Cloning May Be a Question of When, Not

[Guest guest]

This was in Reuters News today,

Bill

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011228/sc/science_cloning_dc_1.html

Friday December 28 7:16 AM ET

Cloning May Be a Question of When, Not

If

By Reaney

LONDON (Reuters) - Religious groups are appalled

by it, some

scientists think it is inevitable and doctors

believe the technology will

hasten the search for new methods to treat

incurable illnesses.

Like it or not, cloning is an issue set to

dominate the political agenda,

scientific research, newspaper headlines and

dinner party conversations

for the foreseeable future.

Whether it is reproductive cloning to enable the

infertile to become

parents or therapeutic cloning to create embryos

so scientists can mine

them for stem cells, the master cells of the

body, few issues are as

emotive.

The word conjures up images of armies of

identical people, or

desperate couples or partners wanting to

replicate lost loved ones.

News that U.S. biotechnology company Advanced

Cell Technology

(ACT) had recently cloned a human embryo was met

with outrage,

skepticism and scientific consensus that it was

premature to claim such

an achievement.

The tragic events of September 11 put human

cloning and the rapid

pace of science back in the headlines and

brought home the point that it

is probably a question of when, not if.

``I think it is inevitable, unfortunately. I

give it about five years,'' said

Alan of PPL Therapeutics, the ish

firm that helped to

create Dolly, the cloned sheep, in 1996.

``There will be people who attempt it. I think

it will prove to be rather

unsuccessful generally and my big fear is that

the people who attempt it

will be the least competent to do it. The most

competent just wouldn't

do it,'' he told Reuters.

HUGE INTELLECTUAL CHALLENGE

ACT produced one six-cell embryo which is a long

way from even a

blastocyst, a cluster of 100-150 cells from

which stem cells can be

extracted.

believes ACT was ill-advised to release

the information and

said it confirms the difficulty of transferring

animal work to humans.

ACT said it was not trying to clone a human but

to produce stem cells

to cure diseases such as Alzheimer's,

Parkinson's, diabetes, cancer and

AIDS (news - web sites).

Other researchers including Italian fertility

specialist Severino Antinori,

who helped a 62-year-old woman become a mother,

and American

scientist Dr. Seed have both publicly

expressed their desire to

clone a human.

Seed believes it will be impossible to stop

human cloning because it is

such a huge intellectual challenge.

and many other scientists say that apart

from any other moral

or ethical issues, it is simply too dangerous

because of the risk of

miscarriage and creating deformed fetuses.

It took many unsuccessful attempts before sheep,

cattle, mice, pigs and

goats were cloned successfully.

``My particularly viewpoint is that in making it

safe, the experimentation

that is involved in refining the procedures is

in itself immoral. I don't think

one should get over the safety issue because it

is immoral to try,''

said.

Despite his reservations and fears, said

ultimately someone

might be successful.

STILL A LONG WAY AWAY

Other scientists, including Dr. Ann McLaren of

the Wellcome CRC Institute in Cambridge, England, believe human

reproductive cloning is still a long way away because of the safety

concerns.

``Nobody will seriously consider trying

reproductive cloning in humans until the animal research has got much

further along the safety and efficiency lines,'' McLaren told Reuters.

In the meantime, she thinks there will be more

discussion as to whether there are certain scenarios in which human

reproductive cloning could be ethical. The results may differ between

countries, she added.

King, of the independent monitoring group

GeneWatch UK, believes a global ban on reproductive cloning will be in

force before scientists overcome the technical challenges.

Therapeutic cloning -- creating embryos for a

supply of stem cells that can be used for research or therapy -- may be

just as far off.

``There is nothing therapeutic about the cloning

itself -- it is just a step to making stem cells, which can then be used

therapeutically,'' McLaren explained.

Many scientists believe stem cells, either from

embryos or adults, offer tremendous potential to treat diseases and that

research on both types of stem cells should proceed.

Terry, a senior policy adviser at the

world's largest medical charity the Wellcome Trust, said embryonic stem

cells are easier to isolate and have the most potential to differentiate

to other cell types.

Even if human reproductive cloning becomes a

reality, Terry does not believe it will become common.

``The majority of people seem to have an

instinctive reaction, which is the yuck factor, which I think will

prevail,'' he said.