LIFE DIGEST: Cloning of monkey embryos foreboding, pro-lifers say
- Nov 19, 2007 - comment
The cloning of monkey embryos means death for more tiny human beings and increased odds for the birth of a human clone, say pro-life, bioethics specialists.
Researchers in Oregon cloned for the first time embryos from primates in experiments with a 10-year-old rhesus macaque monkey, according to a Nov. 12 report in The Independent. The scientists, whose work is to be published in a future issue of the journal Nature, also were able to extract stem cells from the clones and to stimulate their development into brain neurons and heart cells, the British newspaper reported.
Extracting stem cells from an embryo, whether cloned or not, results in the destruction of the tiny human being.
Scientists treated the report as a significant breakthrough, since it had been unclear if the cloning of primate embryos, including those of human beings, would be possible, according to The Independent.
The team at the Oregon National Primate Research Center reportedly has attempted to bring a cloned monkey to birth but has been unsuccessful so far. In a joint effort between the Oregon team and a Chinese group, about 100 cloned embryos have been implanted into about 50 female adult monkeys, but none has produced a birth, the newspaper reported.
While pro-cloning scientists applauded the report, it was ominous news for pro-life observers.
“The successful cloning of monkeys means, first, that more human embryos will die in an effort to harvest embryonic stem cells. This success will only fuel efforts to do so,” said C. Ben Mitchell, director of the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity and a consultant for the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. “Will a cloned, take-home baby be far behind? Only the omniscient God really knows. But we are certainly closer.
“Not only will human carnage mark the path to cloning a human being, but a cloned human child will have to endure grave social suffering,” Mitchell said.
Wesley Smith said on the weblog Bioethics.com, “This could not only mean an increase in the ability to clone human embryos for use and destruction in research, but might make the day of the first cloned baby nearer. . . . there is no question that this primate breakthrough makes the specter of human cloning closer to fruition.”
No more cloning for Dolly creator
Cloning pioneer Ian Wilmut has announced he will no longer use the technique that resulted in the creation of Dolly the sheep and made him famous.
That could be good news for human beings, a pro-life advocate says.
Wilmut, who had received a license two years ago in Great Britain to clone human embryos, said he has discontinued his experiments in the cloning field in order to pursue work on a technique that he believes has more potential to produce stem cells that could treat debilitating diseases, The Telegraph reported Nov. 16.
Wilmut, a scientist at Edinburgh University in Scotland, said he “decided a few weeks ago not to pursue nuclear transfer,” according to the British newspaper. Nuclear transfer is another name for the cloning method which produced Dolly, whose birth was announced in 1997 by Wilmut and his team.
Research, or therapeutic, cloning is performed with the goal of producing stem cells from human clones for experiments seeking therapies for a variety of diseases.
The method Wilmut believes has a greater capability to result in treatments has been described as cell regression. The technique, pioneered in Japan, has been shown in experiments with mice to enable skin cells to be transformed into embryonic-like cells that would not be rejected because they are the patient’s own cells, The Telegraph reported.
The method is “extremely exciting and astonishing,” Wilmut said, according to the newspaper. He will perform experiments using this technique, which he believes is the future of stem cell research, Wilmut said, The Telegraph reported.
Wilmut’s decision may mark the beginning of the conclusion of research cloning, said pro-life advocate Wesley Smith.
“It seems to me that Wilmut would not have rejected his license unless he were convinced that cloning is just not going to work or be sufficiently efficient—given the human egg dearth—to be more than a novelty,” Smith wrote on the weblog Bioethics.com.
“This is heartening news,” Smith wrote. “Wilmut has no moral objection to human cloning. But perhaps he has looked into the tea leaves and made a pragmatic decision that bodes well for the human race.”
Embryonic stem cells have been promoted for their flexibility, but they have yet to treat any diseases in human beings and have been plagued by the development of tumors in lab animals.
Unlike embryonic stem cell research, the cell regression method would not harm a donor.
Massachusetts pushes pro-lifers further away
Pro-life sidewalk counselors will have more difficulty in offering alternatives to women seeking abortions under a new law in Massachusetts.
Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, signed into law Nov. 13 a measure that increases the buffer zone between abortion clinic entrances and pro-lifers from 18 feet to 35 feet, The Boston Globe reported. Supporters of the law say the change is needed to prevent the harassment of women arriving at clinics for abortions.
The measure “strikes an appropriate balance between the freedom of choice and the freedom of expression,” Patrick said, according to the newspaper.
The law does no such thing, pro-life activists said.
“It is designed to, in effect, take a public forum, the public sidewalk, and make it into the private property of Planned Parenthood,” said Bill Cotter, president of Operation Rescue: Boston, The Globe reported.
Pro-life organizations—including Massachusetts Citizens for Life and the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, as well as Operation Rescue—contend they want to give women information on options other than abortion, an act the new law would make more difficult, the newspaper reported.
“We have found that in order to reach women, to be able to be persuasive with them, the most important thing is personal, face-to-face contact,” Cotter said, according to The Globe.
Operation Rescue will challenge the law and seek a federal judge’s order to block its enforcement, Cotter said, according to the newspaper.
Southern Baptist offers sanctity bill
A new Southern Baptist member of Congress has offered legislation to guarantee all human life is constitutionally protected from the moment of fertilization.
Rep. Paul Broun, R.-Ga., a member of Prince Avenue Baptist Church in Athens, introduced the Sanctity of Human Life Act Nov. 14. “The right to life is our most important fundamental right, and it should be defended vigorously and absolutely,” Broun said in a written statement.
The measure fulfilled a promise he made to the residents of his congressional district that the first bill he introduced in the House of Representatives would be for the protection of unborn babies, Broun said.
Broun was elected in July to fill a vacancy created by the death of GOP Rep. Charlie Norwood.
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