THE Bishop of St Albans has spoken out against human reproductive cloning during a heated debate in the House of Lords.

The Right Reverend Christopher Herbert told the house that he believed cloning was morally wrong and should be prevented at all costs.

But he called for a wider public debate on all aspects of genetic cloning, saying that society "lacked genuine clarity about the legal, political and moral implications of what we are doing in this entire cloning area."

Bishop Herbert, who regularly takes part in House of Lord debates, made his comments during his recent visit in December.

He decided to raise his concerns following the Government's decision to rush through legislation preventing human cloning in the UK after spotting a loop hole in the current laws.

Bishop Herbert claimed that "too easy and too neat" distinctions had been made between therapeutic cloning creating cells for medical purposes such as creating body parts for transplant and reproductive cloning, where a human life is cloned.

He said: "We have become so seduced by our technological skills that the moral enormity of what we are doing and the sheer scale of our audacity have dwarfed and threaten to silence conscience, wisdom and that collective sensibility which alone ensure genuine moral freedom."