It all seems so, well, otherworldly. A company called Clonaid, set up in the Bahamas nearly six years ago, claims to have produced several cloned children. The company is run by members of the Raelian movement, a strange sect that belieives extraterrestrials created life on Earth, which puts it on the fringes of science and business. Here, in question-and-answer format, is some background to guide you through this bizarre story:
Q: So have humans been cloned?
A: The unsatisfying answer is that no one knows yet. Clonaid chief scientist Brigit Boisselier has backed away from her initial promises to do DNA testing, which would prove whether or not the children are clones.
Q: Why is the news media paying so much attention to claims by a group that thinks extraterrestrials created life on Earth?
A: Not all biologists are ready to dismiss the cloning claims. They point out that Boisselier is a serious scientist, that Clonaid has been at it for years, and that the actual cloning procedure is relatively simple — something any one of thousands of trained embryologists could perform.
Plus, other credible efforts are under way to produce human clones. And many deep-pocketed individuals are willing to pay to have themselves — or members of their family — cloned. So even if no human clones have been produced yet, it will happen in the near future.
Q: Could humans be cloned now?
A: Unquestionably, yes. Since the first cloned sheep, Dolly, surprised the world back in 1997, the cloning of animals has become almost routine. Companies have been able to churn out cloned cows, goats, and other critters, some of them genetically engineered to make valuable pharmaceutical products. “With cows, it has been very easy to do,” says Princeton biology professor Lee Silver.
Human biology is even better understood than that of cows, so the cloning of people is pretty much inevitable. Indeed, the actual procedure is only a small step beyond what’s already routinely done in test tube baby clinics.
A: Not yet. Even in cows, cloning works only a small percentage of the time. Most often, embryos created by cloning don’t make it to birth, and some of those that are born have serious defects. Even apparently healthy creatures, like Dolly, have abnormalities — such as enlarged organs or larger body size — that make them different from their progenitors.
Q: Why?
A: Consider what happens in cloning. In normal reproduction, embryos are created when sperm and egg have an ecstatic union. Each contributes half of the genes needed to make a new animal or person.
With cloning, the idea is start with a full set of genes from an adult. So scientists use a cell that already has a full complement of genes, such as a skin cell. They extract the nucleus of the cell — with all the DNA — and transfer that nucleus into an egg cell that has had its own genes removed. Then scientists spark the cell into dividing, creating an embryo. The final step is implanting the embryo in the womb, just as with today’s in-vitro fertilization.
In theory, those genes will create a new being that’s genetically identical to the one from whom the genes were taken. In practice, however, humans are shaped by more than the genes in the nuclei of cells. DNA is also included in cells’ energy factories, called mitochondria. And factors in the cytoplasm of cells — the stuff around the nucleus — seem to affect how the genes are expressed. In addition, the physical manipulation involved in stuffing the new nucleus into the egg cells could cause damage that results in a defective fetus.
That’s why virtually every scientist strongly believes that it’s too early to begin cloning people — the risks of creating defective fetuses and children are still way too high.
Make no mistake, though: Any normal child produced through cloning will be indistinguishable from any other member of the human race. Cloning, by itself, won’t result in such science-fiction scenarios as creating a group of superhumans, cyber-bots, or drones.
Q: Can’t Congress stop this?
A: Not really. Congress could write a law banning cloning — the House has already passed a bill that would do just that. But a ban in the U.S. wouldn’t put the brakes on research — all the companies need to do is move to a friendly country, like the Bahamas or Italy.
In addition, this is an extraordinarily difficult issue, one that’s entwined with the politics of abortion and biomedical research. It’s relatively simple to write legislation making it illegal to create a clone that has to be implanted in a woman’s womb to be carried to term. But another type of cloning isn’t so clear-cut. Dubbed therapeutic cloning, the idea is create just an embryo — not an actual person — that can be then used for research or to supply cells that could be used to treat disease.
Say you’re dying of Alzheimer’s disease (news – web sites). What if it were possible to take your genes, use them to create an embryo, and then grow new nerve cells from that embryo that could cure your terrible disease? Scientists believe this approach could revolutionize medicine.
Right-to-life groups are horrified at the idea of creating embryos for research and medicine, however. As a result, they’ve been trying to ban therapeutic cloning as well, which pits them against the powerful biotech industry and biomedical lobby. The House-passed bill essentially bans both types of cloning, but the Senate is unlikely to go along with its provisions. That’s why Congress is having such a hard time hashing out a final bill.
Q: So what happens next?
A: Actually, cloning itself won’t result in any earth-shattering changes. Princeton biologist Silver just came back from a meeting in Washington on genetic engineering. “Everyone agreed that cloning is a red herring and that it’s overhyped,” he says. Because it could cause birth defects, “it might have negative effect on a small number of unfortunate children,” he says. “But it’s not going to change society.”
In the absence of any legislation or regulation, cloning attempts will quietly continue. Eventually, one of them will succeed [if it hasn’t happened already], and humankind will have taken another step down the road of biological engineering. Then, if cloning ever becomes routine — as in-vitro fertilization has — the door is open to further manipulation. That would bring out another contentious issue: It’s theoretically possible to slip new and improved genes into clones, just as companies do now with cows. That scenario contains a morass of ethical questions, too.
By John Carey, Businessweek
