The British government's decision to amend legislation so as to extend the use of human cloning techniques for research and healing recognises the rapid scientific development in this area and endeavours to come to terms with the ethical questions involved. It is a difficult field on both counts; but detailed legislation is a better means of tackling it than blanket condemnation, based on the principle that it would be unethical not to explore the capacity of these techniques to save life and reduce suffering - so long as strict safeguards and guidelines are imposed and adhered to.
Existing legislation provides that human embryos under 14 days old can be used only for research into fertility, contraception, miscarriage and congenital disorders. Following a report by the ethics committee working with the British government's chief medical officer, Professor Liam Donaldson, it has been agreed that these objectives may be substantially extended. This would allow research to proceed using "stem cells" taken from embryos to develop cloning techniques. These could be used to treat a very wide variety of conditions, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, or to grow new skin and organs to replace disabled ones.
These are extraordinarily exciting scientific developments. They hold out the promise of curing medical conditions that have previously defied treatment. They have received the endorsement of the main medical representative bodies in the UK. They have also been carefully assessed for their ethical dimensions. Yet this remains a complex and troubling subject. An important strand of opinion in Britain and elsewhere believes it is fundamentally immoral to use embryos in this way, based on the premise that embryos are human from the point of conception and that a 14 day threshold is arbitrary and unacceptable.
Partly in recognition of such objections the British government has decided to allow a free parliamentary vote on the new legislation. There will be other objections, based not on the argument about the humanity of embryos but on the care and permissiveness with which the new regulations have been framed. The government has decided to rule out allowing cloning to reproduce a full-grown baby, and strict guidelines will be applied by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority charged with overseeing application of the legislation.
The legislative route makes much sense as a means of regulating such a rapidly developing and complex field. As yet there is little international agreement or European law in this area, but these are bound to come, given the pace of scientific activity. In Ireland there has been little primary research in this field, with whatever has been done regulated mainly by relevant professional bodies. But in the light of the British legislation there is a pressing need for more public and political debate here on appropriate regulation of research and on the use of new medical techniques that may result from it. Given the profound disagreements over abortion that looks like being a highly contentious but nonetheless a necessary affair.