Copyright 2001 The Atlanta Constitution  
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
August 7, 2001 Tuesday, Today's News Edition
SECTION: News; Pg. 1A

LENGTH: 456 words

HEADLINE: Pair will attempt to clone humans;
Scientific first: An Italian doctor and an American researcher say they will implant cloned human embryos in 200 women in the next few months.

SOURCE: FROM OUR NEWS SERVICES

BODY:
Washington --- An Italian doctor and a U.S. researcher claim they will implant cloned human embryos in 200 volunteer women within the next few months, an effort that would mark the first known attempt at human cloning.

The researchers, Dr. Severino Antinori, a well-known Italian fertility doctor, and Panos Zavos of Lexington, Ky., had announced plans in January to clone couples who cannot have children by other means. On Monday, they said they would begin producing cloned embryos in November with the goal of initiating pregnancies in 200 women, including some from the United States.

The researchers said they would lay out more details at a conference on cloning at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington beginning today.

The researchers have refused to say where they will conduct the work but that it would not be in the United States. Human cloning is illegal in much of Europe and would require Food and Drug Administration approval in the United States. Antinori told the Italian newspaper La Stampa that 1,300 U.S. couples and 200 in Italy were being considered for the project.

"Ours will be an experiment of therapeutic cloning for those couples who have no hope of having children," La Stampa quoted Antinori as saying. Because cloning would be illegal in Italy, he has said he would do the work in an unnamed Mediterranean country.

Cloning is a process of producing a genetic twin of an existing organism. In mammals, it entails using DNA from an adult to create an embryo, which is then implanted in a surrogate mother and grown to term. Cows, goats, mice and other animals have been cloned, but the process often produces embryos that fail to grow or animals with diseases and deformities.

"I don't know anybody reasonable or rational who thinks they should be going forward with this," said Anthony Mazzaschi, assistant vice president for research at the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The planned cloning attempt could add a wrinkle to the debate in Congress over whether to bar the procedure.

There is broad support in Congress for barring the use of cloning to produce children . But lawmakers are split over whether medical researchers should be allowed to use cloning in an attempt to grow replacement tissues for patients with diabetes, Parkinson's disease and other disorders.

Last week, the House passed legislation that would make human cloning a felony offense that could bring a 10-year prison term and civil penalties of more than $1 million. The legislation applies both to cloning as a reproductive technique and medical research tool.

But some senators want to preserve cloning as a research tool, according to lobbyists and congressional aides.

LOAD-DATE: August 08, 2001