MAIN PAGE
WORLD
U.S.
WEATHER
BUSINESS
SPORTS
POLITICS
LAW
SCI-TECH
SPACE
HEALTH
ENTERTAINMENT
TRAVEL
EDUCATION
CAREER
IN-DEPTH
QUICK NEWS
LOCAL
COMMUNITY
MULTIMEDIA
E-MAIL SERVICES
CNNtoGO
ABOUT US
CNN TV
what's on
show transcripts
CNN Headline News
CNN International
askCNN
EDITIONS
CNN.com Asia
CNN.com Europe
set your edition
Languages --------- Spanish Portuguese German Italian Danish Japanese Korean
Time, Inc. --------- Time.com People Fortune EW
Dr. Jeffrey Kahn: Ethics of human cloning
November 27, 2001 Posted: 2:45 PM EST (1945 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeffrey Kahn is the Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota, and a professor in the University's School of Medicine, School of Public Health, and in their Department of Philosophy. He writes a bi-weekly column about ethics for CNN.com. He joined the CNN.com chat room from Minnesota. The opinions expressed in this transcript are those of Jeffrey Kahn, and are not necessarily shared by CNN.
CNN: What was it that these scientists actually created here? Was it a full replication of an embryo?
JEFFREY KAHN: That's a question we don't know the answer to yet. Some of the scientists looking at the research reports have argued that what they created wasn't a clone, but just an "activated egg." If that's true, then the announcement isn't as impressive as we thought, but it's still a step on the way to cloning human embryos.
CHAT PARTICIPANT: Is most of the opposition to cloning human embryos coming from a religious perspective?
KAHN: I'm not sure most of it is based on religious objection, since the thrust of the argument is that it's unethical to create human life that will be destroyed. People who hold that view may come to those beliefs from their religious convictions, but could also hold them for other reasons.
VIDEO
President George W. Bush and U.S. lawmakers spoke out against the cloning of human beings. CNN's Kelly Wallace reports (November 26)
Play video
(QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CNN's Wolf Blitzer interviews Michael West regarding human embryo cloning (November 25)
Play video
(QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)
MORE STORIES
UK set to ban human cloning
The company behind the clones: Advanced Cell Technology
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CNN Access: "I'm just trying to help people who are sick" An interview with Michael West, ACT's president
RESOURCES
• In-Depth: The stem cell debate
• Message board: Human embryo use
• What you've said
How it was done
The technique used by Advanced Cell Technology scientists is called somatic cell nuclear transfer, also referred to as human therapeutic cloning.
A cell from a patient's body is combined with an egg cell that has had its DNA removed. This reprograms the body cell's DNA back to an embryonic state, and stem cells identical to the patient's are produced. Stem cells can form any cell or tissue in the human body.
Of eight eggs, two divided to form early embryos composed of four cells. One progressed to a six-cell stage before it stopped dividing. This breakthrough occurred October 13, 2001.
Source: Advanced Cell Technology Inc.
CHAT PARTICIPANT: Does this line of science truly hold out hope for disease cures or it is only theory?
KAHN: It's too soon to tell. I think many researchers truly believe that stem cell research offers great promise. We can't predict whether it will work or not without doing the science, so I think the research should go forward, albeit with limits.
CHAT PARTICIPANT: What is the ethical difference between cloning and in vitro fertilization?
KAHN: In vitro fertilization (IVF) mixes egg and sperm together in a petri dish -- that means there is genetic contribution from two people. Egg from the woman, and sperm from the man. But in cloning, all the genetic contribution comes from a single person, effectively creating a twin of the person being cloned. Technically, cloning is much more difficult since it requires manipulation of the egg to get the cloned person's genetic material inside it.
CHAT PARTICIPANT: Isn't this research a violation of current laws?
KAHN: It would be a violation of current federal law to do cloning with federal funds. But Advanced Cell Technology is a private company, and there are currently no federal laws that address cloning or other embryo research performed in the private sector.
CHAT PARTICIPANT: Won't cloning be done outside the U.S. as well?
KAHN: That is very likely to happen, especially if there is a ban on cloning technologies being used in the U.S. There is an irony in that if we allow cloning research and application (with restrictions) in the U.S., we'll have a better chance to control it than if we ban it. Since a ban will drive people out of the U.S. to do cloning work.
CNN: Is there any fear that by publishing the results of these scientists work, that it will teach those who want to use cloning for reproductive use how to do it?
KAHN: That is one real concern, though since it wasn't so successful I'm not sure how big an issue it turns out to be. Advanced Cell Technology weighed this issue, and decided that being as open and public as possible was a more responsible way to perform their research.
