Experts
argue for and against cloning for "therapeutic" purposes.
August News Summaries
(By Christine Ryan and Linda Rader)
© 2001 The Reproductive Cloning Network, and affiliated members.
Newsletter Front Page - Cloning Conference Report - News Summaries - Cloning Article - Cloning Interview
WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 - Despite warnings from leading experts that the experiments in human cloning would inevitably lead to babies that are deformed, or die soon after birth, a fertility doctor, a chemist and a scientist-entrepreneur nevertheless vowed today to press ahead with separate efforts to create the first cloned human being.
"This will be done," said the chemist, Dr. Brigitte Boisselier, who directs a company in the Bahamas and is a member of a religious sect, the Raelians, for whom human cloning is a goal.
The entrepreneur, Dr. Panayiotis Michael Zavos, who runs laboratories in Kentucky, conceded there were hurdles to be overcome but said, "We are determined to get there."
Drs. Boisselier and Zavos made their remarks at a symposium convened by the National Academy of Sciences, an independent research organization that has established a panel of experts to study the science of cloning. They were joined by Dr. Severino Antinori, an Italian fertility specialist who gained notice in the mid-1990's by using in vitro fertilization to help a 62-year-old woman have a baby.
Full text http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/08/science/08CLON.html
A.P:
http://www.nando.net/healthscience/story/57005p-832791c.html
Los Angeles Times:
http://latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-080801cloning.story
San Francisco Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/08/08/MN111206.DTL
Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43536-2001Aug7.html
London, England -- British pro-lifers are encouraged by a U.S. House of Representatives vote in favor of banning all forms of human cloning, expressing the hope that it might prompt Britain to rethink its "untenable" position. The House passed legislation Tuesday outlawing cloning for reproductiveand so-called "therapeutic" purposes -- cloning for stem cell research -- while rejecting an amendment that would have allowed "therapeutic" cloningthat would kill human embryos.
British lawmakers have voted to legalize "therapeutic" cloning, while the government says it is to introduce legislation to outlaw reproductive cloning. The UK's Pro-Life Alliance praised the U.S. stance, saying it reflected the clear wishes of the American people.
"The House of Representatives has thankfully shown its determination toput the future of mankind before scientific opportunism," a spokesmansaid. "Any application of this technology is unethical and dangerous. Wemust follow the American lead, fall in line with world opinion and callfor an immediate ban on all forms of human cloning."
The Pro-Life Alliance party has filed for a judicial review of the changes the British Parliament made in January, and will get a hearing in October.The group intends to argue that embryos created by cloning do not fit thedefinition of embryo under the 1990 Human Fertilization and Embryology Actbecause fertilization is not involved. Therefore, the group contends, suchcloned embryos are not subject to regulation under the act, which wouldmean the parliamentary vote was invalid.
London, England -- PPL Therapeutics PLC, the British firm that helped clone Dolly the sheep, is about to perform an audacious experiment that would be the biological equivalent of turning back time: It plans to take a skin cell from an adult and return it to its embryonic state. Implausible as it sounds, PPL says it has already achieved the result with a cow. "We intend to do this with human cells," says Alan Colman, chief scientist at the company, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. "It would help us to avoid the destruction of human embryos" for medical research.
As political and ethical opposition to research with human embryos reaches a boiling point in the U.S., scientists are racing to find less-controversial ways to make primitive stem cells. Even as they lobby in Washington to encourage the government to fund studies of stem cells taken from embryos, and to preserve their right to perform cloning experiments in the lab, researchers are looking at alternative approaches. On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to ban all forms of human cloning.
The concept being tried by PPL and others is known as de-differentiation. The idea is to first take adult cells from a patient and return it to their embryo-like state. Those cells would then be turned into specialized cells -- those that make up the heart, say. The heart cells would be transplanted into the very patient from whom they were derived. As there's a perfect genetic match, the patient's immune system ideally wouldn't reject the transplant.
