X-Message-Number: 17219
Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2001 19:50:03 -0400
From: James Swayze <>
Subject: More about the cloning of humans debate

Scientists Determined to Clone Humans


Updated: Tue, Aug 07 5:58 PM EDT

By PAUL RECER, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - With angry words and apparent determination, three
researchers told a meeting of scientists Tuesday they are unswayed by
stories of medical risk or by ethical objections and will soon try to clone
human beings.

"I believe we have enough information to proceed with human cloning,"
Brigitte Boisselier told a committee of the National Academy of Sciences. "I
don't believe working with animal cloning will give us much more
information. I think we have enough."

Boisselier, the director of Clonaid, a human cloning company, hinted that
such experiments were already under way. When asked for details, she only
smiled and said: "I am doing it and hope I can publish that soon and share
it with you."

Panayiotis Michael Zavos, director of the Andrology Institute in Lexington,
Ky., and Dr. Severino Antinori of the University of Rome, said they were
proceeding with human cloning research as a means of allowing infertile men
to have children. However, they said they had not yet attempted to clone a
human being.

The comments came during a hearing amid angry exchanges from people on both
sides of the issue. Opponents met in the stately lobby of the National
Academy's building, and under the glare of television lights shouted at each
other. One side contended cloning was a human reproductive right; the other
said it would be an unethical, perhaps dangerous form of human
experimentation.

Earlier, animal cloning researchers said there has been a high level of
failure in experiments, with many animals dying before birth and others born
with abnormalities.

Asked if these problems might be corrected in human cloning experiments,
Alan Colman, director of PPL Therapeutics, made clear his opposition to such
research.

"Practice makes perfect, but it is unethical to practice on humans," said
Colman, whose Scottish lab cloned Dolly, the famous sheep. He said that
attempting human cloning would result in miscarriages, deaths and abnormal
births. "I don't see that it is ethical to take on that practice, now or
forever."

Zavos got into a shouting match when Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch of the Whitehead
Institute in Boston asked if he and other cloning researchers were able to
test human embryos for abnormalities.

As Jaenisch elaborated on his question, Zavos snapped, "I am not going to
let him lecture me."

The National Academy's panel was hearing testimony from the researchers to
gather information for a report. The academy is a private organization of
scientists and engineers. It is chartered by Congress and frequently does
research at the request of government agencies.

Zavos and Antinori told the panel that they wanted to clone humans because
some 70 million males in the world are physically unable to produce children
in any other way.

"We want to make this available only to people who have exhausted all other
possibilities for reproduction," said Zavos.

But Boisselier said she believed cloning was a human right.

"It is a fundamental right to reproduce in any way you want," she said. "If
you want to mix genes with others, then that's your choice. But if you want
to reproduce only with your genes, then it is your right."

In cloning, genes from an adult cell are implanted into a human egg from
which all the genetic material has been removed. The egg is then cultured
into an embryo and implanted in the womb of the mother. The offspring would
have only the genes from the adult cell. The result would be a genetic
duplicate of the
cell donor.

Cloning is opposed by most of the world's scientists, governments and
religions. A bill has passed the U.S. House of Representatives that would
outlaw human cloning and penalize offenders with prison and heavy fines. No
votes have been taken on a companion bill in the Senate.

Dolly, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, was created in Scotland
in 1997. Since then, whole herds of cattle, sheep, pigs and other animals
have been cloned.

Researchers said Tuesday that, despite this experience, the success rate of
cloning is still very low, only about 3 percent in some labs. Experts told
the panel that fundamental flaws appear in cloned animals. Many die in the
womb. Even those successfully born often have abnormalities such as obesity,
congenital
defects, altered muscle structure and changed metabolism.

"We expect half of our cloned animals to die," said Jonathan Hill, a
researcher at Cornell University. Many starve in the womb, he said, because
of placental failures.

Ryuzo Yanagimachi of the University of Hawaii said that even cloned mice
that appear to be normal in his laboratory suffer from faulty gene
expression.

He said the defects may not even manifest themselves in the short life of a
mouse, but they could become serious and life threatening in humans that
live for many decades.
---

I wonder if those in opposition put any thought at all into the thousands of
failed "natural" experiments that occur every year despite our advanced
medicine. Unfortunately the lawmakers have made it necessary to push this
issue at this time.

James
--
From the point of ignition
To the final drive
The point of the journey
is not to arrive --RUSH

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