Friends of the Earth -U.S. on Cloning and Inheritable Genetic Modification

Friends of the Earth is concerned about the genetic engineering of all life. Genetic engineering poses the threat of biological pollution - a new form of pollution that moves and multiplies and cannot be recalled. Genetic engineering can create changes that are widespread, enduring and irreversible. Production of multiple copies of an individual or engineering of inheritable modifications could adversely affect entire species and ecosystems. Therefore,

We are opposed to reproductive cloning and genetic engineering of inheritable traits in human beings and animals.

Friends of the Earth is not opposed to genetic changes that affect an individual but are not inheritable (termed "somatic engineering"). Such changes hold promise, for example, as medical therapies and do not pose a threat of passing on potentially harmful or species-altering traits.

Unfortunately, our legal system has not caught up with the new genetic technologies. There are no laws or regulations in place, for instance, to prevent human embryos cloned for therapeutic medical research from being used for human reproduction. Therefore,

We support a moratorium on human embryo cloning for therapeutic uses until there are:

1. A ban on reproductive cloning

2. Severe criminal penalties for human reproductive cloning

3. Regulatory controls to prevent the exportation of cloned embryos for human reproduction

4. Federal government oversight of laboratories that plan to investigate therapeutic cloning

Friends of the Earth supports research into various therapeutic approaches that do not involve cloned human embryos. These include adult stem cell development and direct tissue regeneration.