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Q1. What Is Cloning?
Human cloning is the creation of a human being, or a number of human
beings, who is/are genetically identical to another.
In the current debate, you are likely to hear cloning referred to in one
of two ways:
Reproductive cloning refers to the creation of a new person with the
same genetic make-up as someone who is alive or has lived.
Therapeutic cloning refers to using cloning techniques to initiate the
growth of embryos in order to create new organs or cells for medical and
research purposes.
Q2. How Does Cloning Occur?
Artificial cloning can be carried out by one of two techniques:
Embryo splitting is similar to the natural process which creates
identical twins - the embryo's cells are separated at a very early stage
of development to create one or more clones.
Nuclear replacement is the process that was used to create "Dolly" the
sheep 1. It works by taking a cell nucleus from one person (eg from a
skin cell) and putting it into the egg of another, whose nucleus has
already been removed. The egg is then stimulated to divide, for example,
by treatment with bursts of electric current, thus starting the growth
of an embryo. The egg's nucleus contains all the chromosomes (genetic
information) for the cell to start dividing and become a fully developed
child (or lamb!) in due course.
Nuclear replacement technology can be used to create a clone from a
person of any age (embryo, fetus or adult) and it can potentially create
many more clones than embryo splitting.
Q3. Does Uk Law Currently Allow Human Cloning?
Yes and No. The law currently does not allow any form of reproductive
cloning to be licensed, but there is no explicit ban on cloning. The
Government have made it clear that they believe "human reproductive
cloning is ethically unacceptable and cannot take place in this country."
2 This is a very welcome statement.
Nuclear replacement of an embryo, or any cell that is part of any embryo,
is also prohibited.
Nuclear replacement of an egg (like the process that led to Dolly the
sheep) and embryo splitting are currently allowed in human embryos under
the jurisdiction of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA)
only for short-term experimental use. However, the HFEA "has made it
crystal clear that it will not licence cloning by embryo splitting for
treatment purposes." 3 The HFEA also regulates the legislation which
allows embryos up to 14 days old to be destroyed, frozen or researched
on for specific purposes (laid out in the Human Fertilisation and
Embryology Act 1990).
There would need to be an extension of the Act to allow the HFEA to
license embryo research into "therapeutic approaches to disease or
tissue damage"4, ie extending the Act for a new purpose. However, prior
to the HFEA Act being in place, the Warnock Report of 1984 made it clear
that human cloning should not be permitted, so any change in this policy
would be contrary to the spirit of the law.
Discussion about the law on cloning has not been restricted to the UK.
In March 1997, the European Parliament voted in a resolution to ban
cloning of human beings. However, the resolution carries no legal weight.
This policy area remains more obviously a matter for individual Member
States, with national politicians bringing in legislation on human
cloning.
In December 1997, UNESCO 5 published the Universal Declaration on the
Human Genome and Human Rights. Article 11 bans "practices which are
contrary to human dignity, such as reproductive cloning of human beings...".
In Strasbourg, the Council of Europe, with 40 Member States, produced a
protocol banning human cloning which has been added to their Convention
on Biomedicine and Human Rights, and was signed on 12 January 1998 by 19
Member States. However the UK has not yet ratified this Convention so
cannot sign the Protocol 6.
Q4. Why Might People Want To Use Cloning?
Cloning seems to offer new possibilities of medical advances. Some
people might want to use cloning to replace a dead baby or child; or
indeed have a child if they are infertile. Others may want to replicate
themselves for future generations, while yet others may want to create a
clone to produce an organ for transplantation without the complications
of rejecting the organ, ie for therapeutic purposes.
Q5. Why Should Christians Be Concerned About The Possibility Of
Reproductive Cloning?
CARE believes that each one of us is made uniquely in God's image with
genetic inheritance from both our parents. Reproductive cloning would
change this because:
An individual would not have a unique genetic make-up (although this
does not diminish the personhood of identical twins) and would be
created for a specific purpose (eg to be a replacement copy of a sibling),
rather than being valued for being their own unique personality. There
would be considerable pressure on the child to suit or fulfil the
desires of their parents.
Human life would be treated as just another 'product' or 'commodity',
undermining the intrinsic worth and dignity of each individual if the
characteristics of people were deliberately selected and chosen.
It would promote asexual human reproduction using a single cell. Cloning
would not require the coming together of a man and a woman to create a
new life.
It would confuse family relationships by blurring the distinctions
between parent, child, sister and brother. For example, if a clone were
created of a man in order to have a child, the clone, A, would
genetically be the man's twin (brother), not his son. If the man's
female partner also had a clone, B, this child would not have any
genetic relationship to A, unlike normal biological siblings. The
psychological consequences of cloning for the children created in this
way are likely to be immense.
