The Law

Still one thing remains in the way of progress... the law. For quite some time different political groups have tried to impose laws and regulate cloning and closely related genetic engineering. With the cloning of Dolly in 96’ and the recent cloning of many other animals these new technologies, which used to only be considered science fiction, are right around the corner. So the government is trying to intervene more now, than ever. The long-term effects from man manipulating his own biology have been imprinted in people’s minds as negative. We can see this by watching films such as Multiplicity and Gattaca, or by reading books like Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. These works of fiction show the exaggerated negative outcomes of human cloning and related technology and people start to believe them. There are also some ethical questions involved. These concerns are based on far fetched horror stories about human cloning. Stories like millionaires keeping clones locked up in the basement in case they get sick and need a spare part. Other fears that surface are that evil dictators will clone thousands of perfectly made soldiers to take over the world. And my favorite story is that laboratories will clone masses of people to be used as slaves. These stories are unfounded and crazy. Besides the fact that US law already prohibits these things. Another reason people are against human cloning is a religious one. Yet the government is supposed to be separate of religion. It would be unconstitutional for the US to ban human cloning for a religious conviction.

The United States is not the only country trying to decide what to do about human cloning. It has been banned in Europe, while in other countries there no regulations what so ever and there probably never will be. The US government is openly against human cloning. After the news about Dolly reached the White House President Clinton immediately issued a five year ban on using federal funds to conduct research on human embryos. This greatly reduces the research being accomplished on cloning for medical advancements, because many labs rely on government funds to continue there research.

Bill S.1601 is the republican bill to outlaw human cloning. In February of 98’ it didn’t quite get the 60 votes needed to pass. This would be law comes complete with a 10-year prison sentence for anyone creating a human embryo using somatic nuclear transfer cloning. Keep in mind that the creation, use, and storage of human embryos is perfectly legal according to the Human Fertilization and Embryology Act of 1990. The law permits in vitro fertilization and research on human embryos. Under current laws research embryos cannot surpass development beyond 14 days. After that amount of time has past the embryos must be destroyed. It is also legal to place research embryos in a women uterus for a child to develop. Human Cloning would remain within the already given guidelines and not attempt to do any thing which is already prohibited. So the republican law is basically against human cloning in general and has nothing to do with stopping research being done on human embryos. Current law already allows that type of research and there is no attempt being made to change it. It’s all politics. The bill sounds as if it is going to prevent human cloning scientist from tampering with mother nature by not allowing research on human embryos, yet those type of experiments are already being done by scientist in the medical field of fertility and it is perfectly legal. If this cloning law is passed human embryo research will still be done.

The democrats also have a bill that has been introduced in Congress. The Kennedy-Feinstein bill, named for the two politicians who proposed it, bans human cloning for at least ten years. It allows scientists to use human cloning in limited experiments if they destroy the embryo in the early stage of development. The bill suggests that any experiment going outside the given parameters be met with a million dollar fine. The government will also confiscate any lab equipment used in the experiment. This bill raises questions like, just how is the government to supervise every single lab to see which experiments go to far? The FDA has volunteered to regulate human cloning although it hardly falls under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration.

As Congress has not yet reached a consensus no law has been voted on. But just because the federal government can’t get a law passed doesn’t mean the states can’t. California was the first of many states to outlaw human cloning. Maryland has not yet banned cloning but government funds cannot be used for cloning research in our state.

While these laws are coming into play scientists like Richard Seed are still determined to clone entire individuals not just use cloning for therapeutic reasons, so they are finding loopholes in the proposed bills. Seven state laws specifically say it is illegal to create exact genetic duplicates of people. Yet when using somatic nuclear transfer the DNA is not a 100% exact copy. The nucleus of a cell contains more than 99% of a persons DNA and the mitochondria, which produces the cell’s energy contains less than 1%. The mitochondria is outside the nucleus so when the nucleus is removed from an egg cell in somatic nuclear replace 1% of it’s DNA remains behind in the cell. Then the nucleus from the somatic cell enters and there is still left over DNA in the egg which is supposed to be genetically blank. Lawyers can argue in a court of law that the individual created from this process would not be an exact genetic copy of the person who donated the somatic cell. Technically this procedure would be within the law. Another state law prohibits the transfer of a nucleus into a human donor egg. So the obvious way around this law is to not use a human egg. A cow egg acts as a universal incubator for mammals and could easily replace a human egg. However the embryo produced form this procedure would contain mostly human DNA but a very small percentage would be cow DNA in the mitochondria.

The governments attempts to ban human cloning are futile. The laws are easy to work around and if by some chance a very specific law is passed in the US that prohibits any type of human cloning dedicated scientist can move to another country where such laws are nonexistent.

I hope you now have a better understanding of the human cloning controversy. One day you might have to decide if you want human cloning to be permitted in this nation. While the government and most of society are against this type of cloning, a few people are able to vision the future it could provide. Imagine how much more advanced the medical field could become. Many people can’t quite see all the possibilities that lie in this new technology. They are more concerned with moral or spiritual side of it. If the government could just act responsibly and not let human cloning get out of hand, a change could occur in our entire nation, probably in the whole world, a change for the better. Remember that this technology has the potential to save millions of lives maybe even yours.