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Stem cell research needs regulation
Cloning in South Korea raises host of questions
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The South Korean scientists published a paper in Science magazine on Friday showing that they were able to generate 11 stem cell lines from the clones. While they did not intend to do so, the achievement of the South Korean team will now become the center of international discussion about the ethics of using Dolly-style cloning techniques to create stem cells for research and ultimately cures. It is time to end the debate and start regulating the research.
What is especially impressive about what Hwang and Moon did is that they figured out a way to make the technique work. Previous attempts to create a human embryo by cloning — transferring DNA from a body cell into a human egg from which the DNA has been removed had required hundreds of tries just to get one embryo. Using new techniques the South Korean teach got a viable human stem cell line once in every 17 attempts.
Cloning is the gold standard for stem cell research. When stem cells are made from cloned embryos it means that you can transplant any cells made from the stem cells back to the person from whom the DNA was taken without fear of rejection. You are you own source of stem cells so if scientists can go on to figure out how to make muscle cells, spinal cord cells, or insulin cells from stem cell lines derived from your own body then there is no reason they could not easily use them to fix your torn tendon, grow back your injured spinal cord, repair your damaged heart or treat your diabetes.
Host of ethical questions
But a host of ethical questions arise in the wake of this remarkable achievement. The critics are already jumping all over the South Korean announcement.
What Hwang and Moon and their colleagues did is illegal in many states in the United States. President Bush and some in the Senate and House want to keep it that way. Tom DeLay, Bush and Bill Frist say that no public funds should go to support this type of research in the United States. It is killing the innocent to save lives in their view. They may even move to outlaw funding by individual states of cloning for stem cell research, which will soon begin in California. And they certainly don’t want to see the House pass a pending bill that would allow some forms of embryonic stem cell research.
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It is not clear what rules should govern human cloning for stem cell research. The South Koreans say they had these new human cloning experiments reviewed by local ethics committees, but what rules or principles did such committees use?
There are no agreed-upon rules governing issues such as how and when you get consent from women to donate their eggs to be used in cloning experiments to create human embryos. Can or should those whose DNA or eggs are used have a say in what researchers can do with anything they create from them? How long can South Korean researchers keep stem cells made from cloned human embryos? Can they sell them to others inside and outside their country?
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