The Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children has been urged to set out guidelines on all issues surrounding the cloning of human cells.
The call came following the announcement that the British government is proposing to relax the law on human cloning to allow scientists to take cells from young embryos and use them to grow skin and other tissue. The move, it said, could help find cures for previously untreatable conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
There is no legislation prohibiting cloning in the Republic, and yesterday the Fine Gael spokesman on Health, Mr Gay Mitchell TD, said he would be very sceptical about following British precedent. "I have the gravest reservations about using embryos for any sort of research," he said.
Bioethics was an area that had to be looked at in some detail, he added, and suggested the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children examine the area and lay down guidelines for scientific researchers.
Ms Liz McManus TD, Labour party spokeswoman on health, said it was time the Government established a committee to examine cloning.
The Independent senator, Dr Mary Henry, a member of the Church of Ireland ethics committee, said she would like to see the research papers which suggested that cloning of human cells could help treat conditions such as Alzheimer's before deciding on the morality of the issue.
"We really don't know how Alzheimer's disease occurs and when we haven't this worked out it's interesting that they can produce a cure for it," she said. However, to condemn something without knowing how valuable it could be would be foolhardy.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said the Department had supported measures taken at a number of international forums to prohibit the cloning of human beings. He confirmed that the recently established Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction had met in July and would also look at cloning issues.
The proposed new law in Britain, which is being resisted by religious groups, would allow scientists to take special stem cells from very young human embryos and use them to grow tissue.