The headline-making announcement of the world's first cloned human embryo has ignited fresh but hotter debates on medical ethics and research laws,according to today's China  Daily.

   Religious and political leaders worldwide reacted quickly by condemning the practice of a US company, Advanced Cell Technology, for crossing a moral and ethical line when it announced the breakthrough on Sunday.

   In self-defence, the company claimed that their research is not aimed at creating a person, but for treating diseases - using embryonic master cells to reverse diabetes, heart disease and other crippling ailments.

   Ever since the appearance of Dolly the sheep, the first cloned animal, in 1997, appeals have been heard that a line should be drawn in bio-research to ban the cloning of humans. Scientists believe that scientific progress will one day amount to the maturity of the technology in cloning a person.

   The breakthrough makes it more urgent for a clear and strict code of ethics to govern practice in bio-research.

   In fact, many countries have made, or are making, legislation to ban human cloning. The US Senate was urged to act on anti-cloning legislation passed by the House of Representatives on July 31.

   The United Nations, acting on the initiative of France and Germany, is set to start negotiations next year on a draft treaty banning the cloning of humans.

   China expressed its stand last month at a meeting of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization that the country opposes any cloning of humans, and will not sponsor any experiments on reproductive cloning.

   Amid the protests, some scientists argue that scientific research should never be reined in, and they believe that science and technology will conquer any problems in using cloning to serve mankind.

   Scientific research, however, can be a double-edged sword, which can sometimes be devastatingly harmful to human beings. The research and making of the atomic bomb is an example. An initiator in the making of atomic bombs, Albert Einstein later staunchly supported banning the fatal weapon.

   If humans can be created randomly, human life will no longer be respected, cherished, and may suffer random ruin. The cloning experiments show a horrifying lack of respect for human life, as was stated by a German doctors' association.