3- To 5-Year Ban Urged On Cloning Of Humans Panel Says Process Is ‘Morally Unacceptable’ In Current Culture

Any attempt to clone a human child would be “a premature experiment” carrying grave risks of an abnormality, and the technique should be outlawed for at least three to five years, a presidential advisory panel recommended Saturday.

“At this time it is morally unacceptable for anyone in the public or private sector, whether in a research or clinical setting, to attempt to create a child using somatic cell nuclear transfer cloning,” the National Bioethics Advisory Commission said in its final report to the president.

However, the 18-member panel left open the possibility that scientists using private funds would experiment in cloning human embryos.

Currently, federal funds may not be used for research involving human embryos, but privately funded efforts are legal. Although some anti-abortion activists denounced what they called the “clone-and-kill option,” the panel decided against seeking a law prohibiting all research on the cloning of human embryos, so long as the cloned embryos are not implanted in a woman’s womb.

The panel’s cautious, two-track set of recommendations marks the government’s first effort to come to grips with the phenomenon of cloning, or single-sex reproduction. But, if anything, the fact that the panel did not offer a definitive, unambiguous, up-or-down statement on human cloning merely underscores the complex moral and scientific issues raised by the technique.

“We all need more time on this. The message is to keep thinking,” said Alexander M. Capron, a commission member and a University of Southern California professor of law and medicine. “I don’t know where we will come out on this three to five years from now.”

On Feb. 23, cloning moved from science fiction to fact when Scottish scientists announced they had created a sheep named Dolly from the genes of only her mother.

The success in bringing about this “delayed genetic twin” followed 277 earlier failures, the commission’s report noted, giving a powerful warning on the need for caution.

In response to the news, President Clinton announced a ban on the use of federal funds for experiments in human cloning. He also appointed the panel of scientists, lawyers and ethicists to study the issue.