CLONED BABIES `WILL BE BORN WITHIN 10 YEARS'
PA 10.06.97 00:11
Copyright 1997 PA News. Copying, storing, redistribution,
retransmission, publication, transfer or commerical exploitation
of this information is expressly forbidden.
By Roger Williams, PA News
A British expert on the ethics of cloning tonight warned that a
new decision by President Clinton could allow cloned babies to be
born within 10 years to meet "tremendous demand".
He was speaking after the US president proposed a five-year ban
on human cloning, but talked only of voluntary restraint on
private sector laboratory work on human embryos.
"This is a complete and utter public relations fudge,"
said Dr Patrick Dixon, author of books including The Genetic
Revolution.
"If this is adopted, I firmly predict that you will have
cloned human babies born within 10 years.
"There is tremendous pressure, growing week by week, from
people who have all kinds of reasons -- from infertility to
megalomania -- for wanting clones of themselves or their loved
ones."
Mr Clinton was speaking after considering the report of a US
ethics commission, ordered in February after scientists in
Scotland announced that they had created a cloned lamb called
Dolly from a single cell taken from an adult sheep.
He said at the White House that cloning a human being would be
"morally unacceptable", but his planned new law would
not bar laboratory cloning research that stops short of producing
a baby.
The commission said embryo cloning research could lead to great
medical and agricultural advances.
The president warned that cloning children "could lead to
misguided and malevolent attempts to select certain traits, even
to create certain kind of children, to make our children objects
rather than cherished individuals".
Dr Dixon told PA News: "He is using emotional language to
reassure ordinary people, but I predict that what will happen is
this:
"The technology of producing cloned embryos will be
developed in US laboratories, but the babies will be born outside
the US, in countries where there is no legislation to prevent the
birth of an embryo once it has been created.
"This is something we may live to regret. It is clear that
we are only a few steps from being able to produce a baby which
is identical to an adult."
Dr Dixon said "macabre results", could include:
:: Demand, perhaps from a grieving family, for a clone of someone
who has just died, using cells appropriately frozen in life or
grown in cell culture.
:: An egocentric dictator, planning a Hitler-style super race,
could implant large numbers of identical embryos into women, who
might believe they were receiving conventional embryos during
infertility treatment.
:: Someone could use suitable cells, or even blood, taken from a
musical prodigy without his or her knowledge, to create their own
talented child.
He called for a world summit of politicians, scientists,
religious leaders and lay people to consider the huge ethical
minefield opened up by cloning research.
"I think there should be a complete moratorium on all human
cloning experiments until there has been time for a proper public
debate," said Dr Dixon. "We have to consider where all
this could lead."