CHAT PARTICIPANT: There's talk about banning even private research into cloning in the U.S. Are there any other scientific fields of research that are presently banned in the U.S.?
KAHN: That's a great question. There are certain practices that are banned--we can't kill a patient for his or her organs, for example--but no general practices that have a sweeping ban as is being proposed for cloning.
CHAT PARTICIPANT: Professor Kahn, given that human beings always fear new technology, is it possible that down the road we may find that there is nothing really to fear (as we have found with things like birth control and in vitro fertilization)?
KAHN: People have offered the example of IVF or heart transplant to support this point. I think cloning is different, given what it represents. First, it's not yet safe. Second, it has all sorts of potential impacts on the child who would be created by it. So until we understand much more about both, I think it's irresponsible to go forward with reproductive cloning.
CHAT PARTICIPANT: How realistic do you think Clonaid's professed activities are?
KAHN: I'm not sure how close Clonaid is to creating an embryo, but there are a number of groups working on the technology. My guess is that we'll hear that a woman is pregnant with a cloned embryo sometime in the next 5-10 years. That's sooner than I think we'll see positive results from therapeutic cloning, which has much more scientific complexity.
CHAT PARTICIPANT: As a bioethicist, don't you think that public disclosure of such experiments is being carried out prematurely?
KAHN: I think there's a fine line. On one hand, it's important that a private company that has no obligation to report its research is being public. On the other hand, we don't want companies to over hype their results in an effort to create news, help them raise funding, etc. I'm not sure which this is, but as more information comes out, I expect it will be a combination of the two.
CHAT PARTICIPANT: Dr. Kahn, if I clone myself, will it be exactly like me?
KAHN: It will be just like your identical twin, though born at a later time. So just like twins are not the same person, your clone wouldn't be "you." It would share your genetic makeup, and probably look very much like you. But it would be brought up in a somewhat different time, place, environment, etc. All of that has an effect on the people we turn out to be. What is worrisome is that you could give birth to your own twin, or the twin of your mother or father. Very odd.
CHAT PARTICIPANT: Dr. Kahn from a medical point of view is a clone and a twin the same, technically?
KAHN: Almost. It turns out that in cloning techniques, a donor egg is used. While the nuclear DNA is provided by the cloned person, there is some DNA from the egg donor, in the egg in the egg's cytoplasm. So there is some very small genetic contribution from the egg donor, meaning it's not exactly the same as a twin, since a twin is the result of a single embryo splitting into two separate embryos.
CHAT PARTICIPANT: What is the philosophy concerning cloning within the medical community?
KAHN: I don't think there is a consensus. But the majority view is that (1) its too risky to even think about, and (2) we need to discuss the ethical and social implications much further.
CNN: Where do we go from here?
KAHN: I think the announcement is an urgent call for making strong public policy in this area. We shouldn't have a situation where there are some (very limited) rules for publicly funded research, but no rules at all for research done in the private sector. I think we need to be clear that there is a distinction between research and therapeutic uses of cloning and using clones for reproduction. And I think we need to be very careful to avoid knee-jerk policy responses and ban all forms of cloning technologies, since the benefits of therapeutic cloning are worth protecting so long as we can avoid it sliding into reproductive uses.
CHAT PARTICIPANT: Do you have any closing comments to share with us?
KAHN: If people feel strongly about this issue, they should contact their members of Congress, since there will be loud and long policy debates on this issue.
CNN: Thank you for joining us today
KAHN: Thanks for all the great questions.
Jeffrey Kahn joined the CNN.com chat room from Minnesota and typed for himself. This is an edited transcript of the interview which took place on Tuesday, November 27, 2001. The opinions expressed in this transcript are those of Jeffrey Kahn, and are not necessarily shared by CNN.
3-D Aircraft
Stem Cell Debate
Flight Risk
Shop: Fall Favorites
RELATED STORIES:
• Pro-cloning group claims to have embryos
November 27, 2001
• Human embryo created through cloning
November 26, 2001
RELATED SITES:
• Advanced Cell Technology Inc.
• Clonaid
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
TOP STORIES:
• Northern Alliance divided over peacekeepers
• N. Alliance mixed on peacekeeping force
• Administration mulling future fronts
• CIA says officer first U.S. combat death
• Taliban prisoner revolt crushed, cleanup begins
(More)
Search CNN.com CNNSI.com CNNmoney.com The Web
Back to the top © 2001 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
An AOL Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us.