Each is a terrible personal tragedy and cases like the 1996 murder in France of the

Each is a terrible personal tragedy, and cases like the 1996 murder in France of the Cornish schoolgirl Caroline Dickinson are truly shocking. Parents increasingly drive their children to school fearing for their safety, so fewer walk, cycle or take a bus. The result is there is more childhood obesity, because children miss out on exercise, and there are more problems with asthma, because the air around schools becomes clogged with exhaust fumes.In any case, children face far more risks at home than at school: the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents calculates that 121 children die in accidents in the home every year and another 179 die in road accidents One or two children a year die in school trip accidents. A gradual learning process would serve them far better.And the irony is that the more we try to eliminate one danger, the more we create new risks. Seat belts and smoke alarms have saved many children’s lives.

We must be vigilant about child abuse, after appalling cases such as Soham Sunhats and sun cream can reduce harmful rays. And teachers should follow guidelines on how to organise school trips safely But we must develop a sense of proportion. Excess protectionism means many young people don’t learn to take responsibility for themselves until they leave home for work or university. It is unfair to blame teachers or council bureaucrats: they are simply responding to our growing expectation that children should be cocooned for as long as possible. But it’s surely time to put risk back on the curriculum.Of course, youngsters need sensible protection. The union says that “ambulance-chasing” lawyers encourage parents to sue schools if their child stumbles in the playground.Every such move makes it that much harder for young people to become fully rounded adults. And earlier this year researchers in South Korea announced that they had produced the first human cloned embryos.Dr Stojkovic pointed out that they only succeeded after more than 240 failed attempts, which indicated the difficulties involved in the work..

A primary school head teacher in Malmesbury, Wiltshire has banned children from bringing home-made birthday cakes to school. Only shop-bought cakes will now be allowed, apparently to protect children from food poisoning. Derby City Council has told its teachers to consider cancelling trips on sunny days – dull days will reduce the risk of skin cancer. However, there is no deadline for the committee to report.Originally from Yugoslavia, Dr Stojkovic worked on stem cells at the University of Munich, but was frustrated by the blanket ban on all forms of human cloning in Germany.He also rejected the argument that his work might show others how to attempt reproductive cloning: hundreds of papers already describe the “nuclear transfer” cloning technique pioneered by British scientists to create Dolly the sheep, he noted. There is a broad consensus among the world’s scientific community that there should be a worldwide ban on human reproductive cloning, but that each country should make its own decisions about whether to allow therapeutic cloning.”The HFEA said that the five members would consider the legality of the proposed work along with scientists’ reports on its value and whether the laboratory was up to the task. “It is clear that the licence can be granted if the research is considered to be necessary and desirable,” said Professor Richard Gardner, the chair of the Royal Society working group on cloning and stem cell research.The work, he said, could “bring closer the prospect of radical new stem cell treatments for a range of human diseases and disorders. “It is a development of a long term research tool not the plugging of an vital and immediate missing link in medical research.”The application was supported by Britain’s most prominent scientific organisation, the Royal Society.

The stem cells are collected from embryos which are destroyed before they are 14 days old and never allowed to develop beyond a cluster of cells the size of a pinhead.If it works, the technology holds the potential to grow new organs or even limbs, although such treatments would be decades away. But opponents say the procedure creates lives in order to kill them, and would improve technology to enable the cloning of babies.As the HFEA pondered the question at its London offices, the debate raged outside.Cloning to create duplicate human babies is outlawed in Britain but therapeutic cloning for medical research has been legal since 2002. However, no licences have yet been awarded by the HFEA, which oversees all embryo research.But opponents said that improving the technology so that it could be used to treat disease would also allow its abuse by “maverick scientists”.Dr Donald Bruce, leader of the Church of Scotland’s Society, Religion and Technology project, added that the proposed work was “too speculative for such an ethically sensitive area”.He quoted a 2001 House of Lords Select Committee report which concluded that the HFEA would need a quite exceptional reason to allow research involving cloned embryos.”The information so far made public suggests this is not the case,” said Dr Bruce. Instead of being thrown away they have been donated for research. The way I think of it is, why put something in the rubbish bin when it can be used in such a valuable way?”Stem cells are “master cells” that can become many different parts of the body.