Several companies have jumped in on the act, creating a Wild West-like atmosphere not often seen in scientific circles. At a congressional hearing in the U.S. Wednesday, U.S. firm Advanced Cell Technology Inc. declared that it had filed a patent on de-differentiation. Infigen Inc. of the U.S. has reported similar initial successes with the process and filed its own patent applications. Irish biotech start-up TriStemGroup claims to have turned cells from a human blood sample into their embryonic counterparts in six hours. (So far, scientific journals have declined to publish the Dublin-based company's findings.)
"I expect the frenzied excitement will become more systematic in a couple of years," says Dr. Colman of PPL. He adds that many of the weekly barrage of stem-cell announcements are "mainly about publicity and ego." For now, scientists remain captivated by the astonishing ability of human and animal eggs to rewind mature cells to their original, primitive state. Though little understood, this property has already been tapped to clone animals like Dolly. Now scientists are trying to identify the magical factor in the egg responsible for the rejuvenating trick. So far they've found that if the material inside an egg is simply injected into -- or dribbled onto -- an adult cell, that cell will revert to its embryonic state.
PPL may have made the most progress. In October 2000, the U.S. government gave the British company's Virginia lab nearly $2 million to pursue a de-differentiation project. The only condition was that PPL had to stick to embryos from animals. In a press release issued in February, the company boasted that it had turned an adult skin cell from a cow into a heart cell. It declined to reveal the method used.
PPL still won't describe the entire process -- to avoid tipping off rivals, it says -- but is willing to shed a little more light on the technique. According to Dr. Colman, the company extracted the cytoplasm from a cow oocyte (an egg) and inserted it into skin cells. This turned the skin cells into the undifferentiated kind typically found in a seven-day-old embryo -- essentially, stem cells. By adding various chemicals, PPL turned the stem cells into heart cells, which then began to beat while sitting in a petri dish. It wasn't easy. Cytoplasm is a viscous material and getting it inside tiny adult cells proved quite a challenge. Dr. Colman says that the experimentdoesn't work every time and that the company's press release may have been premature.
Still, the company plans similar experiments with human cells in its U.K. lab. In the U.S., its grant can be used to fund similar tests with monkeys. If PPL can successfully rewind monkey cells, it plans to begin transplant experiments.
Experts say the notion of transdifferentiation is still unproven, and stem cells taken from embryos are better suited for medical research. But if manipulating adult cells can "deliver therapeutically what embryonic stem cells can deliver, there would be no contest, says Dr. Colman. " He adds, "I personally think embryonic stem cells will ultimately be the winner."
Infigen of Madison, Wisconsin, got involved in similar research -- the hard way. Early last year, the company's president, Michael Bishop, went to his board with a plan to enter the field of stem-cell research. Infigen had already cloned cows and pigs; but the board of this conservative Midwestern U.S. firm wasn't thrilled with the new idea.
"To create human embryos ... was outside the ethical and moral view of the entire board, says Dennis McCormick, chairman of Infigen's board. "That was discussed very briefly and rejected. "
Since then, Infigen has decided to explore the less-controversial idea of de-differentiation. Funded by the US Department of Commerce's Advanced Technology Program and the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the company is exploring the cell-rewinding process in pigs. It's trying to raise a total of $10 million to $15 million to support the effort.
"It's a tight market out there and all the notoriety we are getting in the stem-cell field is making it more difficult," says Dr. Bishop.
Washington, DC -- Now that the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a comprehensive pro-life ban on human cloning, its fate lies in the hands of pro-abortion Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD).
Daschle said last week he fears both sides of the embryonic stem cell research debate will try to misuse the incendiary issue of cloning to further their cause in the Senate. "I think as we write about it and talk about it, we can't casually intermingle these issues and make them one in the same. They're not," Daschle said.
"I strongly believe that this country ought to advance research and science utilizing embryonic stem cells," he said. "But I draw the distinction between that and a full-fledged willingness on the part of the country and the scientific community to use cloning as a method of research and scientific development."
However, Daschle said, given the open rules of debate in the Senate, "my guess is that as soon as you bring up the issue of stem-cell research, you're going to bring up all of the panoply of questions involving cloning as well I don't think that that can be avoided, especially in the Senate."
Pro-life Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) opposes embryonic stem-cell research and has sponsored the legislation that would ban cloning, but he agrees with Daschle. "My strong preference would be for them to be debated as separate issues," Brownback said last week.
While his opinions on the two issues are underpinned by a single belief in the sanctity in life, "the way [the two issues] come to us in government is quite different," Brownback said.
The question on embryonic stem-cell research is whether federal dollars should be used to fund procedures. Cloning of humans has not yet begun, and the question is whether to ban it, Brownback explained. Still, if Daschle does not bring a bill to ban cloning to the Senate floor for debate, Brownback said he would offer such legislation as an amendment to a stem-cell bill when it does come to the floor. Daschle has promised a bill to fund ECR should President Bush continue a ban on federal funding. Brownback's version of the human cloning ban has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Daschle initially blamed ESCR opponents for muddying the waters, but when told of the tone and details of the House debate, he said: "I don't care whether you're a proponent or an opponent, I think you need to draw a pretty sharp line here between cloning and embryonic stem-cell research."
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - A West Virginia lawyer says he has withdrawn his support for a controversial French researcher who had offered to clone his dead son, the Sunday Gazette-Mail reported. The federal Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) reported in June that the researcher, Brigitte Boisselier, had agreed not to attempt an experiment or research on human cloning until the effort's legality was determined. FDA spokesman Lawrence Bachorik said the agency had inspected her lab, but wouldn't say where it was located. Mark Hunt told the newspaper that he and his wife, Tracy, became interested in cloning after the September 1999 death of their 10-month-old son, Andrew. The child died of complications after surgery to correct heart defects. Hunt said he had spent less than $500,000 to lease a laboratory in a former high school in nearby Nitro and to buy equipment for researcher Brigitte Boisselier. Hunt, a Charleston lawyer and former state legislator, said he had lost confidence in Boisselier because she became ``a press hog,'' giving international interviews on behalf of the cloning project and a religious group called the Raelian Movement. Boisselier, a former visiting assistant professor of chemistry at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., is scientific director of Clonaid, which advertises cloning services on its Web site for fees up of to $200,000. Clonaid was founded in 1997 by a French race car driver who changed his name to Rael and started the Raelian Movement, which claims that life on Earth was created by extraterrestrial scientists. Boisselier is a bishop in the movement, according to the group's Web site. Hunt said he and his wife realize a clone wouldn't restore their son's life, but said a duplicate child would be ``some solace.'' He said they see no ethical problems with cloning or stem cell research. In Washington, the House voted on July 31 to ban cloning of human embryos, even for medical research. The Senate has not acted on the measure. There was no comment Sunday from Hunt or Boisselier. There was no response to calls to Hunt's home or answering service, and the newspaper said he was vacationing. No telephone number could be located for Boisselier, and there was no immediate response to an e-mail to a spokesman for Clonaid.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010805/sc/human_cloning_1.html
Using therapeutic cloning a group of researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have succeeded, for the first time in the world, to grow human heart cells in a lab, from embryonic stem cells. The tissue they have created can spontaneously beat and has the electric and mechanical characteristics of young heart tissue.
The research is being published today (August 1, 2001) in the August issue of prestigious scientific journal, Journal of Clinical Investigation. The study was conducted by Dr. Itzhak Kehat under the instruction of Dr. Lior Gepstein, of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion, and of Rambam Medical Center, Haifa.
The research was conducted in collaboration with the team of Professor Joseph Itskovitz, a member of Technion's Faculty of Medicine and Director of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Rambam Medical Center. Professor Itskovitz was the first scientist to describe human embryonic stem cells three years ago, together with researchers from the University of Wisconsin. These cells posses two main characteristics: the have infinite ability to proliferate, and they can differentiate into all the tissues of the body. Since that breakthrough three years ago, leading laboratories in the world have been researching ways of differentiating embryonic stem cells into various tissues (nerve cells, blood cells, cartilage, pancreas etc).
