Copyright 2001 The Denver Post Corporation The Denver
Post
December 2, 2001 Sunday 1ST EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A-01
LENGTH: 984 words
HEADLINE:
Scientists divided over human cloning
BYLINE: By Allison Sherry, Denver Post Medical Writer, First of
two parts,
BODY: Curt Freed has
studied cloned cow embryos before. He has taken the tiniest of
samples and successfully injected them into mice with Parkinson's
disease.
And the only thing keeping Freed from
acquiring cloned human embryos in his quest to stamp out the
crippling disease is a ban on using federal money for human-cloning research.
But just a
building away, most of Freed's colleagues who are working on
stem-cell research are distancing themselves from human cloning, which returned to the limelight last
week with the announcement by Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell
Technology that it had cloned a couple of dozen human embryos.
The announcement clearly rekindled the division within
the worldwide scientific community about the supposed benefits
of cloning human beings.
'I don't think
society should be afraid of research,' said Freed, a professor of
pharmacology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.
But Ronald Gill, director of the University of
Colorado Hospital's transplant immunology program, says he knows
precisely where he'd 'draw the line in the sand.'
'You can't create a human being for science,' he said.
Some see cloning as a step toward finding an alternative
to organ transplants. Transplants work when a patient can find
an organ that matches, but that happens only 20 percent of the
time.
If patients with chronic heart disease could
receive a cloned heart made from cells with their own DNA, scientists
like Freed say that would be ideal. No chance of rejection. No more
long waits for a donor.
Others see cloning
as a dangerous road to a mad-science world where babies are spawned
just for the parts.
Clones fatally flawed
Some researchers argue that no one yet knows whether
cloning will benefit science and medicine. So far, cloned pigs, cows,
mice and sheep are fatally flawed. Some scientists ask that
since humans are more complicated, genetically, than other animals,
what is the likelihood of hatching a healthy human clone?
Wouldn't energy and private money be better served in another
arena?
The U.S. Senate, meantime, is under growing
pressure to consider legislation, similar to a bill passed by the
House in July, that would ban human cloning either for reproduction
or to create tissue for treating disease.
Congress has barred all federal funding for any research
that involves the destruction of human embryos, including cloning.
For Gill, last week's announcement by Advanced
Cell Technology was scary, he said.
Gill is
trying to discover a cure for diabetes from embryonic stem cells as
part of his work at CU's Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes.
He hopes that someday healthy insulin cells taken from a stem-cell
line could be given to diabetics, curing them of the disease.
Cloning hurts his cause, he said. 'I don't think the
average person can differentiate between stem-cell research and
cloning. The danger is it gets lumped together, and people will think
we have all these amoral scientists getting together doing
their thing and they don't care.
'That is
not the case.'
Research shows promise
Stem-cell research shows promise in helping most
degenerative diseases. President Bush gave a limited nod to it in
August, declaring federal funds can be spent only to study 64
existing lines.
Researchers hope that an
embryonic stem cell could produce endless healthy cells for whatever
the malady - Parkinson's, diabetes, burn victims.
All cells have different jobs. For the stem-cell research
to work, the necessary cells - like ones in charge of skin
production - would have to be isolated, replicated and injected into
the patient.
But what stem cells don't have
is the capability to match the DNA of the patient, which is
troublesome if that person needs a whole heart or a large sheet of
skin. With no DNA match, the patient could reject an organ grown from
an embryonic stem cell.
With cloning, however, the
organ would be genetically tailored to fit the patient.
None of this has happened yet. Which is why Ian
McNiece, director of research for the bone-marrow transplant program
at CU, shies away even from embryonic stem-cell research. His
alternative is mining bone marrow from healthy donor adults, and
giving it to his patients.
'(Cloning) is a
big step,' McNiece said. 'It will not solve all our problems. Are you
going to have factories where we make people and take what you need
and throw the rest away? I don't think that should happen.'
'Baby factories'
Neither does
Freed.
He doesn't believe that anyone thinks 'baby
factories' are the answer, which is why he is not afraid of what
the Massachusetts scientists have done so far. Often, he
argues, biological innovations make politicians and the public
squirm before they become mainstream. And often it is private money
- like that given to cloning and embryonic stem-cell research -
that is spent for the initial breakthroughs, he said.
Even the first kidney taken from a cadaver 40 years ago
for transplant was greeted with shock and ire, and now
organ transplants are mainstream. Artificial insemination and
in-vitro fertilization suffered the same mad-science reputation at
one time. Now the discipline of helping infertile couples reproduce
is well respected.
But cloning crosses the
line, said Susan Klock, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and
psychology at Northwestern University.
The
controversy surrounding in-vitro fertilization 20 years ago existed
only because people didn't understand the benefits, she said.
'People were worried: Would these moms be OK? Would
these parents be OK?' she said. 'Once people found out everyone was
OK, it was fine.'
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: The Denver Post/Lyn Alweis A mouse being used in
stem-cell research at the CU Health Sciences Center will have mouse stem cells
injected into its brain to regrow brain cells. USA TODAY/Julie Snider How
stem-cell technology works and the ethical questions it raises KRT/Elsebeth
Nielsen, Morten Lyhne, Todd Lindeman Therapeutic cloning
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