Bioethics panel puts brakes on cloning research

The significance of this recommendation may rest with its impact on federal lawmakers.

By Andis Robeznieks, AMNews staff. Aug. 5, 2002.

Four of the six MDs on President Bush's Council on Bioethics were among the 10 members who voted recently to recommend banning reproductive cloning and place a four-year moratorium on therapeutic or biomedical research cloning. Seven members voted against the ban.

Panel Chair Leon Kass, MD, PhD, along with William B. Hurlbut, MD, Charles Krauthammer, MD, and Paul McHugh, MD, all voted with the majority; while Daniel Foster, MD, and Janet Rowley, MD, voted for a proposal allowing regulated use of cloned embryos for biomedical research.

According to Dr. Rowley, a professor of medicine and of molecular genetics and cell biology at the University of Chicago Medical Center, the recommendation has "no direct significance" on practicing physicians, but it has potential significance because of how it could sway Congress to vote on the various cloning-related bills under consideration.

"The impact will be if the Senate voted to approve cloning for biomedical research," she said. "That could potentially free up money for this type of research, and one hopes that at least some part of the research, over time, will prove beneficial for treatment of various types of diseases."

Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, sponsor of a bill banning all human cloning, issued a statement that he was "heartened" by the council's recommendation but disagreed with separating the types of cloning.

"Ultimately, all human cloning is reproductive," his statement read.

California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein, sponsor of a bill that would ban reproductive cloning but allow cloning for stem cell research, issued a contrasting statement. [...]