{"id":10542,"date":"2015-08-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/thenewatlantis.com\/publications\/preface-cloning-then-and-now"},"modified":"2020-09-26T14:04:27","modified_gmt":"2020-09-26T18:04:27","slug":"preface-cloning-then-and-now","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.thenewatlantis.com\/publications\/preface-cloning-then-and-now","title":{"rendered":"Preface: Cloning Then and Now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In May 2013, American scientists announced a long-awaited development: that they had produced stem cells from cloned human embryos. Using a technique called nuclear transfer \u2014 the same technique employed by Scottish researchers over a decade earlier to create the cloned sheep Dolly \u2014 Shoukhrat Mitalipov and his team at Oregon Health & Science University removed the nuclei from human egg cells and inserted nuclei taken from skin cells; the resulting cloned embryos were then destroyed to produce stem cells. The researchers\u2019 paper, published online in the science journal Cell<\/i>,[1]<\/a><\/sup> became one of the most talked-about items in the scientific community in 2013.[2]<\/a><\/sup> It was labeled \u201ca holy grail\u201d by University of Pennsylvania researcher John Gearhart.[3]<\/a><\/sup> \u201cThis is a huge scientific advance,\u201d said Harvard scientist Dr. George Daley, \u201cbut it\u2019s going to, I think, raise the specter of controversy again.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mitalipov also expected as much, noting in a press release that \u201cnuclear transfer breakthroughs often lead to a public discussion about the ethics of human cloning.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/sup> <\/i>A reporter for Nature<\/i> opined that Mitalipov\u2019s announcement \u201cis sure to rekindle\u201d the debate about cloning.[6]<\/a><\/sup> Declared the author Wesley J. Smith on National Review Online<\/i>: \u201cThe great cloning debate is about to begin.\u201d[7]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet no such debate has materialized. While news of the Oregon cloning breakthrough was widely reported, very few publications offered editorials or op-eds discussing its implications; radio, television, and Internet outlets produced nearly no in-depth analyses or panel discussions; and policymakers stayed almost entirely silent.[8]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contrast this muted response to the public reaction following researcher Ian Wilmut\u2019s 1997 announcement that he and his colleagues had used nuclear transfer to create Dolly, the first cloned mammal. World leaders condemned the research. The U.S. Congress held a series of hearings on the ethics of cloning, a federal bioethics commission was charged with making \u201cevery effort to consult with ethicists, theologians, scientists, physicians, and other citizens\u201d to address the ethical and legal implications of the Dolly breakthrough,[9]<\/a><\/sup> and President Bill Clinton signed an executive order forbidding the use of federal funds for cloning research.[10]<\/a><\/sup> The media coverage was intense, with hundreds of op-eds, radio discussions, and television debates, not to mention a flood of books and academic articles.[11]<\/a><\/sup> A handful of biotech boosters made the case for cloning, like molecular biologist Lee Silver, who argued that cloning would allow genetic engineering to become a reality.[12]<\/a><\/sup> On the other side were arrayed critics, like Pope John Paul II, who in 2001 condemned cloning as \u201cirresponsible\u201d and \u201cunworthy of man.\u201d[13]<\/a><\/sup> The United Nations General Assembly in 2005 adopted a declaration calling on its member nations to \u201cprohibit all forms of human cloning inasmuch as they are incompatible with human dignity and the protection of human life.\u201d[14]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, these passionate and proactive debates regarding both the extraordinary hopes for and the deep moral anxieties about human cloning have all but disappeared from the public discourse \u2014 a failing this report is intended to help rectify. As human cloning has arrived on our doorstep, we need now more than ever to discuss the ethical problems it raises and to develop a plausible political and legal approach to address those problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Notes<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
[1]<\/a> Masahito Tachibana et al.<\/i>, \u201cHuman Embryonic Stem Cells Derived by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer,\u201d Cell<\/i> 153, no. 6 (June 6, 2013): 1228\u200a\u2013\u200a1238, http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1016\/j.cell.2013.05.006<\/a>.<\/div>\n\n\n\n
[2]<\/a> Mitalipov\u2019s discovery was featured by the editors of Nature<\/i> in their top-ten list of 2013 discoveries, and was among the contenders for Science<\/i> magazine\u2019s breakthrough of the year. \u201c365 days: Nature<\/i>\u2019s 10,\u201d Nature <\/i>504 (December 19, 2013): 357\u200a\u2013\u200a365, http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1038\/504357a<\/a>; \u201cHuman Cloning at Last,\u201d Science<\/i> 342, no. 6165 (December 20, 2013): 1436\u200a\u2013\u200a1437, http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1126\/science.342.6165.1436-a<\/a>.<\/div>\n\n\n\n