(Adapted from press release)
http://pard.technion.ac.il/press/PressrelE.asp
The New York Times reported today Researchers in Isreal say that they had coaxed human embryonic stem cells into producing insulin in tissue culture, a finding that could lead to a treatment for Type 1 diabetes.
The study comes at a time when President Bush is considering whether to allow federal financing for research involving human embryonic stem cells. It was reported in the journal Diabetes, published by the American Diabetes Association.
Stem cells from embryos are known for their ability to be transformed into virtually every cell type. Some scientists hope to harness this quality by transplanting stem cells to take the place of lost insulin-secreting cells in patients with Type 1 diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes.
In the recent work, stem cells were derived from a human embryo days after fertilization and transformed with chemical prodding in tissue culture into a mass of cells possessing characteristics of the pancreatic cells that secrete insulin, the researchers said. The research was done at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa and at the Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, and was led by Suheir Assady.
Dr. Christopher Saudek, president of the American Diabetes Association and a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, called the findings exciting. "People have talked about the possibility that human stem cells could be made to produce insulin," he said. "But here it is being demonstrated." More than one million Americans have Type 1 diabetes, which can strike children, and even adults, suddenly, making them dependent on daily insulin injections. People with the disease face complications like heart disease, stroke, amputation, blindness and kidney failure.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/01/health/01INSU.html
Allowing Couples to Sell Their Excess Frozen Embryos for Medical Research Supported by LOTTOPOL Poll Participants by 5 to 4 margin.
The participants were asked the question: Should couples who have excess frozen embryos, that were to be otherwise be discarded, be allowed to sell their excess embryos for use in medical research so they will be able to recoup some or all of the medical costs involved in attempting to conceive via in-vitro fertilization?
The Latest Results are: (% of total answers)
Couples should be allowed to sell their excess frozen embryos for use in medical research.(33.02%)
Couples should not be allowed to sell their excess frozen embryos for use in medical research.(26.49%)
No opinion or would rather not answer that question. (40.48%)
To put the polling in perspective below is some information about the LOTTOPOL Poll. LOTTOPOL is the free daily lotto game at www.lottopol.com where participants respond to a poll question and get a chance to win cash prizes as high as $250 million. The answers to the questions do not affect the chances of winning. The chances of winning depend solely on the numbers participants choose. One group that has not received much attention in debate over Federal Funding for using excess frozen embryos in medical research is the couples who could potentially benefit from selling their excess frozen embryos for use in medical research.
The controversy over Federal Funding for using excess frozen embryos in medical research grew more intense it was reported that the Jones Institute, a private fertility clinic in Virginia is paying egg donors their standard fee for embryos extracted expressly for research purposes.
This brings-up the question of whether couples who now have excess frozen embryos, that were to be otherwise be discarded, should be able to sell their excess embryos.
If it appears that stem-cells extracted from embryos might be successfully used to develop cures for ailments such as stroke, spinal cord injuries, diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, there would be a tremendous demand for embryos.
If couples are able to sell their excess frozen embryos, they would be able to recoup some or all of the very high medical expenses incurred by those attempting to conceive via in-vitro fertilization.
Additional Comments from the Poll Respondents
The LOTTOPOL Poll questions contain sections providing for additional comments. The reply form for the question about selling excess embryos has a section, which states: "(Optional) Any comments on the issue of whether couples should be allowed to sell their excess embryos for use in medical research?" Thus, participants can write-in comments on the topic of the question in addition to answering the question.
Some of the comments by those who said that couples should be allowed to sell their excess frozen embryos for use in medical research
included:
"many couples who now can not now afford in-vitro fertilization will now be able to afford it if they can sell their excess embryos."
"women who now do not qualify as egg donors will now be able to sell eggs commercially just as blond college students can do now. (Ethnic minorities now generally need not apply at commercial egg donor clinics since those buying eggs for procreation purposes want offspring with specific ethnic characteristics)"
"I am uncomfortable with the "selling", however stem-cell research is needed and I would rather have these embryos used in this research than discarded"
Some of the comments by those who said that couples should not be allowed to sell their excess frozen embryos for use in medical research included:
"these embryos should be used for medical research but they should not be sold, if they are excess and not going to be used to help create a life then they should be used to help save lives but not sold for this purpose, they should be given freely."
