Scientist to proceed with human cloning efforts
( 2001-08-20 10:28 ) (7 )

A researcher engaged in a controversial effort to clone humans said on Sunday his team could produce cloned human embryos within the next two months.

"The production of human cloned embryos can go ahead within the next 60 days, and implantation will of course come later, after we verify that the quality of those embryos is viable enough to yield a healthy pregnancy," Panos Zavos said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Zavos, a Cypriot-born naturalized US citizen, and his Italian colleague Severino Antinori have announced plans to eventually impregnate up to 200 women with cloned embryos.

But their critics, including Republican Representative Dave Weldon, charge that such efforts are "totally unethical."

"What (Zavos) is talking about doing, in my opinion, is gross medical malpractice and negligence. It's totally unethical," Weldon, a doctor, said on "Face the Nation."

Scientists long have warned about a multitude of difficulties associated with cloning mammals, including miscarriage, premature delivery, genetic abnormalities and stillbirths.

The most outspoken critics have warned that in the process of creating a healthy human clone, scientists could create dozens of deformed human specimens. Many medical organizations oppose human cloning.

To date, five types of mammals -- sheep, mice, goats, cows and pigs -- have been cloned, with dismal results. Most of the clones died at various stages of embryonic development or soon after birth.

"A lot of people in the world ... look to the US to provide leadership on this," Weldon said. "We are the leader of medical technology around the globe, so it's important that the United States act and speak. I think that the rest of the world will follow suit."

US President George W. Bush supports a ban on human cloning and has said he would sign one if it passes the US Congress.

The US House of Representatives voted for a ban last month -- even for cloning done for medical research -- threatening violators with 10-year prison terms and million-dollar fines.

But the measure cannot become law until it passes the US Senate, where a similar bill is not expected to be debated until September.

"The United States actually is a rogue nation in this area," Lori Andrews, a law professor and medical ethicist, told CBS. "At least 42 other countries have completely banned cloning already."

Zavos brushed aside opposition, saying no one could stop the human cloning research, especially since he does not plan to conduct it in the United States.

"Banning it for America, it's not going to be banned for the world," Zavos said. "Reproductive cloning is going to be developed inevitably, either by us or somebody else."

Zavos compared cloning to the accepted practice of in-vitro fertilization, predicting that cloning would have a similar 30-percent to 40-percent success rate and safety record.

"The moral of the story is that reproductive cloning can be made to be safe like IVF was," he said. "That was banned originally in the US 23 years ago, and now IVF is as good as sliced bread, or synonymous to that."