I got sent this by Andrea, the public policy officer from LCF:

Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship Press Release 20 May 2005

Yesterday we heard that Professor Alison Murdoch’s team have cloned their first human embryo despite the LCF Public Policy Analyst Peng Voong’s challenge to the legality and validity of the licence.

The news came on the same day as the Department of Health highlighted the cost implications of granting a patient’s advance request for life-sustaining care. Last year’s High Court ruling in favour of Leslie Burke’s application, that he should not be denied food and fluid if he becomes unable to communicate, is this week being challenged by the GMC and Department of Health.

We have a situation permitted in law to manufacture human embryos for experimentation. We have a situation in law as a result of the Mental Capacity Act which makes living wills legally binding in cases where a person refuses treatment. The same Act, however, will not permit a person to make a living will that is legally binding to request food and water at the end of life because the Courts have determined that the artificial provision of food and water is treatment.

We live in a topsy –turvy legal world.

These are matters literally of life and death.