Kofi Annan in favour of human cloning against the Vatican
As the world debates scientific and ethical questions concerning embryo cloning, the Church states its opposition to an ethically irresponsible science.
New York (AsiaNews) The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is in favour of therapeutic cloning. "Obviously it is an issue for the member-states to decide," Mr Annan said, "but as an individual and in my personal view, I think I would go for therapeutic cloning."
Mr Annan's statement comes as the Sixth (Legal) Committee of the General Assembly meets to discuss Costa Rica's draft for a total ban on human cloning, including cloning for "therapeutic purposes".
Human cloning means creating human embryos with the intention of destroying them after extracting stem cells to be used in treating genetic disorders.
Costa Rica and another 50 countriesincluding the UShave joined forces to present a draft proposal that would ban all forms of human cloning.
Belgium, on the other hand, leads a group of about 20 countries (among them the United Kingdom, Denmark, Japan and South Korea) that are in favour of "therapeutic" but not reproductive cloning.
Mgr Celestino Migliore, Vatican representative at the United Nations, presented the point of view of the Catholic Church for whom the distinction between "reproductive" and "therapeutic" cloning does not exist. "From an ethical and anthropological standpoint," he said, "so-called therapeutic cloning, creating human embryos with the intention of destroying them, even if undertaken with the goal of possibly helping sick patients in the future, seems very clearly incompatible with respect for the dignity of the human being, making one human life nothing more than the instrument of another."
Mgr Migliore rejected any suggestions that the Church was opposed to scientific research. Instead, he urged member states to invest in adult stem cell research. He stressed that "the choice is not between science and ethics, but between science that is ethically responsible and science that is not."
The Vatican envoy stressed that adult stem cell researchfrom bone marrow or the placentaoffers scientifically practical ways that are morally acceptable. He added: "If adult stem cell research has already demonstrated conditions for success and raises no ethical questions, it is only reasonable that it should be pursued before science embarks on cloning embryos as a source for stem cells, something which remains problematic both scientifically and ethically".
The Church's view on the matter is quite clear. The use of embryonic tissue is "clearly incompatible with respect for the dignity of human life because," as the recently-published Compendium to the Social Doctrine of the Church says, "it would be totally divorced from the personal act of love between spouses." Cloning "represents a form of total control of the reproduced individual by the one who carries out the reproductive act". The Compendium adds that even if cloning had a therapeutic purpose, it would be no less a moral problem because embryonic cells must be produced first, than destroyed.
Embryonic stem cell research does not only raise ethical issues; it also faces scientific challenges. It is dangerous and contrary to human health. In another document backed by many experts and released on the eve of the UN debate, the Holy See argues that, in animal trial, the use of embryonic stem cells has had negative results. The risk for cancer in humans is very high in about 30 per cent of the cases.
None the less, in Asia, some countries have already legalised cloning research. In Singapore, Parliament passed a law legalising therapeutic cloning. Scientists can clone human embryos and keep them alive for 14 days to produce stem cells.
Japan is also moving in the same direction. Although it banned human cloning in 2001, the country's supreme science council has approved policy recommendations that would allow human embryos to be cloned for therapeutic purposes.
In South Korea, Professor Hwang Woo-suk is first person to have taken stem cells from embryos (on February 12 of this year). After a self-imposed sabbatical due to the absence of "an international consensus on cloning's ethics," he stated that he would go back to work. "We cannot put off our research any longer as tens of millions of people are suffering from degenerative diseases," Dr Hwang said.
The South Korean government backs the Belgian proposal to allow therapeutic cloning. It did also grant 12 billion wons (US$ 10 million) to the Institute of Cell and Gene Therapy at Seoul's Catholic Medical Centre for research in adult stem cells. (LF)
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