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<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/0,2759,395698,00.html">Special report: the ethics of genetics</A>
<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/archive/0,3332,184715,00.html">Ethics of genetics archived articles</A>
In this section
<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,2763,1203424,00.html">Stem cell therapy holds out hope to heart patients</A>
<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,2763,1146574,00.html">Q&A: embryo cloning</A>
<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,2763,1200014,00.html">Dolly scientist seeks to clone human embryo</A>
<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,2763,1191818,00.html">Googling the genome</A>
<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,2763,1180897,00.html">DoH cash for gene therapy firm</A>
<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,2763,1175665,00.html">Dolly creator in fight for its life</A>
<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,2763,1169534,00.html">Hair stem cell hope for bald patches</A>
<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,2763,1165148,00.html">Firm that cloned Dolly the sheep faces bankruptcy</A>
<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,2763,1161769,00.html">Harvard's stem cell experiment</A>
<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,2763,1156256,00.html">Dolly firm ready to sell</A>
<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,2763,1149823,00.html">Gene cheats: new risk posed to world sport</A>
<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,2763,1149046,00.html">Hilary Rose: Beware the cowboy cloners</A>
<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,2763,1148557,00.html">Gene slur on victims of Church child abuse</A>
<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,2763,1147871,00.html">Press review: Human embryo cloning</A>
<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,2763,1147208,00.html">Bush reiterates opposition to research</A>
Bush reiterates opposition to research
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday February 13, 2004
<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/">The Guardian</A>
An uneasy truce between US scientists and conservative opponents of stem cell
research - including the Bush administration - grew more precarious yesterday
after the cloning breakthrough by South Korean researchers. Scientists fear
the breakthrough could reignite a sense of mission among conservative and
Christian groups which have been pressing Washington to outlaw all forms of cloning.
The first salvo yesterday came from the direction of the White House,
delivering a reminder that President George Bush is opposed to stem cell research.
"The age of human cloning has apparently arrived: today, cloned blastocysts
for re search, tomorrow cloned blastocysts for babymaking," said Leon Kass,
chairman of the president's council on bioethics.
Further doom-laden warnings arrived from the US Conference of Catholic
Bishops, which said there was nothing to prevent the next cloned embryo being used
for pregnancy.
"The how-to instructions have been posted," said Richard Doerflinger, a
spokesman.
No reputable scientific organisation in the US supports cloning for making
babies. Instead, the research community has been pressing for legislation that
would free scientists from restrictions in areas such as stem cell research.
Advocates of such research say the news from South Korea provides a
tremendous boost to prospects for therapeutic cloning, and makes it difficult for
Washington to block new areas of research in diabetes or Alzheimers.
"These scientific advances are going to force policy makers to do some
re-evaluating," said Sean Tipton, spokesman for the Coalition for the Advancement of
Medical Research. "This puts pressure on every policy maker who wants to
continue to say we don't care about the diseases you and your loved ones have."
Within the US, views on stem cell research are closely associated with the
abortion debate and with conservative and Christian groups opposed to it.
Unlike Britain, the US is in legal limbo on therapeutic cloning. Mr Bush
opposes the scientific use of stem cells and has outlawed federal funding for such
research.
However, the US Senate has yet to vote on two rival sets of legislation on
human cloning: a conservative version that would ban the practice outright, and
an alternative that would allow cloning for therapeutic purposes only.
Some states have enacted bans of their own. Research into all forms of
cloning is banned in Iowa, Virginia, Arkansas and Michigan, where the US scientist
who advised the South Korean team works.
Special report
<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/0,2759,395698,00.html">Ethics of genetics</A>
Explained
18.01.2002: <A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/theissues/article/0,6512,606430,00.html">Human cloning</A>
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