Human clones: down the road of no return

The dream of creating life in the laboratory is near. Environment reporter ANNE BESTON looks at the issues.

What is really scary is not the prospect of human cloning - it is that some scientists speculate it may already have happened in secret.

In laboratories around the world, giant leaps are being made in human and animal cell research.

Yesterday it was reported that Australia has been home to secret cloning experiments for two years. Researchers implanted a cell containing human DNA into a pig in 1999 but terminated the embryo after it lived for 32 days.

The experiment was carried out by Melbourne company Stemcell Sciences, according to Sydney's Daily Telegraph.

Look at the scientific developments in the past five years alone:

* The world's first cloned animal, Dolly the sheep, was revealed to the world.

* Genetic modification of food has moved so fast that consumers were eating genetically engineered foods before a consensus on how they should be labelled was reached.

* In the past few months the human genome has been mapped.

But although scientists mapping the genome were happy to have their progress watched by the world, researchers into cloning may be a little shyer.

In 1997, when the Roslin Institute in Scotland produced Dolly, her creators waited a cautious seven months before revealing her.

What is this latest proposal for human cloning?


The human clone debate stepped up a gear this week when a consortium of Italian, American and Israeli scientists announced they aim to have a human cloned embryo ready for implantation into a woman's womb within two years.

Professor Severino Antinori, a fertility expert who has already helped a 62-year-old woman give birth, and his American colleague, Professor Panayiotis Zavos, say they have 600 to 700 childless couples registered to take part.

Their announcement at a Rome conference at the weekend caused pandemonium from world media. But the international medical and scientific community greeted the news with scepticism.

The safety of the technology that produced Dolly is considered too dubious to even think of using it for a human clone.

The researchers' credibility was also questioned.

Professor Zavos, who resigned from Kentucky University to lead the project, has 20 years' experience in reproductive medicine, but checks on his credentials revealed that his claim to belong to an eminent American reproductive society is false.

But the two men, along with Israeli Ali Ben Abraham, say they have the technology - and the money - to go ahead.

Why would you want to clone a human?


Professor Antinori claims cloning is the answer to male infertility.

Infertile wealthy men would pay millions to have offspring with their genetic imprint, even if the child had no genetic or biological relationship with the mother.

The definition of clone is a group of organisms produced asexually from one stock or ancestor.

There are endless complex and emotional reasons why someone might want a cloned child. Replacing a dead son or daughter after becoming infertile is just one.

The post-menopausal Italian woman in her 60s who was able to give birth by in vitro fertilisation through Professor Antinori's clinic was grieving for a son she lost in a motorbike accident. She named the second son Ricardo, after the first.

How would you clone a human?


In the same way Dolly the sheep was cloned. Take one unfertilised cell from a human egg, or oocyte if you want to be technical. Remove the 23 chromosomes and nucleus from that cell - all its genetic information, in other words.

Take a donor cell, maybe from an infertile man, and fuse it into the egg cell with a tiny electric pulse. Then artificially switch the cell on using a chemical reaction that mimics the reaction when a normal sperm fuses with an egg. Keep it in a test-tube for seven days, then pop it into the female womb where it can develop as a normal pregnancy.

Surely there are laws about all this?


Right now there is no law in this country banning the cloning of a human being. But New Zealand will have to grapple with the ethical ramifications of reproductive technology in the same way as the rest of the world. European countries, including Spain and France, have simply banned human cloning by law.

There are two bills before Parliament's health select committee that deal with cloning. Hamilton Labour list MP Dianne Yates introduced her private member's bill into the House in 1996 and it languished until this year.

Now the committee has restarted public submissions on the bill, which has four main provisions:

* Reproductive technology clinics will have to be licensed.

* Donors must register with the clinic and be traceable.

* Cloning of a human being would be outlawed.

* There would be a ban on any commercialisation of the reproductive processes - ie, no trading in embryos, sperm, eggs - or babies.

Called the Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill, it is likely to be put together with a bill promoted by former National MP Sir Douglas Graham to become one law.

