You can't stop me insists Dr Clone

WASHINGTON - Scientists are set to defend plans for human cloning experiments today to a panel grappling with the safety and ethics of making genetically identical people.

A National Academy of Sciences panel is gathering information for a report on whether the United States should impose a moratorium on human cloning, which the House of Representatives voted last week to outlaw.

A public meeting of the panel will feature presentations from Italian doctor Severino Antinori and Brigitte Boisselier, a biochemist and member of a UFO group known as the Raelians.

Both have announced plans to create cloned babies for couples.

Other scientists want to use cloning technology to test potential treatments for serious illnesses.

Antinori said yesterday that what he calls "therapeutic cloning" was a scientific development that could not and should not be stopped.

"You can't put up the barriers on therapeutic cloning," said Antinori, who has said up to 700 couples have volunteered to be part of his experiment.

"Cloning will help us put an end to so many diseases, give infertile men the chance to have children. We can't miss this opportunity."

He declined to confirm a report that he was poised to start his cloning programme in November.

The goal of therapeutic cloning is to reprogramme an adult's own cells to create new ones that can replace those that are diseased or cannot regenerate themselves.

His colleague Panos Zavos, a fertility specialist also scheduled to speak at the meeting, said they hoped to begin creating cloned embryos for infertile couples in November. The next step is implanting an embryo into a woman's uterus to start a pregnancy.

The House of Representatives' ban has already come under fire from American scientists, who say the threat of imprisonment and fines for anyone carrying out such work could force them abroad.

Human reproductive cloning is prohibited in many countries, and while Italy's new centre-right Government has not made any mention of cloning since winning an election in May, it is also likely to support a ban.

Italy's medical council, a professional regulatory organisation that can discipline or expel members, supports human experimentation only to prevent or cure pathological diseases.

Yesterday it urged Parliament to pass legislation on human cloning and set sanctions.

Antinori has said he may be forced to work on a boat in international waters to escape the bans.

Many scientists warn of horrific consequences if anyone tries to apply the techniques used to create Dolly the sheep to producing people. Animal cloning has high failure rates, and experts warn that most human attempts would end in miscarriages or deformed babies.

The Raelians, who believe in extraterrestrials and promote cloning as a chance for "eternal life", defended human cloning in a statement touting Boisselier's appearance before the panel.

The group said in vitro fertilisation was similarly feared two decades ago but had led to 200,000 births of healthy children.

The panel is charged with examining the science behind current cloning research as well as the ethics of creating a person with the same genetic makeup as another. Some critics say it is wrong to produce a person that is not genetically unique, even though the clone would be younger and would grow up in a different time period from his or her genetic twin.

- REUTERS

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