A planned relaxation of fertility laws could usher in an era of designer babies, it was claimed last night.

Critics said Government proposals to allow genetic experiments on human embryos for the first time will pave the way for genetically modified babies.

The Human Tissue and Embryology Bill, scheduled to become law next year, allows genetic alteration of embryos up to two weeks old.

The controversial procedure would help scientists learn more about incurable inherited disorders such as motor neurone disease.

The laboratory-created embryos would have to be destroyed at 14 days and cannot legally be implanted into a woman's womb.

But David King, of the secular campaign group Human Genetics Alert, accused the Government of 'setting the lights to green for the genetics runaway train'.
 

In a letter to public health minister Dawn Primarolo, he said the Government had not fully appreciated the consequences of a 'dangerous'decision that would turn human life into a commodity.

Dr King, a molecular biologist, said: "Traditionally, we see human beings as inviolable and endowed with rights - they must be accepted as they are.

"Genetic modification degrades human subjects into objects, to be designed according to parents' whim."

Dr King also claimed the issue has barely been debated during the bill's passage through Parliament.

Paul Tully, of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said the legislation could 'open a Pandora's box' adding that the destruction of an embryo was a 'denial of right to life and human dignity'.

But fertility expert Professor Lord Robert Winston accused Dr King of 'pure scaremongering' and said the technology to make a GM baby was 'completely out of our reach at present and likely to remain so for a very long time'.