One United States company has bucked the heavy weight of world opinion against human cloning, including that of the Pope and of the U.S. President, and has cloned a human embryo. It was only a matter of time before what became technically possible with the cloning of Dolly the sheep in 1996 would be practically applied to the human species.
To complicate the enormous ethical dilemma of human cloning, the taboo-breaking company has indicated that its cloning of a human embryo was not intended to create a person but at mining the embryo for stem cells used to treat diseases.
Stem cells are non-specialised cells found in the tissues of organisms, even in the adult stage and which can develop into specialised cells. Embryos as developing organisms are particularly rich in stem cells which will go on to form the various specialised tissues of the organism.
Medical science has generated techniques for treating several degenerative diseases essentially by cell replacement therapy. This has created a demand for stem cells as the basic raw material. Embryos are an excellent and convenient source of easily harvested stem cells. The world is therefore faced with the serious ethical dilemma of a new cure for old diseases requiring the creation and subsequent destruction of human embryos as a medical-commercial commodity.
Major political and religious leaders, and some scientists, have weighed in against the step taken by the company. President Bush has declared it morally wrong and has urged the U.S. Senate to pass into law anti-cloning legislation already approved by the House of Representatives. Mr. Bush has launched a Council on Bioethics to advise on the human and moral ramifications of advances in biomedical science and technology, including embryo and stem-cell research. The Vatican responded to the company's announcement with "unequivocal condemnation", regarding the project as tampering with human life with great moral gravity. The Russian Orthodox Church declared the destruction of the embryo "tantamount to murder". The European Commission said it opposed the research and would not finance any similar projects. The Research Commissioner said, "not everything specifically possible and technologically feasible is necessarily desirable or admissible".
Cloning technology is suitcase technology, not requiring any elaborate public financing. The problem of policing anti-cloning resolutions is enormous and not everyone agrees that such a course of action is even desirable. The legal permissibility of embryo destruction by abortion but not by stem cell harvesting, for example, raises another profound ethical dilemma. While Jamaica may not be a lead player in the development of cloning and stem cell technology, we, like the rest of the world, are faced with the dilemma.
