[wordup] Human Cloning in the Works?

[Adam Shand]

I liked this comment from Gene <gene at spack.org> on this paragraph:

"Like atomic energy, cloning can be used for beneficial purposes - to
increase population and to open the window of genetic reprogramming."

  Note to self: if ever trying to reduce opposition to a new technology,
  do *NOT* compare to atomic energy. ("Our Neural Chernobyl", genetic
  arms race, genocide via tailored viruses, etc. etc...)

  And I think the jury's still out on 'increasing population' and
  'genetic reprogramming' being beneficial purposes.

Via: Morgan Likely <mrorange at spack.org>
From: http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=46275

Human cloning project claims progress

A woman taking part in a controversial human cloning programme for
infertile couples is now eight weeks pregnant, revealed Dr Severino
Antinori, the well known Italian doctor involved in the cloning project
banned in his home country and the USA.

Speaking on his flying visit to the UAE to lecture at the conference on
'Future of genetic engineering and debate on cloning programmes throughout
the world' held here at the Zayed Centre for Co-ordination and Follow-Up,
Dr Antinori revealed: "Our project is at a very advanced stage. One woman
among the thousands of infertile couples in the programme is eight weeks
pregnant."

Dr Antinori was replying to a question on the status of his project, which
he had outlined last year along with Dr Panos Zavos, a Kentucky-based
infertility expert, at a cloning conference held by the National Academy
of Sciences in Washington.

But Dr Antinori, a director of an Infertility unit at the International
Centre for the Study of Physiopathology of Human Reproduction in Rome,
refused to reveal the country from which the woman comes.

"We have nearly 5,000 infertile couples in this project now," he added. He
is known as the "father of the impossible children".

Dr Antinori and Dr Zavos' project involves transferring the DNA from the
nuclei of living cells into a woman's ovum to create a human embryo which
would then be implanted into a woman's uterus.

Replying to a question from a member in the audience at the Zayed Centre
on the reason for the premature ageing of Dolly, the cloned sheep, Dr
Antinori said they had, indeed, observed ageing in cloned animals.

But new advances were being made in this field every day, and they have
found animal cloning insufficient and it is likely to remain so in the
future. "We see different results in different species," he pointed out.

Cloning the human is very different from cloning sheep, he added. He said
that the success rate in sheep was low compared with other species.
Furthermore, these cloning experiments were poorly designed and executed,
he concluded.

The chances of deformation in assisted reproduction in humans is four per
cent, though in women aged over 40 it is six per cent. However, new
experiments reduce the catastrophic possibilities, he pointed out.

He stressed that they have reduced the risk of deformation in cloning
before transplanting the embryo into the womb. "I concede the risk but you
have to be careful," he admitted.

However, Dr Antinori claimed to be involved in "therapeutical cloning" and
believed there were immense possibilities of curing diseases by using some
key cells to renew the tissue. "I have good information that in cardiac
diseases we can renew the tissue with some cells because some cells hold
the key to produce new tissues."

Therapeutic cloning is also done in the complete absence of the testes or
in the lack of mature sperm, he said. However, he was forbidden from
pursuing his research in this field in his home country and conducts his
work in other countries.

Dr Antinori also lambasted the USA for imposing a five-year moratarium on
the cloning programme. "I don't understand their opposition; they seem to
be afraid of good experimental research in the field of assisted
reproduction. Like atomic energy, cloning can be used for beneficial
purposes - to increase population and to open the window of genetic
reprogramming."

But he said there has always been resistance to new medical developments
to treat male infertility as in the case of artificial insemination and
in-vitro fertilisation.

People criticise us saying we are pandering to the vulnerable but we are
doctors and will not harm a person, he reiterated.

"It is difficult to work in this field. There is a lot of pressure and
investigation against my work," he admitted.

Terming the U.S. ban as a violation of human rights, he stated that
everyone had the right to transmit their particular characteristics to
their progeny, or to use cloning to reduce infertility.

Most couples they had interviewed, he said, wanted to have a biological
child of their own. In fact, cloning creates ordinary children who grow up
to be unique individuals, he claimed.

Dr Antinori was happy to be in an Islamic culture which was open and
described it as an effective culture that helps scientific progress. The
country pays great attention to the importance of establishing human
scientific research centres.