Friday, February 13, 2004, 12:49 A.M. Pacific
Copyright 2004, The Seattle Times
By Warren King and Hal Bernton
Seattle Times staff reporters

A South Korean scientific team, in Seattle yesterday to talk about the first-ever cloning of a human embryo, said its research could someday lead to a host of medical breakthroughs but should never be used for producing cloned babies.

"We call for ... every nation to have a ban on reproductive cloning," Shin Yong Moon, of Seoul National University, said at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Appearing before an international throng of reporters, the researchers said they want their technology to be used only to create embryonic stem cells, which have the potential to grow into many tissue types.

Scientists hope someday to use those "master" cells in producing replacements for cells damaged by disease or trauma, which could greatly aid in the treatment of spinal-cord injuries and such diseases as Alzheimer's and diabetes.

Using stem cells from the cloned embryo of the person needing them might also avoid a problem often encountered in transplants: rejection of "foreign" tissue.

But the research is controversial, and the news ignited a smoldering debate. Members of Congress and church leaders demanded legislation to ban all forms of human cloning, including embryonic cloning.

"It is unethical to tinker with human life," said Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa. A ban must be passed, he said, "before this unethical science comes to our shores."

The Bush administration favors such action and referred reporters to a statement by the president calling for "a comprehensive and effective ban."

"Human life is a creation, not a commodity, and should not be used as research material for reckless experiments," Bush said last month.

Religious leaders opposed to cloning say the cluster of embryonic cells used to produce stem cells represents a human life, and thus must be protected.

"If scientists will not voluntarily turn away from this abuse of science, a worldwide effort to ban human cloning is more urgently needed than ever," said Cardinal William Keeler, of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In the Senate, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, has led the fight against human-cloning research. Yesterday, Brownback said the "deliberate creation and destruction" of life through the process of embryonic stem-cell cloning was "morally wrong."

Brownback and others said they hoped the South Korean advances will spur support for a ban. But political realities suggest the debate will only deepen.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who voted against a bill passed last year by the House that called for a ban on human cloning, said legislation is needed to prevent cloning of babies but permit "lifesaving stem-cell research to proceed under strict ethical guidelines."

A bill pending in the Senate would ban cloning that created babies but allow embryonic stem-cell research to continue.

Seen as good news by many

There is also intense interest in the research from the U.S. biotechnology industry, which fears losing out on a potentially lucrative and vital new field in medicine. And the research has ignited hope among millions of Americans with diseases, who might one day benefit from stem-cell research.

"I think this research is a great day, and can be a whole new research road for horrible brain diseases like Parkinson's and ALS," said Valerie Estess, director of research for Project ALS. Her group is devoted to forwarding research into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a fatal neuromuscular disease. Estess' sister, theater producer Jennifer Estess, testified on behalf of the research last year and died of ALS in December.

Moon, a co-author of the study, said the medical use of stem cells derived from cloning will require at least another decade of research.

Just as in the United States, the research has stirred passions in Moon's homeland. A new law in South Korea, Moon said, requires his group to get a government license before proceeding with research. And in Seoul, two of the team's scientists were the target of street demonstrations and egg-throwing incidents.

Donald Kennedy, editor of the journal Science, which published the study online this week, said the South Koreans' work is no recipe for cloning babies.

"It does offer promise, but I emphasize long-range promise, not short-range promise," Kennedy said.

"It's a recipe only in the sense of saying that if you catch a turtle, you have a recipe for turtle soup. There would be much difficulty in using this as a step to reproductive cloning."

Calling for guidelines

Still, even some scientists suggest research guidelines are needed for cloning research.

One area would be protections for women who donate eggs, said Laurie Zoloth, a prominent bioethicist from Northwestern University. The South Korean team collected 242 eggs from 16 unpaid, anonymous volunteers. They also took from each woman cells from the ovaries.

"Scientists from many faiths and traditions will do the work, and citizens with many competing moral appeals will watch and worry and hope as it progresses," Zoloth said. "No one religion and no one moral authority can claim to be the final arbiter. ... Serious differences (will exist) in how we see the moral status of human embryos, how we think health care should be fairly distributed, what we argue that women can do with their bodies, and how scientific research can be reasonably regulated."

At least two laboratories in the United States have announced they have successfully conducted reproductive cloning. But their claims have not been substantiated by scientists.

Moon said other scientists from Asia and the United States already have visited the Seoul National University lab to learn about the technology. The Korean researchers do not intend to commercialize the stem-cell line they developed, he said. "We are very happy to do research with other biologists."

How a human embryo is cloned

• The clone is made using an egg from which the nucleus has been removed, and a cumulus cell donated by the same woman. Cumulus cells are found in ovaries.

• The nucleus from the cell is inserted into the empty egg.

• The egg is activated using a chemical process.

• The resulting embryo is allowed to grow to about 100 cells.

• Stem cells are then harvested from the early embryo. Stem cells are the master cells and have the potential to form any kind of cell or tissue in the body.

• Therapeutic cloning involves using stem cells to develop treatments for a range of diseases, from diabetes to Parkinson's. The cells could also be used to treat spinal-cord injuries, cancer and heart disease.

• Reproductive cloning would create an identical human being, but human reproductive cloning is banned in Britain and many other countries. Last year a U.N. committee derailed a U.S.-led drive for a broad global ban on all forms of human cloning, including medical research on stem cells, voting to defer drafting the treaty until 2005.