Debating the cloning of a human embryo

Europe, Canada and the United States respond to the controversial new experiment

The final barrier has been crossed. Human cloning is science fiction no more; it's reality. The U.S.-based Advanced Cell Technology announced recently the successful cloning of a human embryo, specifying that this technique will only be applied for therapeutic purposes, i.e. for producing stem cells.
This means that the embryo will only be created in order to obtain cells and tissues from it, and not implanted for growing a human organism. The results of the experiment, published in the authoritative Journal of Regenerative Medicine, represent a fundamental milestone for medicine because from now on it will be possible to re-program some peculiar human cells (called "undifferentiated") in order to turn them into tissues and organs for transplants. In particular, this could solve the problems of rejection, because laboratory-prepared cells will be perfectly compatible with those of the patient. The possibilities explored by U.S. scientists include therapies for curing diabetes, ictus, cancer, AIDS, and some other degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
Most of the controversy about cloning arises from bio-ethical considerations, and of course this latest development will fan the flames. Cloning humans in order to "duplicate" them is forbidden around the world.
In 1997, the European Union expressed its opposition, and the U.S. Congress voted to stop the experiments. However, federal law in the U.S.A. only forbids publicly funded experiments. Advanced Cell Technology, on the other hand, is a private corporation operating with funds out of its shareholders' pockets.
In Italy the ban is total: even experimenting on animals is illegal, at least until the end of 2001. The only two exceptions concern the cloning of genetically modified animals in order to obtain innovative pharmaceuticals and the cloning of endangered species.
Not everyone, however, has given up the idea of "photocopying" humans. The first rebel was Roman gynaecologist Severino Antinori, of Rome's Istituto Internazionale Associato di Ricerca, who announced that he would begin human cloning experiments with 200 sterile couples shortly after the ban. He's collaborating with Panos Zavos, director of Lexington's Institute of Andrology.

Someone is working on this project in the Bahamas Islands as well, French scientist Brigitte Boisselier who's affiliated with the Raelian sect and working for a biotechnology firm called Clonaid. The Raelians are a religious sect that maintains that human beings were originally cloned by extraterrestrial scientists and that cloning would allow people to live forever. They number about 50,000 all over the world.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress has invited one of the scientists behind the announcement, Jose Cibelli, a young researcher of Italian heritage who graduated in Argentina, to the White House.
Cibelli, who's specialized in veterinary and animal cloning technologies, is the vice president of Advanced Cell Technology, a company where all the key roles are filled by young people of Italian origin. Dr. Cibelli was working in collaboration with Dr. Robert Lanza who years ago had the title of 'genius' bestowed upon him by the MacArthur Foundation.
Cibelli said he looked forward to meeting the politicians and experts of the U.S. Congress with trust: "I hope they will understand." According to the scientist, "a gate has been opened in the right direction, and wonderful and unexpected consequences will flow from it, changing the face of medicine".

Publication Date: 2001-12-09
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=713