Its ruling is not binding and does not take into account the ethical aspects of cloning, which will be reviewed separately by the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies, an advisory panel. The decision also does not take into account European public opinion, which strongly favors natural foods.
Based on the expert panels’ opinions, the European Commission will decide whether to allow the sale of such products on the Continent. The decision was particularly important because the United States Food and Drug Administration is also expected to rule this month on the safety of products from cloned animals. It, too, is expected to conclude that the products are safe. The Washington Post has reported today that the FDA has found cloned meat to be safe, even though the report has yet to be officially publiushed. That could allow commercial production of such products to move forward.
Steve - the report failed to mention that cloned meat has not been tested in human consumption trials as of yet. The report also said the high number of diseased and deformed animals bred from cloning would "diminish" as the technology becomes more precise. Isn't that lovely?
Regarding the FDA's decision,the newspaper quoted Joseph Mendelson, legal director of the Center for Food Safety, an advocacy group that petitioned FDA to restrict the sale of food from clones, as saying his group was considering legal action. "One of the amazing things about this is that at a time when we have a readily acknowledged crisis in our food safety system, the FDA is spending its resources and energy and political capital on releasing a safety assessment for something that no one but a handful of companies wants," said Mendelson.
1 comment:
Thank you very much for posting this information on your blog. A lot of it was very new information. For example, I had no idea that the FDA had not seen any of the results on a human being. However, the FDA can never really do human testing because that, of all things, is too unethical. When we began cloning fruit and genetically altering it, there was never human testing first. Fruit has been genetically tampered with for years. In fact, fruit has an extremely complex genetic composition yet eating cloned fruit is more acceptable. Furthermore, your evidence about businesses not wanting to distribute the food from clones is very convincing. However, I believe that if any companies do want to distribute this food they should have every right since they're taking all the risk. I also feel that this food could end up being crucial in assisting third world countries that have less protein sources. Even our own country can be greatly helped. Regarding your skeptical view concerning the resulting animals and technology, this process is just like many other innovations in that it is not immediately perfect. It is a process that must be honed and when it has much more reliable results, exciting things can be done.
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