STRASBOURG, France, Sept 7 (Reuters) -
The European Parliament on Thursday condemned a call by Britain's chief medical officer to allow British scientists to clone human embryos for use in medical research.
A non-binding resolution, narrowly approved in a 237-230 vote by the European Union's assembly, said ``therapeutic'' cloning -- in which embryos are cloned for medical research -- ``irreversibly crosses a boundary in research norms.''
No European Union money should be used to fund such work, the resolution said.
The British government's chief medical officer Liam Donaldson recommended in August that the country's scientists be allowed to clone human embryos for use in a wider variety of medical research.
In 1990, the British Parliament approved embryo research for five reasons, mainly involving infertility treatment and avoiding genetic disorders in children. But Donaldson called for the scope of permissible research to be widened.
Leading an attack on the recommendation, German Christian Democrat deputy Peter Liese told the European Parliament: ``Up until now, every responsible human being considered it unacceptable to clone human embryos for any reason.''
Liese accused the British of breaking ranks with this consensus, paving the way for an erosion of respect for human life. British Conservative deputy Charles Tannock told a news conference on Wednesday that the distinction between ``therapeutic'' cloning and cloning embryos to make a baby was spurious as one step would probably lead to the other. ``(This) could eventually lead to the Orwellian nightmare of cloned babies,'' he said.
But a fellow Conservative, John Purvis, told the European Parliament the research proposed in Britain would lead to important medical benefits which it would be unethical to deny.
Philippe Busquin, the European commissioner in charge of the European Union's research programmes, said EU rules already excluded spending research cash on human cloning for either reproductive or therapeutic reasons.
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