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NAS Urges Ban On Reproductive Cloning
WILLIAM SCHULZ
Human reproductive cloning is dangerous, likely to fail, and should be subject to a legally enforceable ban, concludes a National Academy of Sciences committee that studied the scientific and medical aspects of human reproductive cloning.
"Human reproductive cloning should not now be practiced," said study chairman Irving L. Weissman, a professor of cancer biology at Stanford University School of Medicine, at a Jan. 18 news conference in Washington, D.C.
Weissman defined human reproductive cloning as the implantation in a woman's uterus of a blastocyst that has undergone nuclear transplantation. He said scientists' experience with five other mammalian species shows a failure rate that is unacceptable for humans. Many cloned animals die in utero, the panel said, and those that do survive frequently exhibit severe birth defects. However, the panel said nuclear transplantation stem cell research should not be banned.
By coincidence, President George W. Bush's newly appointed Council on Bioethics convened its first meeting one day before the NAS study was released. Bush said that he would form such a panel when he announced his policy on stem cell research in August. The 17 members of the bioethics advisory panel are listed at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020116-9.html.
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