Copyright 2001 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA)
November 27, 2001 Tuesday
SECTION: NATIONAL; Pg. 1
LENGTH:
1211 words
HEADLINE:Human
cloning draws criticism; But experts say failure won't stop
future tries
BYLINE: By Coleman Warner; Staff
writer
BODY: This weekend's
announcement that a small biotechnology firm in Massachusetts had created human
embryos through cloning fanned an ongoing ethical and moral debate nationally
and in Louisiana, where experts said they were unimpressed with the results.
Catholic leaders in New Orleans and at the Vatican
denounced the creation of such embryos, which would be used for medical
research.
"In the name of the sacredness of all life we
must call for an end to all such experimentation as well as a sound social moral
policy which protects life in all its forms," said a statement released by the
Archdiocese of New Orleans.
Advanced Cell Technology of
Worcester, Mass., said the goal of the privately financed research wasn't
creating a human being but advancing therapeutic cloning, which involves the
creation of stem cells that could be used in rebuilding diseased or damaged
human tissues.
President Bush issued a policy in
August that restricts federally financed stem cell research to existing stem
cell lines, created by in vitro fertilization. Embryonic stem cells created
through cloning do not qualify under the Bush policy, and the president was
clear Monday in his condemnation of the experiment, regardless of who financed
it.
"The use of embryos to clone is wrong," Bush said.
"We should not, as a society, grow life to destroy it, and that's exactly what
is taking place."
But the company said the embryos it
created died quickly, before stem cells developed, an admission that left local
experts wondering why the research warranted much attention.
"This is just saying they're trying to do the experiments," said Darwin
Prockop, director of Tulane University's Center for Gene Therapy, which has
focused its research on the less controversial field of adult stem cells. "This
experiment did not work. (It) doesn't prove it won't work in the future, and it
truly demonstrates that they're trying, but contrary to quotes from people in
the company, this experiment failed."
Therapeutic
goals
The advancement of research on the medical uses
of embryonic cells, even without government support, was praised by Prockop and
Richard Denniston, a faculty member at Louisiana State University who has been
involved in cloning goats and cows.
Though he saw
little basis for claims of a breakthrough, Denniston said debate of Sunday's
announcement is healthy and inevitable.
"Society has to
decide how different technologies are utilized," he said. "My understanding is
that the objective of ACT (Advanced Cell Technology) is in the area of what's
generally termed therapeutic cloning. I don't think their specific objective is
to reproduce humans. I think a distinction between those two needs to be
made."
The researchers at the Worcester biotechnology
company say their goal was to develop stem cells, which can grow into virtually
any other cell, such as muscle, nerves or skin, and serve as replacement tissue
to treat a variety of diseases.
They say they created
the embryos by starting with a donated unfertilized egg. They removed its
nucleus and replaced it with an adult cumulus cell, complete with its genetic
material. Cumulus cells normally help nurture eggs as they develop.
The researchers also created a more advanced embryo, known
as a blastocyst, in a process called parthenogenesis. They bathed an
unfertilized egg cell with chemicals that changed its concentration of charged
particles, reprogramming it to form an embryo.
Dr.
Richard Dickey, founder and medical director of the Fertility Institute of New
Orleans, said society must face the reality that researchers are steadily
testing the limits of how human cells can be used to treat disease, and that
judgments must be made about when a "cell mass" can be defined as a human life.
But Dickey said far too much was made of the Massachusetts firm's
announcement.
"This man has in fact not done a cloning.
He has not made stem cells, which is what one has to have in order to use it in
therapeutic fashion," Dickey said. "This is primarily a publicity stunt to get
money for his company. Human cloning probably will occur, but it will not come
from this outfit."
Ethics and experiments
But even if experts don't hold the research in high
regard, the announcement has sparked new discussion about the ethics of such
experiments and the appropriate reach of governmental controls.
U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-Chackbay, said Monday that he was alarmed.
"This is very dangerous stuff they're doing," he said. "It
will open the door to abuses and the prospect of reproductive cloning."
Tauzin said researchers may find that a wide range of
medical needs can be met without dabbling in the controversial world of
embryonic stem cells. He said the Energy and Commerce Committee that he leads is
looking into research on so-called "spore-like cells," the building blocks to
stem cells, which have been used to regenerate spinal chords in rats.
The House voted 265-162 to ban cloning in July, after
attempts by some lawmakers to exempt research. The issue was raised in the
Senate this month, but a showdown was avoided after leaders promised extensive
hearings in the spring. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said the president is
urging the Senate to pass the House legislation "as a result of this first
crossing of the line."
A spokesman for Senate Majority
Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said the senator has no plans to bring the issue up
before adjournment.
However, Sen. Sam Brownback,
R-Kan., held out the threat of delaying other bills until the issue is
addressed. "We don't know who else in the country is working on the issue of
human cloning," he said. "This needs to be stopped."
Allow research, some say
Supporters of cloning
for research urged the Senate not to act hastily. They said it is possible to
ban human cloning without limiting research.
"It really
is a horrendous thing to stop this research," said Rep. Jim Greenwood, R-Pa.,
the author of an unsuccessful House bill that would have permitted cloning for
research. "These people are treating this issue the way they treated Copernicus
and Galileo."
The Rev. William Maestri, a professor of
moral philosophy at Notre Dame Seminary, said Catholic teaching doesn't allow
for the creation of an embryo which would then be destroyed in order to provide
stem cells for other uses, even if they involved treatment of medical
problems.
"Catholic social teaching is clear and
consistent on the particular area: that human life in all of its forms is
sacred, that human life begins at the moment of conception, and that we are
really not allowed to create human life in order to destroy human life," he
said.
But Rabbi Robert Loewy of the Congregation Gates
of Prayer in Metairie said that while the use of cloning techniques to replace
damaged human tissue raises difficult questions, the field of inquiry has vast
potential.
"We've been created with the ability to
create all sorts of sources of healing," he said, "and cloning may be another
tool in the human arsenal for dealing with a wide range of illnesses and
problems."
Staff writer Bill Walsh and The
Associated Press contributed to this report.
Coleman Warner can be reached at cwarner@timespicayune.com or (504)
826-3311.
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