South Korea Cloning Experiment Proves Need For National/Global Ban

According to the researchers' report in today's issue of the journal Science, sixteen women donated a total of 242 eggs for the experiments. 30 cloned embryos reached the blastocyst stage where embryonic stem cells can be obtained. Only one embryonic stem cell line was established. To date, no therapies or treatments exist that use such cells.

"Controversy continues to swirl around killing even long-abandoned human embryos for research," said John F. Kilner, Ph.D., President of The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity. "The South Korean experiment disturbingly goes significantly further. It produces human embryos for the explicit purpose of fatally mining them to obtain bodily materials for experimental purposes. One does not need to see human embryos as full-fledged persons to be deeply troubled by such manipulation of human life."

The women who donated the eggs were unpaid and signed an informed consent form that blocked them from benefiting from the research. Each underwent a month-long fertility drug regimen designed to cause the women to superovulate (or release many eggs at once). They then underwent a surgical procedure to retrieve the eggs from the reproductive tract.

Cloning research is impossible to do without exploiting women. It should be banned immediately," said Daniel McConchie, Director of Public Relations and Public Policy for The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity.

"Obtaining eggs from women is a difficult and sometimes dangerous process, and cloning success is limited. Many scientists promote cloning as a kind of 'fountain of youth' where diseases from Alzheimer's to diabetes may be cured. If we are successful in treating just one major disease using cloning methods, countless women will need to donate their eggs to make the cure available to all. Instead, we should focus on promoting promising research that is not weighed down by ethical problems, human rights questions, and limited viability."