The committee chairwoman, Labour MP Judy Keall, hopes to have draft legislation back before Parliament this year.

What about policing the people in white coats?


There is no statutory obligation on fertility clinics or researchers to tell anyone what they are doing.

But as professionals, they are required to refer experiments that break new ground to a Government advisory committee. Called the National Ethics Committee on Human Assisted Reproduction, it is chaired by Hamilton lay person Rosemary De Luca.

Registered clinics apply for permission to carry out their research and have their application approved or denied. Mrs De Luca says the committee does turn down some applications but mostly makes recommendations and gives advice to the Government. It has no statutory powers.

What's this talk about stem cells, and what has it got to do with cloning?


Britain has made an exception in its recently introduced reproductive laws to allow research into embryonic stem cells. These cells are taken from aborted foetuses in the earliest stages of development and are enormously pliable because they have not yet been programmed to become a foot, an arm, a leg.

So they can be grown in the laboratory to produce every kind of human tissue from livers to brains to muscles. If scientists are able to harness their powers, embryonic stem cells could be used as the body's repair kit, providing cures for diseases from Parkinson's to diabetes to Alzheimer's.

It is possible that one day whole organs could be grown in the laboratory for transplant into a patient with liver cancer or heart disease.

But Dianne Yates is unimpressed. Her bill outlaws experiments using embryonic stem cells

"Where do they get those stem cells from? From aborted foetuses. You can do the research on animal cells or adult cells, not on cells from eggs or foetuses."

She has been a strong anti-clone campaigner and believes we are moving into the realms of science fiction.

"Who's going to afford it? Are we going to live in a world where you clone a bunch of front-row props or factory workers? I haven't talked to anyone that thinks cloning a human is a good idea."

Are we cloning animals here?


Dr David Wells, a scientist at Crown Institute AgResearch in Ruakura, Hamilton East, produced the country's first cloned calf three years ago. He is also cloning sheep.

The calf project began in 1996 and he says he has a mortality rate of only 20 per cent - about twice that of animals living on a farm which reproduce naturally. A mating of a cloned ram with a cloned ewe produced normal offspring.

He now has 50 cloned calves of a variety of ages. He says the animals are not sterile and believes they will have normal lifespans, although it is too early yet to prove that.

He has heard the rumours that Dolly is ageing prematurely but does not think they are necessarily true. The point of his research is livestock improvement and producing specialised meat or dairy products from cloned animals.

What about all those dead cloned embryos?


Like most scientists, Dr Wells cannot resist the odd euphemism. Calves born deformed or sick are not "viable" and are "euthanised." Problems often occur during gestation when the surrogate cow's womb rejects the cloned embryo, causing miscarriage.

Calves are also born with kidney or respiratory problems but he has not bred calves with gross deformities, he says.

But longtime British animal rights campaigner Joyce D'Silva, who came to New Zealand last month to testify against genetic engineering of animals before the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification, says animals are horribly maltreated during the cloning process.

Artificially induced lactation in mammals, massive hormone injections and the use of temporary surrogate mothers - such as rabbits or sheep which are then killed - are just some of the methods used in cloning, she says.

Joyce D'Silva claims scientists are quick to boast of their success but less likely to be specific about the number of animals and their deformities produced during cloning.

What's the difference between cloning a sheep and cloning a human being?


First, how do you experiment with a human clone? What do you do with foetuses born grossly malformed but alive? How many times would you try?

Experiments in cloning farm animals have told scientists a lot, but much remains unknown. When it comes to cloning a human, the unknowns become far greater. We have cells that are not found in any other species.

Scientists cannot predict what will happen if we use the technology that brought us Dolly the sheep to clone a human being. Will the human clone be identical to the donor? Will it have a normal lifespan? Will it be horribly disfigured? No one knows.

Has Missy the dog been cloned yet?


Nobody is sure. Missy is a collie-husky cross belonging to an American billionaire. He wants to clone the dog for its fine qualities, and scientists at A&M University in Texas aim to help him.

Cost is no object: Missy's anonymous owner has plonked down $US3.7 million so far for the research.