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In mid-April 2000, the Japanese cabinet approved a bill banning human cloning in all aspects, including research, although it has not yet passed the diet. Punishment would be up to five years in prison. Problems posed were those of human dignity, social implications, and family. The law would prohibit placing a cloned human cell into the womb of humans or animals. Several European nations, as well as the United States now have some laws on cloning. A few have had laws on the books for 10 years, stating that it would be illegal to create a human embryo identical to another. The majority of countries have no such laws. French laws are perhaps the most strict, banning even test-tube babies.
In Britain
The British government's chief medical officer Liam Donaldson Wednesday recommended British scientists be allowed to clone human embryos for use in a wider variety of medical research.
In 1990 parliament approved embryo research for five main reasons mainly involving treating infertility and avoiding genetic disorders in children. But Wednesday Donaldson called for the scope of permissible research to be widened.
Donaldson, the top doctor in Britain's Department of Health, affirmed his support for an expansion of "therapeutic cloning" research.
Therapeutic cloning draws criticism because it relies on research on embryonic stem cells--undifferentiated cells which develop into all the different tissues of the body--and in effect creates human beings and then kills them.
He advocated maintaining restrictions on "reproductive cloning" which seeks to create genetically identical individuals in the same way that scientists created Dolly the sheep in 1997 by manipulating adult cells.
"So-called 'reproductive cloning' should remain a criminal offence," Donaldson said, adding that the mixing of adult human cells with live animal eggs was also banned.
In the United States
The US National Institute of Health (NIH) said late August that it will permit government-funded studies on stem cells from human embryos.
President Clinton praised stem cell research, saying it offers "potentially staggering benefits" for a wide variety of medical conditions.
Private companies are free to do stem-cell research. Federal law, however, prohibits use of U.S. funds for research on human embryos. The new guidelines do not allow research on the embryos themselves. But the NIH said the law does not prohibit funding for research on stem cells, because the cells themselves are not embryos
Some criticize the move, saying that we are choosing our own well being over our own humanity. They emphasize that there is great potential in the much less controversial adult stem cells. Others say it would be immoral not to pursue such research.
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