The use of cloned and donated human embryos for medical research risks being outlawed in the EU after the European parliament voted against it yesterday.
Ignoring pleas from EU scientists who argue that the research may produce cures for diseases such as Parkinson’s and diabetes, MEPs voted to halt the creation and use of human embryos for stem cell research in all circumstances.
In a vote pitting Catholic conservative deputies from southern Europe against socialists and liberals from the north, including the UK, the parliament decided to slam the door on a technology which centres on the study of genetic diseases and could provide an alternative to animal testing.
The practice, which is legal in the UK but banned in many European countries, allows scientists to create human embryonic stem cells or to use human embryos donated by couples undergoing IVF treatment which would otherwise be destroyed or frozen.
In Britain, Ian Wilmut, the leader of the team which cloned Dolly the sheep, announced last year that he would attempt to clone human embryos and deliberately imbue them with various genetic diseases for research purposes.
Stem cells are harvested from human embryos and are believed to offer the best hope of curing a range of diseases.
But if yesterday’s vote wins backing by EU governments the research would have to be halted.
The parliament must vote on the matter again before EU governments have their say.
The parliament has an equal say in the final decision and can throw out the entire proposal if it does not agree with the final text.
Proponents of stem cell research said that they were furious.
”It flies in the face of logic and human compassion to seriously curtail potentially ground-breaking areas of scientific research,” said David Bowe, a British Labour MEP.
”Regrettably the religious right managed to pass amendments which would make embryonic stem cell research impossible. It would be an awful signal [if ratified].”
Bowe said the narrow margin of the vote raised the prospect that it could be overturned by the parliament.
MEPs voted on 50 separate amendments and, according to Mr Bowe, the anti-research lobby only managed to muster a lead of between 40 and 60 votes out of 626 MEPs.
The contested piece of legislation was supposed to simply set minimum safety and quality standards for the use of human tissues and cells.
Bowe and others argue that the vote was hijacked by those opposed to therapeutic cloning.
Many MEPs believe that it is unethical to use human embryos for research because they represent the first stages of human life and should be sacred.
”From the moment of the conception you create all the individual characteristics of a person,” said Marialiese Flemming, the Austrian Christian Democrat who tabled the amendments calling for a ban.
The British government said that it would do everything it could to head off a ban.
A survey this week on behalf of a coalition of groups with a shared interest in stem cell research found that most Britons back the procedure provided that it was confined to the treatment of serious diseases and infertility. – Guardian Unlimited Â