Chinese lawmakers have called for legislation to prevent cloning
abuse.
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Lawmakers and political advisers attending the ongoing Third
Session of the 10th
National People's Congress (NPC) said the application of
therapeutic cloning - in which human embryos are cloned to obtain
stem cells used in medical studies - should be strictly controlled
to "ensure its healthy development."
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"Science can be a double-edged sword, so there is always the need
to guard against some immoral use of new technology," Zhang
Zhongning, a Beijing NPC deputy, told China Daily.
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"So we should prevent therapeutic cloning, which is a valid medical
pursuit, from being employed for immoral purposes such as human
reproduction."
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The Chinese Government has given explicit backing to therapeutic
cloning research within legal and ethical bounds for life-saving
and medical purposes.
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The Ministry of Science and Technology published the Ethical
Guiding Principles for Stem Cell Research early last year, which
promotes the banning of research on reproductive cloning. It also
sought to introduce a code of conduct for stem cell studies.
However, the country has yet to enact a specific law or
regulation.
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Zhang, a senior researcher with the Institute of Zoology under the
Chinese Academy of Sciences, suggested the NPC, China's top
legislature, uses all its power to ban reproductive cloning.
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"Technically speaking, there is no clear line between reproductive
cloning and therapeutic cloning, so we have to put related research
under strict control through legislation," he said.
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He added: "The law should make sure no scientists and researchers
overstep the bounds of stem cell research."
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Echoing Zhang's views, Chen Hanbin, a member of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National
Committee, urged an immediate introduction of official regulation
before a law is enacted.
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"As the formulation of a law takes a long time, government
administrations such as the Ministry of Health should move first to
better regulate related research," he said.
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"Therapeutic cloning research is such a solemn cause that it must
be conducted in a very cautious way," he added.
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China is one of the leading countries in stem cell research and
most of its research institutes are located in Beijing and
Shanghai.
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To highlight the controversy, the United Nations General Assembly
on Tuesday approved a nonbinding resolution that seeks to ban all
forms of human cloning.
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The document, which has no legal force, passed by 84 to 34, with 37
abstentions.
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The United States was joined by many African, Arab and Latin
American states in backing the paper. Mostly European and Asian
countries, including China, opposed.
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Chen expressed his support for the Chinese stance, saying
therapeutic cloning is imperative and should enjoy sufficient
funding from the State. He said it will help ease the endless
shortage of human organs for transplant operations, and is
conducive to solving the difficult problem of immunologic
rejection.
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"Such a technique offers a hope for a cure to some 100 million
people with such conditions as Alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes and
spinal cord injuries," he said.
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"Whether for the sake of humanitarianism or for the aim of heeling
the wounded and rescuing the dying, therapeutic cloning cannot be
banned," added Chen, who is also a professor of Guiyang Medical
College in southwest China's Guizhou Province.
(China Daily March 12, 2005)