FROM: The Boston Globe
April 22, 2002, Monday ,THIRD EDITION
HEADLINE: COALITION BATTLES BILL TO BAN CLONING CASE FOR RESEARCH BROUGHT
TO SENATE
BYLINE: By Mary Leonard, Globe Staff
WASHINGTON - Major universities, biotechnology companies, and
scientists are
making a fervent case to Congress against pending legislation that would
ban
human cloning for any purpose and outlaw a basic type of biomedical
research.
The proposed ban on human cloning, whether for reproduction or
research,
passed the Republican-controlled House last summer by a vote of 265-162
and is
expected to be debated by the end of May in the Democratic-controlled
Senate,
where the vote appears too close to call. President Bush recently gave
the bill
a boost when he forcefully endorsed it, saying all human cloning is
immoral and
unethical.
Reproductive cloning - creating a genetic copy of a human being for
reproductive purposes - has few defenders. Scientists are focusing on
therapeutic cloning, in which embryonic material is used to produce cell
lines
that would be useful in the treatment of diseases.
The research lobby has argued that a ban on therapeutic cloning would
create
a climate of fear in laboratories, have a chilling effect on medical
breakthroughs, and force pioneering research involving stem cells to
relocate
overseas, taking with it potential commerce based on treatments that
might be
developed.
Harvard University played a leading role in blocking a similar ban in
1998,
and its new president, Lawrence H. Summers, recently sent a letter to
senators,
saying he was deeply concerned that the new legislation would block
potentially
life-saving research. Summers recommended that Congress ban reproductive
cloning
but allow therapeutic cloning research.
Executives from 150 biotechnology firms from Massachusetts and across
the
nation plan to meet in Washington Wednesday with senators and their staff
members to lobby against the proposed ban.
"Our members understand that it would be setting a miserable precedent
to
criminalize a promising and responsible area of scholarship and make
areas of
research vulnerable to ideological or political attack," said Carl
Feldbaum,
president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, the association
that
organized this week's lobbying campaign.
The legislation would impose fines of $1 million and prison terms of
up to 10
years on scientists who clone human embryos. Congress never has approved
criminal penalties for any biomedical research, although 30 years ago
lawmakers
considered banning DNA experiments. Scientists put a temporary voluntary
moratorium on the research instead.
The most common form of human cloning involves collecting genetic
material,
such as cells, from an individual and transferring it into an
unfertilized egg
to create an embryo. If the embryo were implanted in a womb, the embryo
might in
theory develop into a fetus with the same genetic material as the cell
donor.
Most scientists argue that progress in stem-cell research - aimed at
diseases
such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and diabetes - depends on allowing the
development of technologies to clone human embryos, from which stem cells
can be
derived.
Stem cells are undifferentiated; that is, they can theoretically be
induced
to develop into cells with a specific function, such as the cells that
produce
insulin in the body.
Cloning, an issue for conservatives for several years, took on more
urgency
after Advanced Cell Technology of Worcester announced in November that it
had
created the first cloned human embryos. These contained no more than six
cells,
although ACT had attempted to produce embryos of at least 100 cells from
which
it might extract stem cells.
ACT is still the only company that has reported human-embryo cloning.
Its
goal, to obtain and stimulate the stem cells to grow into healthy tissue
for
patients with diseases or damaged organs, could not be achieved under a
research
ban, said Dr. Robert Lanza, ACT's chief medical officer.
"It would put us out of business, and that would be sad," Lanza said.
"But
it's not a matter of whether we do or do not survive. There is an urgent
health
crisis, and if we can't contribute to the coming revolution in medicine,
that
would be a shame."
Not all biotech executives oppose a total ban. Thomas Dooley, who
heads
IntegriDerm, Inc. in Huntsville, Ala., argued that scientists do not need
cloned
embryos because adult stem cells are available. What has energized
universities
and entrepreneurs, he said, is the economic threat that a research ban
would
represent.
"Morality should be elevated above the profit motive, research grants,
and
private-sector money," said Dooley, who resigned as president of the
Alabama
affiliate of the Biotechnology Industry Organization after it opposed a
ban on
research involving human cloning.
The immediate economic impact of a research-cloning ban would be
small, but
it could have consequences in the future, said Janice Bourque, president
of the
Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, which represents more than 250
companies.
"The biotech industry is a major economic driver in the state, and not
participating in this health-related research could mean losing out on
billions
of dollars," she said.
Universities and scientific organizations such as the American
Association
for the Advancement of Science, the American Society for Cell Biology,
and the
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, have joined the lobbying campaign,
calling the proposed ban a threat to academic freedom and basic research.
Earlier this month, 40 Nobel laureates signed a letter that said
criminalizing
research would send a signal that "unfettered and responsible scientific
investigation is not welcome in the United States."
Jane Corlette, Harvard's associate vice president for government
affairs,
said, "This could have a chilling effect on future medical research
because
young scientists won't risk going to jail, incurring a huge fine, or
being shut
down."
Lobbying has focused on the Senate, where 20 members are believed to
be
undecided on the issue.
Senator Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican who is the chief sponsor of
the
bill, said all forms of cloning "are wrong, period. I do not believe we
should
create life just to destroy it, but that is exactly what is being
proposed by
those who would allow cloning in limited circumstances."
Senator Edward M. Kennedy is preparing a competing bill that would
make "the
abusive medical practice" of reproductive cloning illegal but permit
research-related cloning. Senator John F. Kerry supports Kennedy's bill,
a Kerry
aide said.
Rudolf Jaenisch, an MIT biologist and pioneer in mouse cloning at the
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, said
criminalizing
research cloning would be "absolutely disastrous" because it would drive
the
technology overseas and underground, outside federal regulation and
university
oversight.
Government regulations restrict medical experiments on human and
animal
subjects, and researchers who obtain federal grants can be fined or
sanctioned
by agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration and the National
Institutes of Health. Under the Atomic Energy Act, scientists who use
nuclear
materials without a federal license are subject to criminal prosecution
by the
Justice Department.
Mary Leonard can be reached by e-mail at [log in to unmask]
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