August 12, 2004. By HILARY MARSHALL, SCIENTISTS were given the
go-ahead yesterday to clone human embryos in the hope of curing
debilitating conditions such as Alzheimerís, Parkinsonís and
diabetes. A licence allowing therapeutic cloning - the first of
its kind issued in Europe - was granted by the Human
Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to a team of geneticists
from the University of Newcastle. The decision could lead to a
host of other institutions using the ruling as a green light to
ask the HFEA for permission to carry out similar work. But the
move triggered an avalanche of protest from pro-life and ethics
groups which fear the technology will lead to the full cloning
of human beings. Professor Jack Scarisbrick, the national
chairman of the group Life, said: "Therapeutic cloning involves
the manufacture of a new kind of human being, one generated
without parentage in the normal sense, with the express purpose
of destroying that life once stem cells have been stripped off
it. "It is the manipulation,