"This is against church policy"
"They should give them free for use in medical research"
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - Babies born with the help of fertility treatment grow into emotionally and socially well-adjusted children, according to new research announced on Tuesday. The world's first study that followed in-vitro, or test tube, babies to the brink of adolescence showed that youngsters who had been conceived through fertility treatments do not suffer any more psychological problems than other children. Since Louise Brown, the world's first test tube baby, was born 23 years ago, more than a million children worldwide have been born using assisted reproductive technology (ART). In some countries as many as three percent of children have been conceived using some form of fertility treatment. ``These very wanted children are well-adjusted and much loved,'' Professor Susan Golombok, told a fertility conference. The director of London's City University Family and Child Psychology Research Centre said concerns about the development of test-tube babies and those born through artificial insemination with donor sperm were unfounded. ``We found these children to be well adjusted with no evidence of emotional or behavioral problems,'' she added. Children born with the help of fertility treatments agreed. ``My parents needed help and I'm grateful they got it, otherwise I wouldn't be here,'' said Susannah Hedgley who lives near Belfast in northern Ireland. The 13-year-old, who can't remember when her parents told her how she was conceived, said she doesn't feel any different from other children. Tyler Madsen, a 10-year-old boy from New York, told the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) he doesn't fell any different either. Neither of the children took part in Golombok's study.
NO DIFFERENCES
The study of more than 400 children, who were naturally conceived or born through fertilization techniques, found no differences in the mental and social development of the youngsters. But the researchers noted that only one in 10 children conceived through donor insemination were aware that their father was not their genetic parent. This was because most of the parents did not inform their children about their genetic origins. ``In spite of this, the children do not seem to experience negative consequences arising from the secrecy,'' said Golombok. ``But this does not mean that it is preferable for children not to be told. Many parents have informed other people and this creates a risk that the children will find out from someone else.'' One in six couples suffers some form of fertility problem and may seek medical treatment to help them become parents. "http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010703/sc/health_fertility_
Gianpiero Palermo of Cornell University in New York has created artificial human eggs that contains just one set of a mother's chromosomes. Such eggs could be fertilised with male sperm, just like a normal egg.
When an egg is fertilised normally, it retains one set in a pronucleus, and spits out the rest in a little package called the polar body. The fertilising sperm, which contains just one set of chromosomes, then restores the full complement. Cornell researchers transplanted a nucleus from a body cell into a mature human egg that has had its genetic material removed and by prodding with a pulse of electricity, they can make the nucleus divide in half, forming two pronuclei.
The team removes one pronucleus and they have a new egg cell which can be fertilized by injecting sperm.
Meanwhile in Australia, Orly Lacham-Kaplan of Monash University in Melbourne has fertilized eggs with cells taken from elsewhere in the body, creating a sort of somatic cell sperm.
source: http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/cloning/cloning.jsp?id=22980400
THE TELEGRAPH
A LEADING scientist investigating the use of human embryo cells in treating disease is being lured from America by more than £1 million of government funding.
Prof Roger Pedersen's move from the University of California, San Francisco, to Cambridge University could signal a "brain drain" from America to countries with more liberal rules on studying human embryonic stem cells, it is believed.
Political uncertainties cloud the future of his work in America, which has been hailed as the key to creating treatments for a wide range of diseases, from heart disease to Parkinson's.
Prof Pedersen said he was moving to Cambridge because he wanted to carry out research on stem cells from human embryos "with public support", referring to the fact that Britain had cleared the way for research in this field.
Full text:
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/07/18/nbrain18.xml
It was a case of hurry up and wait for Geron Corporation, but the anxiety has finally paid off: the US Patent Office (PTO) yesterday awarded the company its long-sought patent for the "immortality gene" that encodes telomerase.
The patent is valid for nucleic acid and amino acid sequences encoding various protein subunits of telomerase - including human telomerase - as well as for related polypeptides.
