Scientists' call to ban human cloning

[David Hathaway <hathaway@...>]

!19970319  Scientists' call to ban human cloning

    The following statement is a final draft of a call by some scientists
to
ban human cloning.  As there are a growing number of human, animal and
plant
cloning patents and patent applications, with pretty much most university
and corporate biotech firms staking their claim, this ban and others (such
as President Clinton's) if enforceable (a dubious logistic and
constitutional
proposition anyways) will have a significant impact on the biotech
industry.

Greg Aharonian
Internet Patent News Service
                              ====================


                          Position Statement on Cloning
                     by the Council for Responsible Genetics


A call for a worldwide ban on human cloning  . . .  and wider public debate
about biotechnology


I.  We call upon the nations of the world to prohibit the cloning of human
beings, by incorporating such prohibitions into their national laws and
statutes.

II.  We call upon the United Nations to take the initial steps by
constituting an International Tribunal to articulate the concerns arising
in different nations, cultures, religions and belief systems, with respect
to the potential cloning of humans.

III.  We call upon the Congress of the United States to pass legislation
to:

1)  Prohibit the cloning of humans either through embryo splitting or
nuclear transfer.

2)  To exclude animals and plants, their organs, tissues, cells or
molecules from patenting, whether naturally occurring or cloned.

IV.  We call upon the citizens of the world and their institutions,
including the media, to promote a vigorous public debate regarding the
cloning of animals, and in particular, which practices are acceptable and
which are are not.


In the course of human history our species has recognized many behaviors
that are counter to the interests of the survival, development and
flourishing of individuals within civilization.  Among these are
involuntary servitude, or slavery; torture, the use of poison gas, the use
of biological weapons, and human experimentation without consent.  Human
societies are working on preventing other destructive practices such as
child labor, environmental degradation, nuclear war and global warming.

The cloning of sheep and monkeys opens up the specter of human cloning.
The fundamental character of this activity is to transform humans into
commodities, to devalue the relationship of humans to each other and to
their culture.  Just as the 13th Amendment outlawed slavery, and other
laws prohibited torture, child labor, and other forms of human
exploitation, the time has come to prohibit human cloning.  We therefore
call upon the United States, individual nations, and the United Nations to
declare the cloning of humans beings an immoral and illegal activity.

**"Can" does not imply "ought"**
Despite the sheep cloners' disclaimer of any intent to apply this
technique to humans, mainstream commentators, including "bioethicists,"
are already peddling the ideas of cloning dying children or 100%
compatible human organ donors.  (Transplantation of fetal pancreatic and
brain tissue is already being used experimentally for treating diabetes
and ParkinsonUs disease in adults).  Scientists are reluctant to aver, for
the record, technological or medical scenarios that appear bizarre or
avant-garde.  We can expect that professional bioethicists and corporate
marketing agents will ply their trade to make such new applications
culturally palatable.

**Some experiments will be prevented**
By banning cloning, some scientific questions will be more difficult to
answer.  But scientific convenience cannot be used to justify the
degradation of the human condition, as occurred in the Nazi concentration
camps, or in the Tuskegee syphilis study.  The difficulty in obtaining
classes of biomedical information is not a sufficient justification for
research that exploits and demeans human beings.

**DNA is not destiny**
Clones may share the same DNA, but they can hardly be described as
"identical copies."  Developmental, environmental and social factors stamp
each living creature with the mark of individuality, even in the case of
genetically identical twins.  To be human is not the simple summation of
genetic, biochemical or physiological processes.  It involves the learning
of language, the transmission of historical knowledge, the generation of
new knowledge, the creation and transmission of music, art and other forms
of culture.  Culture and society exist outside of physiology and are not
transmitted through genes or cells, but through human communication and
interaction occurring in organized societies.

**Hubris of enormous magnitude--improving on nature**
Cloning per se will not be the most likely end point if this technique is
attempted in humans.  The cell nuclei of a mature individual with known
biological characteristics can be used as the raw material for
"enhancement" techniques, involving introduction of extra or altered
genes. The idea would be that the resulting clones would be "new" improved
models, with increased disease resistance, and superior social,
intellectual, or athletic skills. This highly questionable enterprise, now
technically feasible, makes possible a virtually unlimited set of eugenic
attempts at "improvement" from a culturally defined and arbitrary starting
point.

**Dangerous loss of diversity**
Even if the cloning technique were entirely confined to nonhuman animals
in the foreseeable future, it would still be problematic.  The robustness
of natural populations, including their flexible response to new
conditions and hence resistance to disease, lies to a great extent in
their genetic variability.  This characteristic would be entirely
eliminated in a population of clones.  The near total loss of the entire
U.S. corn crop in the 1970's as a result of monoculture--overuse of too
narrow a genetic base--is a harbinger of what could happen with cloned
livestock.

**Animals on the assembly line**
Proponents suggest that farm animals of the future could be cloned to
better maximize agricultural production: sheep cloned for softer wool or
cows for higher milk yield.  Transgenic animals could be cloned to produce
human pharmaceuticals or even organs for human transplantation.  But are
we prepared to view animals solely as lucrative biofactories, useful only
in their capacity to serve human needs?  When utility becomes the sole
lens through which we view nonhuman animals, we have begun a systematic
ethical decline.

**Erosion of respect for life**
The industrialized production of agricultural animals according to
pre-specified standards will inevitably undermine any respectful stance
toward animals that may remain in our highly corporatized culture.  Our
experience undermines any argument that the human realm can be
successfully insulated from a basic disrespect for other living organisms.
Our history of treating animals as commercial goods, as well as the
current trend of dismantling social programs protecting our society's most
vulnerable people (children, poor and elderly), are not encouraging in
this regard.  Historical experience also points to a relationship between
increased interest in genetic enhancement and decreased respect for the
natural variation in ethnicity and ability in human life.

**Democratizing technological practice**
Genetic engineering is a technology developed largely with public tax
funds.  Hence, in fashioning policies for its implementation we should
reflect upon citizen concerns.  According to a recent Time/CNN poll of
1005 adults, conducted Feb. 26-27, 93 percent of Americans oppose the
cloning of humans, and 66 percent oppose the cloning of animals.  The
Council for Responsible Genetics joins the call for a worldwide ban on
human cloning and for wide public debate on the wisdom and ethics of
animal cloning.


_________________________________________________________________

Wendy L. McGoodwin, Executive Director
Council for Responsible Genetics
5 Upland Road, Suite 3
Cambridge, MA  02140
(617) 868-0870  tel
(617) 491-5344 fax
wendy en essential.org