People who live here will feel desperate enough and will use this avenue to get a child, and he will promise many things that I am sure will be unreliable."

Dr Simon Fishel, director of Care, a firm that provides the majority of fertility treatment in the UK, said news that Dr Zavos was to open an office in the capital was "parallel to the lowest form of peddling".

Dr Fishel said even supporting human cloning should be banned in this country.

The concerns come as doctors prepare to outline the latest research on cloned human stem cells at a conference in Berlin this month. Dr Gibson said: "There has to be better regulation.

"Someone will do it and it may eventually be successful.

"There was a religious group that claimed to have done it [cloned a baby] and we never trusted it, but Dr Zavos and others are a greater threat - they have got the expertise to carry it out." Dr Zavos and the team from Newcastle University, headed by Dr Miodrag Stojkovic, will both be summoned to give evidence to the science and technology select committee next month.

The team in Newcastle is keen to distance itself from doctors such as Dr Zavos and says its research will provide valuable new treatments. The aim of its work is to grow stem cells to cure disease.

The HFEA will be discussing the research today and although a final decision is not expected, sources say it is likely to be approved because the embryos will only be used to create stem cells. Dr Stojkovic said: "We are focusing on diabetes but believe our work could lead to cures for other diseases such as Alzheimer's."

But Dr Gibson said this was not a good enough reason to avoid legislation.

He said: "It is better to have the regulations ready to operate."

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