No laws yet to prevent privately funded human cloning here

Privately funded human cloning could be pursued here because there are no laws or regulations to prevent it. Nor would the Government's proposed legislation on abortion be able to block attempts to clone a human. The Republic remains one of only four European Science Foundation members that has neither legislation nor a national advisory body to oversee ethical issues of research. The lack of control means that a private company could use its own funds to attempt cloning in this jurisdiction.

"There are no legislative provisions dealing with cloning," according to a spokesman for the Department of Health. Nor is cloning dealt with in the abortion legislation, which is expected to clear the committee stage this week.

While this legislation is meant to protect the unborn, the Bill specifies that this protection only begins when a fertilised egg implants in the womb. The cloning research announced in the US involves fertilised eggs that have not reached the implantation stage.

All the US researchers involved in the cloning announcement were scientists and not medical practitioners, said Prof Andrew Green, professor of medical genetics at University College Dublin and director of the National Centre for Medical Genetics at Our Lady's Hospital, Crumlin. "It would seem to me there are no controls for scientists doing this. There is no regulatory body for scientists."

Doctors registered with the Medical Council to practise here are precluded from involvement in embryo research by the council's ethical guidelines, he said. A doctor would be needed to recover the eggs needed for cloning experiments so this could limit research unless the eggs were acquired elsewhere.

And while their own ethics committees would regulate experimentation in hospitals and universities, this control affects only public funds. "Private companies can do what they want. There isn't any other form of control," he added. "Personally I think there should be some regulation."

Medical practitioners working in the assisted human reproduction area were looking for guidelines and want regulation so they know where they stand, he stated.

"These developments emphasise the urgency for the establishment within the country of a body to advise Government on the regulation and legislation of this field of research," said the chief executive officer of the Health Research Board, Dr Ruth Barrington. "This is why we need some body of people who can weigh up the relative risks and benefits of this research and establish what the Irish position should be."

The independent Commission on Assisted Reproduction, set up over a year ago to advise Government on these issues, is not expected to make proposals for at least a year. There is also some doubt whether it will handle controversial issues such as cloning given that its main role will be to establish rules of practice in assisted reproduction.

The creation of a committee specifically charged with bioethics is under discussion. The Royal Irish Academy has made proposals for an Irish council for bioethics after negotiations with the Government through the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment. "We are still waiting for the go-ahead from Government," a spokesman for the academy said.

Plans for the committee "are not quite ready to go", according to a source within the Department. An announcement could come within the next fortnight.