LONDON ––
A panel of experts urged the government to allow human cloning
for scientific study of transplants, a recommendation that, if
approved, would make Britain the first country in the world to
authorize human cloning for any purpose.
In calling
for Britain to amend its ban on human cloning, the government-commissioned
panel said scientists should be allowed to create cloned embryos
to study the manufacture of cells and tissues for transplant.
The government
accepted the panel's recommendation, led by Britain's chief medical
officer, and said it would initiate legislation to implement it
as soon as possible.
Ethical concerns
have tempered many countries' consideration of cloning technology.
"We're
talking about research at this stage, not treatment," cautioned
Dr. Liam Donaldson, Britain's chief medical officer.
The key benefit
of cloning for transplants comes from what are known as "stem
cells" – the parent cells of all the human body's cells,
which go on to form most of its cells and tissues.
An embryo
is essentially a ball of stem cells that evolves into a fetus
when the stem cells start specializing to create a nervous system,
spine and other features. Scientists hope that by extracting the
stem cells from the embryo before they start to specialize, their
growth can be directed in a lab to become any desired cell or
tissue type.
"There
is major, major medical potential, but we need medical research
to see whether this potential can be realized," Donaldson
said.
The promise
is that one day it will be possible to grow neurons to replace
nerve cells in a brain killed by Parkinson's disease, skin to
repair burns, and pancreatic cells to produce insulin for diabetics.
Scientists
would create a clone of a sick person by taking one of the patient's
cells. When the embryo is a few days old, they then would extract
the stem cells, which would be genetically identical to the patient's
and therefore theoretically overcome problems of transplant rejection.
Transplants
often fail because the body recognizes the donated organ as foreign
and uses the immune system to fight it as if it were an invader.
Since human
stem cells were isolated in a lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
for the first time in 1998, advances in the field have come rapidly.
Scientists
have been able to extract stem cells from embryos and grow them
until they become sorted into muscle cells and neurons.
They also
have been able to make bone marrow cells turn into liver cells,
offering hope that cells from adults can be made to regress and
redirect themselves to form different types, without the need
to create an embryo.
"That
is the ultimate goal," Donaldson said. "Scientists believe
research in embryonic stem cells is vital to getting that breakthrough."
Britain allows
scientists to conduct research on embryos up to 14 days old for
certain disorders, but does not allow them to be created by cloning.
In its report
published Wednesday, the expert panel proposed keeping the 14-day
rule and introducing new legislation to reinforce the nation's
ban on creating cloned babies.
Cloning should
be allowed only if there were no other way to conduct the research,
the report said.
The prospect
of human cloning is contentious because, while it is widely recognized
that developing the technique could lead to the prevention and
cure of scores of diseases, opponents say there are ethical issues
involved in creating embryos for the manufacture of what they
refer to as "spare body parts."
Opponents
were quick to denounce the report's recommendations.
"It is
a further trivialization of human life. It exploits human beings
at the most vulnerable stage of their lives," said a statement
for the group Life, which opposes abortion and cloning. "We
do not need human cloning. We are on the brink of a major revolution
in medicine using adult stem cells."
The vote on
the legislation is expected to take place in Parliament this fall.
Individual members will be allowed to vote according to their
consciences, instead of being made to follow their party's line.
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