NewsHour Backgrounders
January 8, 1998
Dr. Richard Seed announced he will go ahead with human cloning experiments.
December 29, 1997
A year-end report on remarkable changes in
reproductive technology.
March 5, 1997
First a sheep was cloned, then a monkey, but if President
Clinton has his way a human isn't next.
February 24, 1997:
Elizabeth Farnsworth leads a discussion of the science that lead to Dolly, the Scottish sheep cloned from another.
February 24, 1997:
Jim Lehrer discusses the ethics of cloning with a panel of bioethicists.
February 24, 1997:
A NewsHour background report on Dolly and cloning.
Browse the NewsHour's coverage of science
OUTSIDE
LINKS:
Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, Scotland report on cloning sheep.
The Genetics and Public Issues Program at The National Center for Genome Resources (NCGR) discusses cloning.
Discussion of Ethics and Social Issues in Gene Research at the Human Genome Project.
University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics
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Dr. Ian Wilmut startled the world last year when he announced that he had successfully cloned an adult sheep. Human cloning, once the stuff of science fiction novels, was one step closer to becoming reality.
Dr. Ian Wilmut |
Governments around the world quickly responded to the public's moral objections to human cloning. In the U.S., the National Bioethics Advisory Commission called for a moratorium on cloning experiments, and The Federal Food and Drug Administration said it has the authority to block experiments that used human embryos.
But now some members of Congress want to use legislation to permanently ban human cloning. A suite of bills, now making their way through the legislative process, could make it illegal to use Dr. Wilmut's sheep-cloning procedures on humans.
Dr. Seed explained to NPR why he wants to clone humans.
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Interest in these bills has intensified over recent months, particularly after Chicago physicist, Richard Seed, ignored public outcries and announced plans to proceed with human cloning experiments.
But is legislation too coarse an instrument to effectively regulate cloning? Many scientists and legislators argue that the proposed bans are so broad that they would prevent potentially life-saving research. For example, cloning technology could enable scientists to replace the tissue of a patient suffering from cancer. And the same technology may be used one day to eliminate birth defects.
Our forum asks: is a legislative ban on cloning necessary? Is it possible to craft legislation that prevents morally controversial experiments while still allowing life-saving research to go forward? If legislation does pass, could it be enforced effectively?
Your questions will be answered by Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO), a key sponsor of a bills that would totally ban the cloning of human embryos, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who is offering legislation along with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) that would ban for 10 years the implantation of a cloned embryo into a woman's body. Prof. Alta Charo, a University of Wisconsin law professor who served on the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, answer your questions.
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