In order to be first to file for the US patent, scientists at the Californian company worked round the clock, bringing their sleeping bags to the lab, according to David J. Earp, Geron's vice president for intellectual property. Even so, company executives - as well as scientists at UniversityTechnology Corp. in Boulder, Colorado, led by Nobel laureate Thomas Cech, who worked with Geron to clone and sequence the human version of the gene - lived in suspense for two years.
In 1999, the PTO halted the processing of the patent application pending possible declaration of an interference, indicating that other claims for the patent had been filed and that officials would have to figure out who first filed a valid patent.
Full text:
http://news.bmn.com/news/story?day=010719&story=1
Coalition supports bill that could mean fines, prison time for scientists involved in practice
By Richard Willing
USA TODAY
http://news.bmn.com/news/story?day=010719&story=1
Washington, DC -- Researchers who have cloned animals warned on Tuesday about the dangers of human cloning, telling a U.S. science panel that experiments involving people likely would fail or produce babies withsevere defects. "Practice, it is said, makes perfect. But is it ethical to practice? And I absolutely think it is not, in the human context," said Alan Colman, a researcher for Scotland's PPL Therapeutics.
However, scientists determined to create the world's first cloned babies defended their plans on Tuesday against charges from animal cloning experts that the technology was too dangerous to apply to humans. Vowing to take steps to avoid babies being born with severe abnormalities, Italian doctor Severino Antinori told a contentious meeting of a National Academy of Sciences panel that he would proceed with plans to provide cloned children for infertile couples.
The panel is gathering information for a report expected by the end of September on whether the United States should impose a moratorium on humancloning, which the U.S. House of Representatives voted last week tooutlaw. Antinori and Panos Zavos, a Kentucky fertility specialist working with him, faced tough questioning from scientists who have cloned animals and found extremely high rates of defects and failures.
Zavos said he and Antinori planned to begin the process of creating clonedbabies for infertile couples by November. Antinori gained worldwide noticeby helping a 62-year-old woman have a child in 1994.
Zavos said he could screen embryos for genetic abnormalities before implanting them, although he acknowledged problems could develop later. His team would inform couples of potential risks and make them sign consent forms, he said.
"We're not perfect but we're trying to get there," he insisted. "This technique can be made safe for people." Ian Wilmut, whose research led to the cloning of Dolly the sheep in 1997,said screening attempts like the ones Zavos promised won't work.
"It is not possible to think of a way of screening out effectively the most appropriate embryos, and hence, what we should expect would be lateabortions -- either occurring spontaneously or being induced deliberatelyin the second or third trimester of pregnancy -- in order to prevent thebirth of abnormal children," Wilmut said.
Cloning involves taking a living organism and making a virtually genetically identical duplicate. To clone a human, scientists would insert DNA from a person into an egg with its genetic material removed. The egg would be stimulated to divide into an embryo for research or implanting in a woman's uterus.
Other scientists at the meeting, heavily attended by U.S. and international media, said it was impossible to detect the types of problems seen in animal clones by examining embryos.
"This is not good science," said Rudolf Jaenisch, a biologist and animal cloning pioneer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Whitehead Institute.
Jaenisch and Zavos repeatedly interrupted each other, with Zavos at one time protesting, "I'm not going to let him lecture me." Jaenisch noted that only 1 percent to 5 percent of cloned animals survive to birth and some of those later die prematurely due to various birth defects. Others are abnormally overweight. Problems occurred at similar rates among cloned sheep, cows, mice, pigs and goats, Jaenisch said.
Other researchers said many animal clones were healthy and predicted that cloning would become more efficient. They said it would still be unethical to try experiments on humans.
Brigitte Boisselier, a biochemist and member of a group known as the Raelians, who also has announced plans to create cloned babies, said people had the right to use their genes the way they wanted. She said that included the right to reproduce one's self by cloning. The Raelians, who believe in extraterrestrials, promote cloning as a chance for "eternal life."
Some panel members asked whether there was anything that could stop the groups from going ahead with human cloning. The teams have not disclosed where they will do their experiments other than to say it will be somewhere the practice is legal. "Is there any risk too great or any reason too trivial for you not to attempt human cloning?" asked Alta Charo, a University of Wisconsin bioethicist.
