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Saturday, July 7, 2001



Findings on cloning
shouldn’t hinder
stem-cell research

The issue: A study co-authored
by researchers at the University
of Hawaii proves that cloning
human beings would be dangerous.

NEW research has bolstered ethical reasons against the cloning of human beings with biological questions that should end debate on that issue. A study in which UH researchers participated has found that cloning of humans is fraught with insurmountable risk. But that should not halt research about the use of embryonic stem cells in fighting diseases, which remains promising.

The new study should not be cited in prolonging a moratorium on federally funded stem-cell research. The Bush administration recently halted all research except in privately funded labs by canceling a meeting of a committee at the National Institutes of Health that had planned to review applications for grants to conduct such studies. Findings of the new study do not support this standstill.

In the study published yesterday in the journal Science, scientists from UH and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that clones of animals from embryonic stem cells are unavoidably abnormal. Cloned mice developed at the UH Institute for Biogenesis Research turned out at birth to have symptoms such as overgrown placentas, increased body weight and respiratory problems. Similarly, Dolly, the sheep cloned in Scotland, became extremely obese.

"Cloning will never make a correct copy," said Dr. Hidenori Akutsu, a Japanese obstetrician-gynecologist who is a member of the UH research team headed by Ryuzo Yanagimachi. "Especially in the beginning stage, it is very unstable."

"Our findings clearly argue against reproductive cloning," agreed MIT researcher Rudolph Jaenisch, senior author of the study. "Even apparently normal clones may not be normal. We have the hard evidence now."

Less clear is how the abnormalities may result in flawed tissues and organs that are injected with cloned stem cells. Jaenisch said such a danger is unlikely because researchers would harvest and inject into patients only cells that are normal. That is not possible during cloning, he explained, because an embryo cannot select only perfect cells.

"Medically, it is a very promising area," Yanagimachi said. Embryonic stem cells are regarded as potentially valuable in treating Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, heart problems, diabetes and other ailments.

Further research into this area should not be controversial. The stem cells used in research are taken from embryos that otherwise would be discarded from fertility clinics. Recent polls show that 57 percent of abortion opponents and 72 percent of Roman Catholics support embryonic stem-cell research, despite Pope John Paul II's opposition.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a strident opponent of abortion, says "a frozen embryo stored in a refrigerator in a clinic" is not the same as "a fetus developing in a mother's womb." The new study provides no reason for President Bush to continue denying federal funds for stem-cell research.






Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.

Don Kendall, President

John Flanagan, publisher and editor in chief 529-4748; jflanagan@starbulletin.com
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