Pros and cons in human cloning

Prapti Widinugraheni, Contributor, Jakarta

Local scientists believe the state should start drafting rules on research into human cloning. Curious by nature and funds permitting, researchers aren't likely to quit their labs until they have produced the ultimate human clone.

The recent announcement by U.S.-based Advanced Cell Technology Inc. that its scientists had managed to clone human embryos is evidence of this relentless quest for knowledge.

Dr. Baharuddin Tappa, head of the Division of Cell and Tissue Culture at the National Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said the U.S. firm's announcement only confirmed what he believed all along: human cloning would happen soon, whether one liked it or not.

"I'm not surprised about the recent developments in human cloning. It was bound to happen sooner or later. So far, I see it as a positive development because the cloning was done purely for the purpose of treating diseases," he said.

Although a law on cloning seems an extravagant irrelevancy in this land of dwindling scientific development -- after all, for most of us the arrival of Dolly the sheep, the first cloned adult mammal, in Scotland four years ago, bears about as much relevance to us as cheap sci-fi -- Baharuddin has reason to believe that truly successful human cloning cannot be that far off.

"At the moment, the success rate in cloning adult animals is low, although there are endless experiments. Scientists are still at the stage of achieving success, or improving the success rate; nothing has been made commercial yet. For human cloning, it will be a similar case, though I'm sure most experiments will be done in secret to avoid controversy. But as soon as the results are positive, it will become a commercial venture, just as in the case of test-tube babies, which were also once a source of controversy," he pointed out.

Baharuddin said a national biotechnology commission was currently drawing up guidelines for biotechnology research, but that would focus more on testing and labeling transgenic, or genetically-modified, animals or animal organs, both imported and locally produced, to ensure that they were safe for health and industry purposes, human consumption or breeding. No such guidelines were planned for human cloning research.

"For human cloning, guidelines should state clearly the purpose of the research and the level at which it will be permitted. If the aim is merely to multiply certain humans, the cloning will be of no use. Even in animal cloning that would be useless because it would reduce biodiversity. Populations are better and have a higher chance of survival if they have a high genetic diversity."

However, human cloning research should not be banned altogether, particularly if it is limited to cloning for therapeutic purposes and experiments serving humanitarian ends.

"A patient has the right to be cured. And if cloning can provide this, the possibility should be explored," he said.

Following the birth of Dolly, legislation to ban human cloning is now either pending or has already been enacted in several countries, including the United States, Japan, the UK, Israel and Germany.

Prof. Teuku Jacob from the Bioanthropology Laboratory of Gadjah Mada University's School of Medicine, says that although it is evident that animal cloning is beneficial to humans, human cloning might have enormous irreversible negative effects, yet unknown to scientists.

"In conducting research, scientists go through three stages: First, curiosity prompts them to find out how something works. Second, they ask whether anything can be done about it and third, they question whether or not the whole process is beneficial for humankind. They often forget this last stage," he said.

In cloning there are embryos that must be eliminated, he points out, and still others that are allowed to develop without knowing whether they will be defective once they are born or when they become adults.

"This is the most critical issue and scientists, who are in effect playing little gods, do not know what lies beyond. Human cloning implies producing humans in an unnatural way and changing human reproduction techniques; it might also mean producing numerous "xeroxed" humans, which would homogenize the human species and make it victim to evolutionary processes. Even if a "super human" were produced today, it might not survive the earth's ever-changing environment tomorrow," Jacob said.

He insisted that as long as scientists had insufficient knowledge on the issue it would be better to perfect and limit adult cloning research to animals.

Even animal cloning experiments have produced undesirable results, he noted, and although things might seem all right in the short term, there might be unwanted effects in the long run, none of which would be easy to correct.

He pointed out too that adult animal cloning researchers might soon face defenders of animal rights who are a significant nongovernmental force, particularly in developed countries.

"In the case of human cloning research, Indonesia is better off just standing back and observing. Only when the benefits are 100 percent certain, with little or no chance of failure, could we then consider adapting the technology."

Jacob felt there was no urgent need now for legislation on human cloning research, although broad guidelines might be useful so that when the time came, Indonesia would need only fine-tune them.

"In the meantime, let's consider it safer -- and more ethical -- not to do it," he said.

What you should know about cloning: * Cloning involves replacing the nucleus -- which contains the genes -- of an egg with another cell's nucleus of an individual's body. * No sex is involved in the production of clones. * Clones will have the same genes as their single parent. * Transgenic animals have already been produced to aid in the treatment of human disease.