We should also be concerned about the health implications of
reproductive cloning. Recent research on Dolly the sheep suggests that
she is ageing genetically faster than she should.7 How cloning affects
the body is not known, although animal cloning has been associated with
deaths before and after birth, and with unusually large foetuses.8
Finally, and very importantly, we should be concerned that successful
cloning will mean the unacceptable destruction of numerous embryos. (The
creation of Dolly is believed to have taken 277 attempts, but with some
recent reports suggesting that it may have been over 400). It will also
require the donation of hundreds of eggs from women who are prepared to
have their eggs used to produce embryos that can be cloned. If
insufficient eggs can be donated, then it is likely that animal eggs
will be used as alternatives, eg cows eggs.9
Q6. Are Identical Twins Different From Genetically Identical People
Formed By Cloning?
Yes. Although identical twins share the same genetic make-up, they are
not deliberate, planned copies of their parents or any other relatives
created by asexual reproduction. Identical twins are the same genetic
age as each other, whereas a cloned child would be genetically the same
as a parent or another human of a different age.
Q7. Should Christians Be Concerned About Therapeutic Cloning Using
Embryos?
Yes. Therapeutic cloning will involve the use of human cloned embryos,
which will be used to produce stem cells, in order to create tissues.
This therefore necessitates the destruction of the embryo. CARE
believes, as do many others, that human life begins at conception. Even
those who do not hold this view generally acknowledge that human embryos
do have a special status and should not be misused in any way,
particularly on the scale necessary for the research that would be
needed for therapeutic cloning.
We do not see any moral distinction between an embryo, a postnatal baby
and an adult and would argue that it is not right to treat a human being
at any stage of development as a 'thing' to be used and abused to
further the ends of science. Individuals should not be created solely
for their body parts and should not be the subjects of experiments
without their personal knowledge and permission.
Some argue that because the law already allows experiments on embryos up
to 14 days old, the use of cloned embryos created by nuclear replacement
raises no new ethical issues. We disagree. These embryos would be
produced specifically as a means to harvest cells, known as stem cells
that can then be used to produce different types of body cells, such as
skin. The embryo would then be destroyed. (Recent reports suggest that
one company in the USA has already produced and destroyed embryos for
this purpose 10). We are also concerned that ethical issues are raised
by the scale of embryo destruction that would be needed to pursue this
research and believe that there are important health and safety
questions to be answered.11
In addition, CARE is concerned that if embryo cloning is allowed, the
development of cloning techniques would make it very much easier to
create a full human clone at some point in the future, either in the UK,
or in another country which does not have such tight regulation. We can
foresee that if ever the ban on human reproductive cloning was lifted,
ignored or not applied elsewhere, it would be possible for human embryo
clones to be obtained and grown in a womb to produce a cloned child. We
fear that if these techniques are developed, after a period of time,
when the clinical use of the technique in human beings has been
perfected, public opinion will be persuaded to accept the idea of
cloning. Indeed the Government review team specifically recommended
re-examining the issue in five years time, in the light of possible
changes in public attitudes and developments in scientific progress.
Q8. Why Not Allow Therapeutic Cloning If It Will Lead To A Cure For
Cancer?
Sadly, a cure for cancer is the less likely use of therapeutic cloning,
it is much more likely to be used to generate spare parts to replace
tissues which are destroyed by degenerative diseases. The motivation to
heal people of all sorts of diseases and pain is of course good.
However, that does not mean that the end justifies the means. CARE is
concerned about therapeutic cloning for the reasons we outlined above.
In addition, the nuclear replacement technique is still at a very early
stage and requires further development work. In fact, the most recent
work on Dolly the sheep, created using this technique, has shown that
she is not a pure clone. Dolly has genes from both the egg and the
separate nucleus that were used to create her.12
We consider that research would be better undertaken into other
scientific work so that the same results can be achieved without using
human embryos.
Q9. Are There Alternative Approaches To Finding New Treatments That Do
Not Involve Cloning?
Yes. Current research suggests that adult stem cells from bone marrow
can be transformed into other types of cell, eg, fat or bone. Other work
suggests that neural stem cells taken from living human nerve tissue
could in the future be used for the treatment of Parkinson's and
Alzheimer's disease. Researchers in Canada and Italy have turned neural
stem cells taken from an adult mouse into new blood cells. If this
technique could be applied to humans, it would be a major step forward
because use of a patient's own stem cells would greatly reduce the
likelihood of rejection of cells from a embryo.13 The British Medical
Journal remarked that the use of embryonic stem cells "may soon be
eclipsed by the more readily available and less controversial adult stem
cells."14
Q10. What Has The Government Done About Considering Cloning?
