Tag: cloning

Last-chance conciliation talks on a review of the EU's novel foods regulation collapsed early this morning after officials failed to agree on the use of cloned animals' offspring for food production.

The European Commission has tabled plans to temporarily ban animal cloning for food production in the EU but said it was ready to allow imports of food from clones' offspring.

The European Parliament's environment committee has voted not to authorise the entry of any food derived from cloned animals onto EU markets, putting MEPs on a collision course with the European Commission and the EU's Council of Ministers.

The vast majority of European citizens have a general negative perception of animal cloning for food production, saying that too little is known of its long-term health and safety effects, according to an EU-wide poll presented yesterday (9 October) by the European Commission.

While the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has found no clear safety concerns related to food products from clones of cattle, pigs or their offspring, it strongly underlines that no way near enough scientific data on the subject exists as yet and that the practice has major repercussions on animal health and welfare.

The Commission has proposed speeding up market authorisation for foods ranging from cloned meat to exotic products from third countries. But the proposed centralised authorisation system is raising questions at a time when the safety of GMOs is back under the spotlight.

A large majority of Swiss voters have approved a law allowing the extraction of stem cells from human embryos up to seven days old to be used for research. Only the use of cells left over from in-vitro fertilisation is allowed.

EU health ministers reached political agreement on a new directive proposing quality and safety standards for dealing with human tissues and cells, on 2 June.

The EP's Public Health Committe agreed a position on the quality and safety standards for handling human tissues and cells, on 25 March 2003. Amendments to the draft report mainly concern scope, nature of donations, traceability and anonymity, donor consent and ethical issues.

The announcement by the Italian fertility doctor, Severino Antinori, that three cloned babies will be born at the end of this year, is expected to stir a new debate on human cloning.

The debate on human cloning in the EU is expected to heat up following a report by an Italian fertility doctor, Dr Severino Antinori, that one of his patients is eight weeks pregnant with an embryo produced using cloning technology.

The European Parliament has rejected the resolution on human genetics with an overwhelming majority of 316 to 37 after amendments in favour of therapeutic medical cloning by the Liberals and Socialist had been approved. The rejection of the report on the social, legal, ethical and economic implications of human genetics has been greeted as a victory by the supporters of medical research into genetics.

The European Parliament committee on human genetics has called for a public debate on genetic engineering. In a report on the social, legal, ethical and economic implications of human genetics, adopted on 6 November, the committee said that ethical principles should serve as a basis for general assessment of the development and use of human genetics. They should also influence the future trend regarding the laws on that subject, says the report.

German government freezes plans to support production of genetically modified crops

UK allows limited human cloning for therapeutic purposes.