An influential Kirk committee has recommended "cautious approval" for the use of genetically modified animals in human medicine.

But in a report to this year's General Assembly, the Church of Scotland's Society, Religion and Technology Project argues that there must be a significant reason for their use.

The report is also unequivocal in its condemnation of any attempt to clone babies.

It describes such a practice as dangerous and unethical and unlikely ever to be safe.

Animal welfare

The Kirk committee's opposition to cloning babies is based on the animal welfare problems already experienced in cloning sheep and cattle.

The report condemns the idea of cloning between species by fusing human cells into animal eggs.

But it does accept that work being carried out by the scientists who created Dolly the sheep is generally ethically acceptable - providing the animals' welfare is assured.

The report says that the implications for the pharmaceutical treatment of human diseases justifies the current genetic work being undertaken by PPL Therapeutics.

The report also notes that the use of GM mice as human disease models, poses a serious ethical dilemma between seeking treatments for diseases like cancer and the suffering caused to the animal.