News that South Korean scientists have produced cloned human embryos seems to be genuine, but is highly controversial and raises widespread concern for the abuse of the science, says Dr Donald Bruce, Director of Society Religion and Technology Project of the Church of Scotland.  He attended this weekend’s meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Seattle where the results were presented formally.

Given that several maverick scientists have been competing with each other for the notoriety of creating cloned babies, regardless of either the ethics or the huge risks involved, today’s announcement must be seen as irresponsible science, unless there is now an immediate United Nations ban on reproductive human cloning.  In May 1997 the Church of Scotland were amongst the first to call for this.  An earlier proposal for a UN ban, which would have had universal support, was stalled when the USA wanted to extend the ban to therapeutic uses. This does not have the necessary support and now has been overtaken by today’s announcement.  The UN needs to bring back the original proposal to ban reproductive human cloning and enact it without delay. Dr Bruce addressed UN delegates in New York in 2002 in support of this ban.

While it is legal in the UK to create cloned embryos for stem cell research, it remains highly controversial, especially in Europe where the European Parliament has several times voted against so-called therapeutic cloning.  “We should guard against hyping the medical value of the discovery,” says Dr Bruce. “Despite the claims being made, therapeutic cloning seems unlikely ever to become a clinically reality. To provide a therapy for the hundreds of thousands of potential patients who suffer from degenerative diseases would require enormous numbers of human eggs. This seems unrealistic and probably too expensive. There is a danger that this discovery might only benefit the very rich instead of being a general benefit to humankind.” Cloned human embryos are more likely to be of use as research tools to understand the processes of cell differerentiation, but not in providing therapies themselves.