Supporters and opponents of Britain’s revised fertility legislation are dancing in their corners and punching the air before the bell rings for the final round in Parliament next month. Below are a few of the latest air swings. British newspapers are full of articles on the bill, which has divided the country almost as much as the war in Iraq. The best summary so far of the issues is a thoroughly researched article in the London Times, “An embryonic disaster?”. It is well worth reading.

 Sir Ian Wilmut, leader of the team which created Dolly the cloned sheep: “the key thing about humans is our consciousness and our ability to communicate and so on. The human embryos people are working with are smaller than a grain of sand. You need a microscope to see them. They are weeks from the stage where there would be a nervous system and the ability to be aware. To me, and I suspect the majority of people in 21st century Britain, a human being is someone who is aware.”

Mark Pritchard, Conservative MP: “Scientists, however well-meaning, need to be less ‘absolute’ in their claims that somehow human embryo research alone provides the Holy Grail for many of the world's diseases... Today, breakthroughs in adult stem cell science are used to cure thousands of people with all sorts of illnesses. By contrast, there has been no recorded case of a single patient who has been cured of any disease using human embryonic stem cells, a small detail omitted by the large bio-tech corporations that stand to make millions from the Government's proposals.”

Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, chief executive of the Medical Research Council: “I was brought up as a Catholic at home, both my parents are Catholics and I have continued to be a member of the Church. I go to church but I have had considerable issues with some of the stances the Church has taken on a variety of health-related issues. My conscience tells me very firmly that I should support the Bill as it stands.”

Dr James Sherley, Boston Biomedical Research Institute: “Of course, [human-animal hybrids] will be human in species because of their human genome. Nothing else is required to define them as human, no matter how aberrant they may be as a result of activation of their genome by animal oocyte factors. [Supporters of hybrid embryos] are correct when they ask, ‘If they are not human, what are they?’ The only answer to this rhetorical question is a factual one, ‘Human, of course!’” ~ Nature Cell Biology, March