(Circulation. 1998;97:1889.)
© 1998 American Heart Association, Inc.
Legislation of Human Cloning in the United States
Ruth SoRelle, Circulation Newswriter
The United States scientific community
dodged a bullet in the Senate earlier this year when an attempt by
Senate Republican leaders to ban human cloning failed.
The bill's sponsors, Sen Christopher S. Bond, R-Mo, and Sen Bill
Frist, R-Tenn, wanted to send the bill directly to a vote, avoiding the
usual procedure of sending the legislation to a committee for study and
possible hearings.
Republicans and Democrats joined to prevent the action. But the bill
itself would have banned what it called human "somatic cell nuclear
transfer," the procedure that resulted in the cloned sheep, Dolly, in
Scotland last year.
An opposing bill sponsored by Sen Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif, and Sen
Edward Kennedy, D-Mass, would allow laboratory work but for the next 10
years would prevent transfer of a cloned embryo to a woman's
uterus.
Matthew P. Scott, PhD, found himself in the middle of controversy
earlier this year when he was asked to review both bills in his role as
President of the Society of Experimental Biology. "Who would dream
that this obscure society would be drawn into the debate over
legislation on human cloning?" he said during a conversation with
medical students earlier this year.
He called the Republican-sponsored bill "chilling," not only
because it was a total ban but because it also called for criminal
penalties for those who violated it. He called the Feinstein-Kennedy
bill "acceptable."
But he called the concern over human cloning overblown at this point.
"You don't have to deal with the ethical issues," he said. "The
safety ones are enough.
"The odds of creating an extremely damaged child are very high," he
said. Yet the controversy over cloning arose again when a Chicago
physicist, Richard Seed, said he was attempting to set up a cloning lab
in an effort to produce children for infertile couples.
"It is unfortunate when legislators get into these things," said Dr
Scott. But perhaps that is inevitable, and he said scientists must
voice support for laws that would allow research to continue without
violating national mores.
The Association for American Medical Colleges (AAMC) called for a
voluntary moratorium on cloning of human beings as an alternative to
legislation that might impede scientific progress. In a press
conference, Herbert Pardes, MD, dean of Columbia University College of
Physicians and Surgeons, said the AAMC also supported the US Food and
Drug Administration's assertion that it could regulate human
cloning.
Voluntary moratoriums have worked in the past. In the 1970s, the
scientific community itself declared a moratorium on new research into
genetic engineering. The scientific community adopted guidelines that
would ensure safety, and work proceeded within those
parameters.
The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology has
announced adoption of a voluntary 5-year ban on cloning human beings.
The society proposes revisiting the moratorium after the 5-year period
with the possibility that it could be extended.
The birth of Dolly generated a wealth of controversy. President Clinton
quickly instituted a ban on federal funding for human cloning attempts.
The President also asked the National Bioethics Advisory Commission to
study cloning and issue a report. In its report, the commission wrote,
"at this time, it is morally unacceptable for anyone in the public or
private sector ... to attempt to create a child using somatic cell
nuclear transfer cloning."
The commission said the risks to fetus and mother were unknown and
unacceptable and recommended legislation "to prohibit anyone from
attempting, whether in a research or clinical setting, to create a
child through somatic cell nuclear cloning.
"It is critical, however, that such legislation include a sunset
clause to ensure that Congress will review the issue after a specified
period of time ... and that any legislation should be carefully
written so as not to interfere with other important areas of scientific
research."
John B. Gurdon, DPhil, performed pioneering work in frogs that laid the
groundwork for the cloning of Dolly. "The Dolly experiment was not
primarily designed to excite all these anxieties. You can't clone Ross
Perot."
He pointed out that such experiments are fraught with peril. "The
great majority of these experiments produce abnormal embryos," he
said. In the United Kingdom, he said, human cloning would have to
undergo rigorous review by licensing authorities. He predicted that if
someone wanted to clone a human, the licensing authority would find no
good reason to do so.
"I would regret any legislation that would say you can't do
experiments with human material," Dr Gurdon said.
