BERLIN, DEC. 21, 2000 (ZENIT.org).- German leaders have condemned the
British House of Commons move to expand the types of research allowed on
embryos, creating the possibility of human cloning, LineOne News reported.

One, Christian Democrat Member of Parliament Hubert Hueppe, described the
step as "nothing more than cannibalism" and accused Tony Blair of helping
build "human factories."

Edelgard Bulmahn, Germany's science minister, said: "We are united with all
other European Union countries that the cloning of embryos steps over
ethical and moral boundaries." Under the British plan, scientists could
clone and extract so-called stem cells from embryos for research they hope
will revolutionize the treatment of a wide range of conditions from
Parkinson's disease to diabetes.

In a newspaper article, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said that cloning
embryo cells for research should remain banned in Germany until more is
known about what could be achieved using stem cells extracted from the
organs of adults.

Religious leaders said embryo cloning is morally wrong and opens the door to
the cloning of humans, and conservative lawmakers were also appalled.

The British law, which must still pass the House of Lords, "completes the
breach of an ethical dam feared by many Christians and other critics of
biotechnology in Europe," said Manfred Koch, the head of Germany's Lutheran
Church. In cloning embryos to seek to grow replacement tissue, "humans, as a
biological spare parts store, are to be produced and destroyed," he said.
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