From www.bioethics.gov/transcripts.html,
transcript for April 25, 2002
http://www.bioethics.gov/meetings/200204/0425.doc
Cloning
creates human "embryo," acknowledges leading stem-cell
researcher
Dr. John Gearhart of
Johns Hopkins University, one of the discoverers of
human embryonic stem
cells, told the President's Council on Bioethics on
April 25, 2002, that he
thinks the product of cloning is and should be
called an "embryo." He
said:
"I know that you are grappling
with this [question of whether a cloned
embryo created in the lab is the same
thing as an embryo produced by egg and
sperm, and whether we should call it
an "embryo"], but anything that you
construct at this point in time that has
the properties of those structures
to me is an embryo, and we should not be
changing vocabulary at this point
in time. It doesn't change some of
the ethical issues involved."