Kentucky doctor expects pregnancy
in human cloning
project by year’s end
WASHINGTON
- Saying the genie already was out of the bottle on cloning, a Kentucky
fertility expert predicted on Wednesday that he would clone a human baby later
this year even as lawmakers scramble to prevent scientists from cloning humans.
“A PREGNANCY
can take place this year,” Dr. Panayiotis Zavos, of Lexington, Ky.,
told a House Government Reform subcommittee Wednesday. “2002 will be the year
of the clones.”
“This is not
the time to panic and try to turn back the clock. The genie is already out of
the bottle. Let’s make sure it works for us, not against us,” he said.
Later he
told reporters that his team was ready to try to create a human clone and
impregnate a woman later this year.
Rep. Dave
Weldon, a physician who has pushed for a ban on all cloning, retorted that the
procedure is “a threat to society.”
“This is no
time for half-measures,” said Weldon, R-Fla. “We must
pass an effective ban.”
SENATE DEBATE DELAYED
The House
last year passed a bill that would ban all cloning. In the Senate, debate has
been delayed until June while lawmakers consider two bills, one to enact a
total ban on cloning, the other to allow cloning for research. Aides estimate
about 18 senators remain undecided. The House committee’s members said
Wednesday’s hearing was meant to pressure the Senate into approving a total
cloning ban.
Zavos said he expects the pregnancy to happen at one of two
clinics he runs outside the United States. Speaking to reporters, he alluded to
their locations: one in “well I guess you could say it’s Europe” and one “in
between Greece and India.” He declined to give further details but said he had
12 suitable couples lined up who had exhausted all other fertility options.
Some are Americans, Zavos said, and five couples
include at least one physician each.
DOUBTS ON CLONING CLAIMS
Zavos cast doubts on claims by two other groups that they
had created cloned human embryos. His one-time colleague, Italian fertility
expert Severino Antinori,
has said he knows of three women pregnant with cloned embryos but has declined
to give details of where they live.
“Can he show
us some ultrasounds? Can he show us some evidence?” Zavos
asked, saying he had “inside information” that would suggest Antinori was not telling the truth.
He also demanded
evidence for claims by Brigitte Boisselier, head of
the pro-cloning group Clonaid, who said her lab had
cloned human embryos.
Zavos promised to produce proof of a pregnancy and DNA
evidence that the pregnancy involved a clone, if he did it.
During an
appearance before Congress last year, Zavos made
similar predictions to have a created a human clone within months.
Lawmakers on
both sides of the debate have maintained that they are against what Zavos wants to do: implant a cloned embryo into a woman to
produce a baby.
Those
pushing to allow cloning for research have argued the procedure could lead to
cures for an array of diseases. Opponents argue that a cloned embryo is a human
even before implantation in a womb, and to destroy it for research would be
immoral.
While saying
all his cloning work would be done overseas, Zavos
urged the House Government Reform Committee’s subcommittee on criminal justice,
drug policy and human resources to keep cloning legal in the United
States.
“If you are
concerned about the risks of human cloning, the proper approach is to fund it
and then institute regulations that will ensure that human cloning is done
properly with a minimum of risk for the baby just as is done in other medical
or drug innovations,” Zavos told the subcommittee.
LAW ENFORCEMENT CHALLENGES
The Justice
Department issued a statement at the hearing arguing that allowing cloning for
research would be “problematic and pose certain law enforcement challenges.”
Daniel
Bryant, an assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, wrote to the
committee that since thousands of babies are produced by in-vitro fertilization
each year, “There does not seem to be any reliable means for determining the
difference between a fertilized embryo and a cloned embryo.”
“For all we
know, these embryos are biologically indistinguishable,” Bryant wrote.
Adding to
the problem if research cloning were allowed, Bryant said, is how the government
would handle a woman who had received a cloned embryo. “Once a
pregnancy were established,” Bryant said, “any government-directed
attempt to terminate a cloned embryo in utero would
create problems enormous and complex.”
5/15/02