SCIENTISTS from the University of Newcastle have applied to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for permission to clone a human embryo. Hurrah! This is a long-overdue advance to which HFEA should give its assent.

Human cloning is almost magical in its potential. Consider diabetes, which is the focus of the Newcastle team’s experiment. One form of diabetes, Type I, develops when insulin-producing cells in the pancreas are destroyed, perhaps by a viral or autoimmunological attack. Unless insulin is injected regularly thereafter, patients will die within weeks. Yet even with regular insulin, diabetic patients can suffer from long-term side-effects such as loss of vision or hardening of the arteries, which lead to premature ageing and death. But if scientists could create new insulin-secreting cells and implant them into patients, then these diabetics would be cured — free of injections or anxiety. That is the dream of the Newcastle team.

Human embryos consist of “stem” cells that can, on careful handling, be turned into insulin-secreting cells. In the process known as “cloning”, eggs will accept DNA from strangers, and embryos from those eggs can be persuaded to grow new cells that are essentially indistinguishable immunologically from those of the strangers. As a result, they can be implanted into the DNA donors with no risk of rejection. In short, the cells can cure Type I diabetes.

Now traditionalists tell us that embryos possess immortal souls and that cloning is murder. They also speak of creating Frankenstein lives. But human cloning cannot, at present, create new lives, because such clones would have to be implanted within a woman’s womb, which is illegal in Britain (Even if implanted, such clones would soon die, no one knows why). Further, human embryo cloning is so uncertain a technology that it has been achieved only once — by a Korean team this year. So we are not about to suffer the Attack of the Clones.

Although some people might endow a collection of insensate cells with an immortal soul, I reject such medieval bigotry as — well, medieval bigotry. In a world where abortion is legal and commonplace, the fate of a few insensate cells is trivial. Yet traditionalists retain great power. In America, President Bush is prepared to condemn adult criminals to death, yet has effectively blocked stem-cell research.

But, as Mr Bush’s neocon friends frequently remind us, in a globalised world different jurisdictions can compete with each other. Britain has benefited from an influx of great American stem-cell biologists who have migrated in search of a non-medieval research environment. We are poised to lead the world in this humane technology. And even palaeocons are bemused. Nancy Reagan, supported by 58 senators, is lobbying Mr Bush to facilitate stem-cell science in the US.

We are living through the great era of biology. Human embryo cloning and the cloning of adult human stem cells both offer vast potential. Since our only obstacle to exploring these nascent sciences is the traditionalists’ invocation of mystical texts, a future of universal good health awaits us. HFEA should permit the Newcastle plan.

[The author is a clinical biochemist and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham]