The Politics of Cloning

David Alton

An abridged version of a speech given by Lord Alton of Liverpool at a conference organised by the Centre for Bioethics and Public Policy, November 24th, at the Royal Agricultural Hall Conference Centre, Westminster.

"Looking first of all at the ethics. I maintain that human embryos are nascent human beings and that all destructive research on human embryos, regardless of the potential benefits, is unethical. I remain profoundly concerned about the effect on society of our treating nascent human life as a natural resource to be mined, exploited and commodified and about so-called bioethicists who are happy to bestow their moral blessings on the latest innovation - to be sure, not for love, but for money. Since the passage of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, over 925,000 embryos have been created through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment. Just 4% of these embryos have ever seen the light of day."