Members of the UK's House of Lords voted last night in favour of allowing the cloning of human embryos for stem cell research. Those in support of the legislation won by a majority of 120 votes. But the peers agreed an amendment requiring a select committee to be established to regulate the new research. The parliamentary order will come into effect at the end of the month, allowing applications for stem cell research projects to proceed. It's not expected, however, that any applications will receive approval until later this year.
Since 1990, it has been legal to experiment on embryos up to 14 days old for research into fertility, but this extended application of the research has engendered stiff opposition. The opponents of the bill appealed to peers to block the regulations pending an investigation by a select committee. But supporters of the legislation said that there should be no ...
