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Religions have uneasy truce with cloning Yonat Shimron, Staff Writer Just two months ago, religious groups were rejoicing over the news that scientists had found ways to create stem cells without destroying embryos. Now comes the news that a California research team has cloned a human embryo, and the issue just got muddier. Science, it seems, is outpacing the ability of many religious groups to respond to ethical and theological concerns raised by breakthroughs. Some have responded with emphatic denunciations of certain scientific exploits, such as cloning. Roman Catholics and many evangelical Christians oppose the technology -- period. Other religious groups make distinctions between two kinds of cloning -- a human embryo cloned for therapeutic purposes and a human embryo cloned for reproductive purposes. In the article published Thursday in the journal Stem Cells, California researchers were interested in cloning a human embryo so that future researchers could extract stem cells from it to repair damaged tissues. The California researchers did not clone an embryo to produce a child -- though some suspect the prospect of human cloning has now become real. Of the religious groups that support therapeutic cloning, many don't believe life begins at conception. For some, an embryo in a petri dish is not the same as an embryo implanted in a woman's uterus. The Orthodox Jewish movement and its more liberal Reform Jewish counterpart support therapeutic cloning. Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, a Mormon, supports therapeutic cloning. So do many Buddhist and Hindu groups. But when it comes to reproductive cloning, which scientists still consider too dangerous to attempt, more religious groups draw the line. "It's reducing human reproduction to manufacturing, completely divorced from the human relationship," said Richard Doerflinger, of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The United Methodist Church, likewise, has called for a moratorium on cloning-related research, whether for therapeutic or reproductive purposes, until the moral issues can be discussed. Unlike Catholics, Methodists do permit stem cell research on spare embryos created through the process of in-vitro fertilization. One of the biggest hurdles about cloning is its science-fiction image. It brings to mind dead people coming back to life, or people living forever, or factories where clones are produced on an assembly line. "It's hype or Hollywood," said Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. In fact, Caplan said, a cloned human is no different from an identical twin. A clone would not share the same thoughts or develop the attitudes as its progenitor. Still, for many religious groups human cloning is akin to playing God. In the Judeo Christian tradition, God is the one who imbues people with souls, and it wrong for scientists to assume that role. [log in to unmask] or (919) 829-4891 Rayilyn Brown Board Member AZNPF Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn