International Center for Technology Assessment

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SIX REASONS NOT TO SUPPORT THE NEW

KENNEDY-SPECTER-FEINSTEIN BILL

While many social conservatives oppose all forms of human embryo cloning for religious and ethical reasons, they are not alone in supporting at least a temporary halt in cloning embryos for research. A number of those in the progressive community have several major concerns about “therapeutic” cloning. The bill (S. 2439) introduced by Senators Specter, Kennedy, Feinstein, et al on April 30, 2002 does not deal with these concerns; nor does an earlier bill (S. 2076) introduced by Sen. Dorgan. Environmentalists, consumer groups, women’s and children’s health advocates all want to see legislation that addresses these unprecedented regulatory and ethical questions before any human embryo cloning for research is allowed. These issues include:

I. Cloning human embryos for research raises the key ethical issue of whether we should intentionally create any human life form solely for its exploitation and destruction.

As a human community we have never supported creating any human life form simply for its exploitation and destruction. Infertility clinics may on occasion have surreptitiously experimented on, and destroyed, human embryos in their care. However, there has never been government approval and support for an industry in the creation of a human life form solely to harvest it for “spare parts.” The slippery slope here is obvious. If cloned embryos are not efficient for stem cell production, there will no doubt be a call for allowing theses embryos to gestate up to several weeks so that stem cells can more easily be garnered. If this is not successful, then there may be a call for voluntary implantation of such clones in surrogate mothers for several month gestation to be followed by voluntary abortion and stem cell harvesting. The ultimate nightmare is the use of cloned “neo-morts,” “brain dead” late term fetuses or newborns kept alive and growing as research tools or sources for valuable human cells or tissues. Certainly, there should be public hearings and wide ranging public participation on this key ethical issue before any human embryo cloning for research is allowed.

II. An unregulated industry and market in the production of cloned human embryos will inevitably lead to reproductive cloning.

Those supporting a ban on reproductive cloning but no restrictions on “therapeutic” cloning fail to understand the important relationship between the two. Research cloning could in the future create tens of thousands of cloned human embryos. With this huge supply and a complete absence of oversight or regulation, it is virtually inevitable that the “legal” cloned embryos will be used for illegal reproductive cloning. It is therefore legislative negligence to ban reproductive cloning while allowing an unlimited supply of cloned embryos to enter the marketplace and be available to hundreds of virtually unregulated infertility clinics. Moreover, enforcing a human cloning ban at the stage of implantation is impractical, and perhaps impossible. Once a woman is pregnant with a clone how is she to be stopped. Do we put her in prison while pregnant, or seize the cloned child as an illegal product? Clearly, the time for restriction and enforcement is when the embryos are first cloned. Therefore, if research cloning is found to be ethically acceptable (see above) it should only take place after the promulgation of regulations which (1) denote a limited number of approved laboratories and researchers; (2) mandate strict supervision and monitoring; and( 3) require an unbroken record of custody of each and every cloned embryo from creation to destruction.

III. As currently envisioned cloning of human embryos for research represents a serious threat to women’s health.

In recent testimony, one researcher stated that stem cells might be able to provide up to 1.7 million therapies per year. This would require a minimum of 5-8 million human eggs per year - assuming a very optimistically high success rate of 1 stem cell culture out of 3-5 clonal embryos. Where will researchers get these millions of eggs? From women in this country or abroad, and it is highly likely that many of these women will have to become repeat donors. Egg donation can have significant health impacts on women. Of particular concern are (1) the super-ovulating drugs that women are given in order to provide the eggs for embryo cloning, (2) numerous hormone treatments given to ease egg extraction, and (3) the extraction process itself. Risks to women from egg donation include a potential link to ovarian cysts and cancers, severe pelvic pain, rupture of the ovaries, bleeding into the abdominal cavity, acute respiratory distress, pulmonary embolism, and possible negative effects on future fertility. Most women who are lured into this process are economically disenfranchised and perform this operation because they are in financial need and seek payment for their eggs. These “coerced” women, therefore, are in a poor position to give their informed consent and accurately assess the impacts of these procedures on their short and long term health. Given this scenario, there must be federal legislation prohibiting the sale of human eggs and monitoring the health impacts of egg donation prior to any approval for research embryo cloning.

IV. An unregulated industry in cloned human embryos could lead to unacceptable commodification of human life.

As described above, research cloning of embryos could turn thousands of women into paid egg “factories.” Further, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has already announced that cloned human embryos would be patentable. Additionally, there is currently no bar on the sale, export or import of human embryos. Clearly, if we sold the Congressional Medal of Honor we would degrade the meaning of this honor. If the Nobel Prize we up for sale it would cease to have meaning. If we buy and sell children we corrupt and demean the meaning of parenthood. If we allow the patenting and sale of human embryos and human eggs we corrupt and demean what it means to be human. Prior to any cloning of human embryos for research there must be legislation passed banning the sale and patenting of human embryos.

V. Human embryo cloning for research could deprive us of our choice on when, how and where our genetic heritage will be replicated.

Researchers may be able to clone “copies” of any individual by using cells from that person’s hair, blood, or virtually any other tissue, without that person’s knowledge or consent. There have already been several legal cases where patients have had their cells turned into valuable cell lines without their knowledge. Unless there is legislatively mandated monitoring of each and every cloned embryo no person can be sure whether their unique genetic makeup may be being replicated in any number of cloned embryos which are being patented and sold, and perhaps even brought to term. This represents a significant reproductive “choice” issue for all of us, especially for those whose religious or moral beliefs find human cloning in any form unacceptable. Before any cloning of human embryos for research is sanctioned the must be legislation or regulation requiring the informed consent of any person whose cells may be used to create cloned human embryos.

VI. Research cloning of embryos may divert valuable health research dollars away form proven methods into highly speculative ones.

There are only limited research and health dollars available. Diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s are complex in origin. Genetic predisposition, environmental pollution, diet, stress and social habits (such as smoking) all can contribute to disease. While it is tempting to believe that such “magic bullets” as gene therapy, fetal tissue or stem cells from cloned embryos will be the “magic bullet” to cure our most pernicious diseases and disabilities, this view is naive. Many of these past “miracle” cures have become dangerous, over-hyped mirages that actually hurt and even killed patients. As for stem cells from cloned embryos, no one has succeeded in garnering any stem cells from such embryos. We have seen in the past that prevention is the best policy when dealing with major diseases or disabilities. This means significant contribution of resources to cleaning up the environment and work places, educating about diet and lifestyle, working to reduce poverty and changing some of our unhealthy compulsive habits. While prevention may not be a good “handle” to raise venture capital, it (unlike speculative and hazardous “miracle cures”) has a proven record of success. As summed up in the congressional testimony of a researcher in spinal cord injuries, “No experimental studies have been published using cloned cells in the treatment of spinal cord injury.” Even if one were to set aside the ethical problems that many have raised about experimental cloning, efforts to produce cloned embryos have produced frequent genetic mutations and had only limited success (reaching only the 6-cell stage in humans). Moreover, this line of research would only divert the very limited funding for the treatment of spinal cord injury from the most promising areas of research” (emphases in the original).