ROME, APR 5, 2000 (ZENIT.org).- British scientist Harry Griffin, who is
determined to clone human embryos, was interviewed by the Italian
newspaper "La Repubblica," and spoke about his plans. At present he only
awaits approval of the government.

-- Isn't cloning a human embryo akin to playing God?

-- Harry Griffin: It isn't. First of all because we, scientists, don't
play. We try to respond to a need in our society, to cure evils, misery
and sufferings. Second, because imitating God is what humanity has been
doing for four or five thousand years. When Chris Barnard took one man's
heart and put it into the chest of another, wasn't he, perhaps,
imitating God? And when, 20 years ago, an English doctor effected
produced the first test-tube baby, what else was he doing? Every cure of
every disease is the result of human ambition to imitate God."

-- You have said that as soon as you get permission, you will begin his
project. How?

-- Harry Griffin: I can tell you how it could be done, although we
haven't even tried it yet. You take a woman's ovum...

-- Just a minute, where do you get it, in the supermarket?

-- Harry Griffin: Well, there are ova left over that are produced when
women undergo treatment for artificial insemination. There aren't very,
very many, maybe a few thousand in Great Britain, but sufficient for
experimentation.

You take the ovum, empty of its maternal DNA -- the nucleus of the
mother's genetic patrimony is removed. It is replaced by the adult cell
of a human being. It is cultivated "in vitro" as done in artificial
insemination. If everything goes as planned, an embryo is developed. We
then wait for the stem cells, which  can develop into any tissue or
organ, to mature. We take them out and try to cultivate them so that
they will become a kind of automatic re-programmer of the organism, a
repairer of degenerative diseases, and also, for the transplant of
tissues like artificial skin, cartilage or a bladder. And, what's more,
compatible with the patient's immune system.

-- Once these cells have been used, the embryo is killed, as happens at
present with animals. And isn't this killing a life?

-- Harry Griffin: No, we kill an embryo. The embryo has its own special
juridical status in English law, but not that of a human being. I know
that many don't think the same way. But this is a matter on which the
law decides, not Bishops or scientists. And the law in our country is
clear.

An Illicit and Dangerous Experiment
In an official statement, the Bioethics Center of the University of the
Sacred Heart in Rome, directed by Bishop Elio Sgreccia, vice-president
of the Pontifical Academy for Life, explained that "cloning turns the
individual into a means." However, "the human individual must be
respected as a person from conception." Cloning proposed for therapeutic
ends, "for the purpose of avoiding the transmission of genetic diseases
would mean an a-sexual generation for eugenic ends."

Finally, according to Christian morality, the statement stressed, "the
proposal for human cloning is intrinsically illicit, regardless of its
ends."

Animal Cloning
The case of animals is different and could be admissible. According to
the Bioethics Center, "animal and vegetable cloning must be directed to
the wellbeing of human beings and the environment in which they live.
Experiments must not cause animals unjustified or disproportionate
sufferings with respect to the good being pursued; procedures must be
submitted to the judgment and eventual approval of specific ethics
committees, in order to guarantee respect for the norms of health safety
and animal protection."

Finally, before carrying out these experiments, it is necessary to be
sure that "an unbalance of the ecosystem" will not be created, which
would "annul the bio-diversity and destroy the barriers between species,
with the risk of transmitting animal infirmities to man."

See our documentation section for the Pontifical Academy for Life's 1997
document on cloning.
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