Cloning Crosses A Fatal Line

By BOB WARD

Editor of the Texas Journal

A SCIENTIST WITH THE UNLIKELY name of Richard Seed plans to clone up to 200,000 human beings a year. He says he expects to make a profit at it.

Meanwhile there are attempts to ban the practice. Sen. Christopher Bond (R-MO) has a bill co-sponsored by Sens. Bill Frist of Tennessee and Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, to permanently ban somatic cell nuclear transfer - the method used to clone the sheep Dolly - to create human embryos. It would subject violators to up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Democrats are blocking action on the bill citing concerns from scientific groups about shackling research.

Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) have proposed a 10-year moratorium on somatic cell nuclear transfer for human cloning. Their bill would not ban the technique, only the implantation of the resulting embryo in a human uterus. Bond insists it is wrong to mass produce human embryos for research and then discard them.

Acceptance of human cloning means abandoning at least two fundamental principles of western civilization: the uniqueness and ultimate value of each individual human being, and the link between reproduction and such social constructs as a binding relationship between the two parents and a commitment to the child they alone have produced, a child unlike any other child anywhere in the world at any time. because he is of them.

The label given to this arrangement is the family and it has never lacked for enemies among people who think there is a better way to organize society and raise children. But their experiments have been of short duration and have little appeal. The continued integration of the biological, social, psychological and emotional aspects of reproduction is vital to the preservation of a recognizably human society.

Some will resist attempts to prohibit the practice. For example, Britain's Lord Robert Winston, who helped pioneer test-tube fertilization, says cloning offers hope to infertile couples. There will be more of this as defenders of cloning conjure visions of childless couples, able at last, to have a child to love, cherish and nurture. Such pink visions are heartwarming but the more likely reality is factories where human beings are produced in the quantities and with the characteristics, specified -- not by loving parents -- but by some central authority.

Throughout history scientific and technological advances have been abused by persons seeking wealth or power. We can and have lived with that. But this one touches on the very definition of human being. It's difficult to reconcile the notion of "inalienable" rights endowed by our Creator with a mass produced commodity created by technicians.