(JP)Govt OK's human-animal embryo cloning

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Govt OK's human-animal embryo cloning

 

Yomiuri Shimbun

Nov 30, 2001

 

A government council said Wednesday it had permitted

cloning technology to produce combined human-animal

embryos that someday could be used to produce human

organs for transplants.

 

The government's Council for Science and Technology

Policy, chaired by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi,

disclosed guidelines on studies of cloned human and

other embryos under a law to regulate cloning

technologies in its report to Education, Science and

Technology Minister Atsuko Toyama.

 

The guidelines allow the implanting of human cells

into fertilized animal eggs for medical purposes only,

and will go into force Dec. 5. They prohibit human

cloning, but lift the freeze on other types of cloning

research.

 

The release of the guidelines has increased

expectations among medical researchers that studies of

the aggregate embryos could lead to rejection-free

organ transplants.

 

The hope is that human organs could be grown in other

species and later transplanted into humans.

 

However, some said the decision opens the door to the

risk of creating mixed-species organs, or possibly

even creatures.

 

When a U.S. bioventure firm announced Nov. 25 that it

had succeeded in cloning a human embryo, U.S.

President George W. Bush voiced his opposition the

very next day.

 

The Education, Science and Technology Ministry decided

in June to allow the cloning of three kinds of embryos

that are useful in the study of hard-to-cure diseases.

 

 

While allowing the cloning of aggregate embryos, the

Wednesday announcement bars all other embryo cloning,

citing insufficient debate about the ramifications of

such cloning.

 

Though the guidelines prohibit placing the aggregate

embryos into human or animal wombs, they permit the

use of human embryo stem cells, subject to strict

screening.

 

Koizumi said, " I hope any research is conducted in

accordance with the guidelines laid down in the

report, and that researchers fully understand the

seriousness of the ethical issues involved--issues

that may affect all humans. "

 

Copyright 2001 The Yomiuri Shimbun

 

 

 

 

 

 

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