The National Academy panel is examining the science behind current cloning research as well as the ethics. Some critics say it is wrong to produce a person that is not genetically unique, even though the clone would be younger and would grow up in a different time period. The House-passed ban on human cloning would set punishment of $1 million or more in fines and up to 10 years in prison. It now goes before the Senate. President George W. Bush supports the ban on human cloning.
On Tuesday, Bush reiterated his opposition to human cloning. "As you know I supported the anti-cloning legislation in the Congress," Bush told reporters as he vacationed in Texas. "And I'll be making a statement about my views on how life and science should interface when I'm ready."
Vatican City -- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger lashed out against the human cloning experiment to be undertaken by Severino Antinori, saying the Italian scientist was trying to "emulate Hitler."Ratzinger was quoted in several Italian newspapers Tuesday as saying that "copying children, for reasons other than treating sterility, is Nazi madness."
Antinori is set to undertake the first attempt to clone a human being with help from 200 women who have volunteered for the experiment. The Italian embryologist rose to prominence in 1994 when he helped a 63- year-old woman, Rossanna Della Corte, have a child.
The cardinal harshly condemned Antinori's research and argued that he was fulfiling Hitler's evil plan for creating a superior race. Hitler, he contended, had foreseen medical advances such as cloning experiments on human embryos.
"It's terrifying to think that the powers who fought to defeat Nazism in the first half of the previous century are today choosing inhuman and questionable practices in the scientific area," he said.
Whatever those advancements in human cloning may be, there will be many new ethical questions that will need to be addressed by the scientific community and by the public before these advances can reach their full potential.
Experts
argue for and against cloning for "therapeutic" purposes.
It is because of these urgent developments in the scientific front that the International Consortium for Human Therapeutic Cloning (the Consortium) has chosen to debate these issues very aggressively worldwide, because it realizes that those scientific advances bring social changes, and that many people will not be able to accept unless they know and understand all the facts.
According to the British Medical Association, "Public hostility to human reproductive cloning may be based on an illogical transient fear of a new technology". As with any scientific or technological advancement, the most important question that needs to be asked is whether or not the gains outweigh the potential losses. Will human cloning become a brave new step in fighting disease and improving the quality of people's lives, or will it lead to other problems never faced by society before?
In reality, no one has, as of yet, publicly claimed that a human clone has been produced. However, the development of cloning technology for application in humans may not be too far off. Human cloning is around the corner and, when it comes to human cloning, "the genie is out of the bottle". The technology for cloning a human being exists in almost in every high tech in-vitro fertilization laboratory across the world. There are 55 such IVF labs in New York City alone. So the question that we should be answering today is, who should develop this technology and under which conditions to assist humanity — not whether this technology should be banned.
Those who believe that this technology should be banned are not be the Neil Armstrongs that dared to travel to the moon and walk on it. Beyond that, those that call for stopping it, would more likely be the ones who wish to control the stem cell research and development in this world. They worry that the human reproductive cloning issue alone may derail their goals and aspirations in getting the millions of dollars that the U.S. or other world governments are getting ready to allocate.
This is very dangerous and quite hypocritical and this has to stop. After all, according to Bragdon v. Abbott, 118 S.Ct. 2196 (1998), infertility is a disability and reproduction is a major life activity for the purposes of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). We are talking about the development of a technology that can help people. We are talking about the development of a technology that can give an infertile and childless couple the right to reproduce, have a healthy biological child of their own, and above all, complete their biological "life cycle." This is a human right and should not be taken away because someone or a group of people have doubts about its development.
If the right of privacy means anything, it is the right of the individual, married or single, to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or beget a child (Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438, 453:1972; and Planned Parenthood v. Casey 505 U.S. 833, 851:1992)
The Consortium has no intentions in stepping over dead bodies or deformed babies to accomplish this while we attempt to develop this revolutionary and magnificent assisted reproductive technology.
© 2001 The Reproductive Cloning Network, and affiliated members.
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