Scientists urge UN to allow limited human cell cloning

(April 14, 2004)

If GENEVA (AFP) - A group of international scientists urged the United Nations (news - web sites) to allow regulated cloning of cells from human embryos for medical research, and to reject a proposed global ban on all human cloning.

The scientists warned that an outright ban on human cloning, proposed by Costa Rica and the United States at the United Nations last year, threatened to wipe out research into therapy that could provide cures for ailments including cancer, liver disease, blood disorders and spinal injuries.

"Therapeutic freedom could be something that could save lives. We don't want an absolute irresponsible freedom, we are in favour of rules," said Bernat Soria, a professor at the University of Elx in Spain.

"But we think that a total prohibition, without distinction, paradoxically could help the spread of illegal research and clandestine laboratories and it would be impossible to check what's going on," he told journalists.

"I am completely against reproductive cloning, and I think a clear line should be drawn between reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning," Soria added.

Countries such as Britain, Canada and France have been trying to strike a balance between fears that the rapid growth in gene technology could allow humans to be reproduced -- reproductive cloning -- and demands for limited cloning of stem cells in the quest for new treatments.

But others have taken a harder line, and the divisive debate on the Costa Rican proposal is due to resume later this year in the UN General Assembly in New York.

Soria has been working on stem cells from mice capable of producing insulin in the initial stages of developing a possible cure for diabetes from similar experiments on human stem cells.

"There is a potential and there's a long way to go. If we block research now we will never find a solution," said Swiss clinical researcher Alois Gratwohl.

"I'm convinced we should ... find other methods instead of a complete ban on everything that puts therapeutic and reproductive cloning in the same boat," he added.

Gratwohl floated the idea of a UN control agency that could make spot checks on laboratories to ensure they are not working on reproductive cloning.

The agency would be similar to existing international bodies set up to prevent countries producing chemical or nuclear weapons.

The scientists were brought together by an association formed by an Italian academic, Luca Coscioni, backed by 50 Nobel laureates.

A member of Italy's Radical Party - which is supporting the move - told AFP that their appeal was presented to officials attending the annual meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission here, as well as to the World Health Organisation.