In 1998 the Government asked the HFEA and the Human Genetics Advisory
Commission (now called the Human Genetics Commission) to explore the
ethical issues and the potential applications of human cloning. The
conclusions of this review were published in the report Cloning Issues
in Reproduction, Science and Medicine. This recommended that no human
reproductive cloning should be allowed, but that 'therapeutic' cloning
should be permitted.
Following this report, in June 1999 the Government announced that more
evidence of the potential benefits to human health from therapeutic
cloning was needed before legislation should be introduced. An
independent advisory group, chaired by the Chief Medical Officer Dr Liam
Donaldson, was set up and reported a year later, in August 2000.
The key recommendations made by the Donaldson group15 are:
Stem cell research using embryos created by IVF and using embryos
created through cloning techniques (ie therapeutic cloning) which would
increase understanding about human disorders and their treatment should
be permitted. This would require an extension to the HFEA Act 1990,
which currently only allows research for other, limited purposes.
Reproductive cloning should remain a criminal offence and if necessary a
new Act of Parliament should be introduced to ensure this remains the
case.
Another Act of Parliament may be required in the future to allow the
application of this new embryo research on patients, in order for it to
be used in treatment.
The mixing of human adult cells and live eggs of animals should not be
permitted.
The Government has accepted the Donaldson Report's recommendations in
full and has said it will bring forward legislation where necessary to
implement them as soon as the Parliamentary timetable allows.16
Q11. What Happens Now?
It is likely that the debate on legislation to allow therapeutic cloning
will take place in the autumn of 2000. The Government have said that
they will give Parliamentarians a free vote on the regulations that will
be needed to extend the HFEA Act. The regulation will be an affirmative
instrument which means that both Houses will debate it and vote 'yes' or
'no'. There will not be an opportunity to amend the details of the
regulation. The time allocated for this type of debate in the House of
Commons will only be one and a half hours, which will not enable any
real consideration or debate on the significant ethical and practical
implications of changing the law to permit human (embryo) cloning. There
is no time limit in the Lords.
It is unlikely that there will be time for the primary legislation
needed to outlaw any human reproductive cloning. However the Government
has agreed that this legislation, and any other needed, will be
introduced 'when the Parliamentary timetable permits'.17
There will be a short debate on using embryos for research into
treatment on 31 October when Evan Harris MP, a Liberal Democrat, puts
forward a Ten Minute Rule Bill on Stem Cell Research. This will allow Mr
Harris ten minutes to persuade MPs of the case for this research and an
opposing MP will also have ten minutes to speak. This Bill has no chance
of becoming law, but will be the first indications of the views of MPs.
Q12. Where Can I Find Out More About Cloning?
The Donaldson report, Stem Cell Research: Medical Progress with
Responsibility, is available free from Department of Health, PO Box 777,
London SE1 6XH, or from their website www.doh.gov.uk/cegc The website
also contains details of the Government response to the Donaldson
report, which has been printed as official paper, CM 4833. This is
available from The Stationery Office (tel: 0870 600 5522) at a cost of
L2.40.
Further details on the safety and ethical issues raised by therapeutic
cloning can be found in CARE's submission to the Donaldson review.
The Movement Against the Cloning of Humans (MATCH) have a website,
www.match.org.uk A group of distinguished America scientists, doctors
and ethicists issued a statement in Washington on cloning in July 1999.
Details of the statement and related papers can be found at
www.stemcellresearch.org They can also be obtained from CARE.
For information about why some people support the idea of cloning, go to
the Human Cloning Foundation's web site, www.humancloning.org This
information is also available from CARE.
Q13. What Can I Do At This Stage?
The future of embryos and cloning is at a critical crossroads. It is
important for church members to consider the issues involved and stand
up for the dignity of human beings. Please be involved with us by:
Please pray that Parliament will not agree to the extension of the
HFEAct to allow embryos to be used for research into potential treatment
of disease.
Consider writing to Yvette Cooper MP, Minister for Public Health,
expressing your concerns about the Government's response to the
Donaldson report and asking her to bring forward the legislation to stop
reproductive cloning at the same time as the HFEA Act is extended. The
address is Department of Health, Richmond House, 79 Whitehall, London,
SW1A 2NS.
Consider writing to your MP about your concerns on cloning. Ask them to
vote against Evan Harris' Ten Minute Rule Bill on 31 October and against
any regulation tabled by the Government that will extend the HFEA Act to
allow cloned embryos to be used for research into the treatment of
disease. The address to write to is Your MP, House of Commons, London,
SW1A 0AA.
If you are able take part in local radio, television and newspaper
debates on cloning.
Keep up-to-date with developments by contacting CARE's Campaigns
Hotline.
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