[3]<\/a> Rob Stein and Michaeleen Doucleff, \u201cScientists Clone Human Embryos To Make Stem Cells,\u201d National Public Radio, May 15, 2013, http:\/\/npr.org\/blogs\/health\/2013\/05\/15\/183916891\/scientists-clone-human-embryos-to-make-stem-cells<\/a>.<\/div>\n\n\n\n
[4]<\/a> Ibid.<\/i><\/i><\/div>\n\n\n\n
[5]<\/a> \u201cOHSU research team successfully converts human skin cells into embryonic stem cells\u201d (press release), Oregon Health & Science University, May 15, 2013, http:\/\/www.ohsu.edu\/xd\/about\/news_events\/news\/2013\/05-15-ohsu-research-team-succe.cfm<\/a>.<\/div>\n\n\n\n
[6]<\/a> David Cyranoski, \u201cHuman Stem Cells Created By Cloning,\u201d Nature<\/i> 497 (May 15, 2013): 295, http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1038\/497295a<\/a>.<\/div>\n\n\n\n
[7]<\/a> Wesley J. Smith, \u201cHuman Cloning Obfuscation 6: German Style\u201d (blog post), National Review Online<\/i>, May 20, 2013, http:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/human-exceptionalism\/348874\/human-cloning-obfuscation-6-german-style<\/a>.<\/div>\n\n\n\n
[8]<\/a> For example, a search for the phrase \u201chuman cloning\u201d in the LexisNexis database of English-language newspapers gives 85 results for the week following the announcement of Mitalipov\u2019s cloning paper (May 15 to May 22, 2013) and only another 150 for the rest of 2013 (May 23 to December 31, 2013). (See endnote 11 below for comparison.)<\/div>\n\n\n\n
[9]<\/a> National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC), Cloning Human Beings<\/i>, Rockville, Md., 1997, available at https:\/\/bioethicsarchive.georgetown.edu\/nbac\/pubs\/cloning1\/cloning.pdf<\/a>.<\/div>\n\n\n\n
[10]<\/a> William J. Clinton, \u201cRemarks Announcing the Prohibition on Federal Funding for Cloning of Human Beings and an Exchange With Reporters,\u201d Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)<\/i>, March 4, 1997, Washington, D.C., 230, http:\/\/www.gpo.gov\/fdsys\/pkg\/PPP-1997-book1\/pdf\/PPP-1997-book1-doc-pg230.pdf<\/a>.<\/div>\n\n\n\n
[11]<\/a> A search for the phrase \u201chuman cloning\u201d in the LexisNexis database of English-language newspapers gives 208 results for just the first week following Wilmut\u2019s announcement (February 22 to March 1, 1997). The following month (March 2 to March 31, 1997) gives another 403 results. For the remainder of that year (April 1 to December 31, 1997), there are another 501 results. Calendar year 1998 gives another 1,080 results, and calendar year 1999 gives 623. A search of the Library of Congress online catalogue for the phrase \u201chuman cloning\u201d gives nine books published in 1997, fifteen published in 1998, and seventeen in 1999. (See endnote 8 above for comparison.)<\/div>\n\n\n\n
[12]<\/a> Lee M. Silver, Remaking Eden<\/i>, (New York: Avon Books, 1997), 151.<\/div>\n\n\n\n
[13]<\/a> Pope John Paul II, \u201cDialogue Between Cultures for a Civilization of Love and Peace,\u201d January 1, 2001, http:\/\/w2.vatican.va\/content\/john-paul-ii\/en\/messages\/peace\/documents\/hf_jp-ii_mes_20001208_xxxiv-world-day-for-peace.html<\/a>.<\/div>\n\n\n\n
[14]<\/a> United Nations General Assembly, Fifty-ninth session, Resolution 59\/280 \u201cUnited Nations Declaration on Human Cloning\u201d (adopted March 8, 2005), http:\/\/www.un.org\/en\/ga\/search\/view_doc.asp?symbol=A\/RES\/59\/280<\/a>. For more information on the UN deliberations, see the online archives of the Ad Hoc Committee on an International Convention against the Reproductive Cloning of Human Beings, available at http:\/\/www.un.org\/law\/cloning\/<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From “The Threat of Human Cloning: Ethics, Recent Developments, and the Case for Action”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18053,"template":"","article_type":[16],"noteworthy_people":[],"topics":[2264,5023,2291,5011,2279,5045],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenewatlantis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/10542"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenewatlantis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenewatlantis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenewatlantis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenewatlantis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/10542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenewatlantis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thenewatlantis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenewatlantis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=10542"},{"taxonomy":"noteworthy_people","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenewatlantis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/noteworthy_people?post=10542"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thenewatlantis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=10542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}