Archbishop of Sydney

Human Cloning

By + George Pell
ARCHBISHOP OF SYDNEY
2 December 2001

One of the researchers, Dr. Robert Lanza, assured the public that the "intention is not to create cloned human beings, but rather to make lifesaving therapies for a wide range of human disease conditions".

This is double speak. Human clones are being created, to be destroyed, cannibalised like an old computer, in the hope of producing cures for disease. These cures are only faint long term prospects.

Research on adult stem-cells, however, is providing some promising results and involves none of the ethical problems posed by embryo stem-cells. And because the stem cells used in adult stem cell therapy are the patient's own, the problem of rejection by the body's immune system (which Dr. Lanza claims his experiment will help overcome) does not occur.

Using stem cells from cloned embryos is also likely to be dangerous. The process used to create Dolly the Sheep and to create other clones after her has involved a disastrous number of miscarried and monster lambs. No wonder the inventors of Dolly were so opposed to applying this technology to humans; and no wonder the US researchers destroyed their human clone soon after creating it.

Because stem cells found in adults are more effective and safer than those taken from embryos, the pseudoscientific reason for using frozen or cloned embryos to extract stem cells has collapsed. It is not concern for the chronically ill that is driving embryo stem cell experimentation, but other factors such as fame for the scientists concerned and profits for the medical companies backing this work.

Nor do the researchers' assurances that they do not want to produce a cloned person ring true. The supposed distinction between "therapeutic" and "reproductive" cloning is a plain furphy. To produce an embryo is always "reproductive", to destroy an embryo is never "therapeutic" for the embryo. The European Parliament has declared the distinction to be a sleight of hand and the Australian Health Ethics Committee described it as "lacking transparency and concealing the truth".

For most people, destroying an embryo is not the same as destroying a person. But we were all embryos once, and an embryo could not become a human if it were not human already. Genetic science has shown that the embryo contains the complete programme for what it will be: an individual person with a unique character. This demands our respect and restraint.

a month ago a joined a hundred prominent Australians, including leaders of all major faiths and churches, in signing a letter to Australia's federal, state and territory governments to advise them that human cloning "is a grave offence to human dignity" and should be banned. A repeat that advice today.

Naturally, the Catholic Church supports biomedical research when it is directed to the prevention and cure of diseases, the alleviation of suffering, and respects human well-being. This is why it supports adult stem cell research. But playing on the desperation of the gravely ill to justify destructive experiments on human life is not good science, not good ethics.