British anti-abortion campaigners claimed legal victory today in a bid to reopen the debate on cloning but scientists warned the ruling could open the door for controversial fertility specialists to create human clones.
England's High Court ruled that current laws did not cover the use of cloned human embryos for medical research and did not explicitly prohibit human reproductive cloning.
The government's department of health said it may appeal against the decision and was considering emergency legislation to ban human reproduction cloning.
The Pro-Life Alliance, which opposes all human cloning including therapeutic cloning to harvest stem cells, had challenged the government over its assurances that live birth cloning could not legally take place in Britain.
"The law as it stands at the moment is so full of loopholes and uncertainties that scientists could go right ahead and clone human embryos without any restrictions and without any possible sanction from the government", Pro-Life Alliance Director Mr Bruno Quintavalle said.
Dr David King of the independent watchdog group Human Genetics Alert (HGA) warned that the move could open the door for controversial Italian fertility expert Dr Severino Antinori to conduct experiments in Britain.
"We are horrified to find that human cloning would be legal in the UK, and shocked that the government gave the public false assurances. Professor Antinori could start his cloning work in Britain today", Dr King said.
The Rome-based gynaecologist, who has been ostracised by much of the international medical community for his stated intention to clone humans to help infertile couples have children, has said he wanted to work in Britain.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said it was extremely concerned about the potential consequences of the ruling unless the government moved swiftly to close the loophole.
Ironically, this 'victory' for the Pro-Life Alliance means that there currently exists no legal prohibition to human cloning, the BMA said in a statement.
"In effect today's judgment means that any creation of embryos by cell nuclear replacement...falls completely outside the strict regulatory framework", the BMA added.