Human embryo created through cloning

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Scientists at a technology company said Sunday they have created human embryos through cloning, drawing criticism from President Bush and lawmakers and raising new ethical questions.

Advanced Cell Technology Inc. of Worcester, Massachusetts, said the experiment was aimed not at creating a human being but at mining the embryo for stem cells used to treat disease.

Stem cells are a kind of master cell that can grow into any kind of cell in the body. The company's study was also published in an online scientific journal.

"I'm just trying to help people who are sick, and really that's our focus," said Dr. Michael West, the company's president and CEO. He called the development "the first, halting steps" toward a new area of medicine.

Speaking on CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer," West disputed the suggestion the work amounted to the creation of a human being.

"We're talking about making human cellular life, not a human life," West said.

VIDEO President George W. Bush and U.S. lawmakers spoke out against the cloning of human beings. CNN's Kelly Wallace reports (November 26) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) CNN's Wolf Blitzer interviews Michael West regarding human embryo cloning (November 25) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   MORE STORIES UK set to ban human cloning  The company behind the clones: Advanced Cell Technology  CNN Access: "I'm just trying to help people who are sick"  An interview with Michael West, ACT's president   RESOURCES • In-Depth: The stem cell debate  • Message board: Human embryo use  • What you've said    How it was done The technique used by Advanced Cell Technology scientists is called somatic cell nuclear transfer, also referred to as human therapeutic cloning. A cell from a patient's body is combined with an egg cell that has had its DNA removed. This reprograms the body cell's DNA back to an embryonic state, and stem cells identical to the patient's are produced. Stem cells can form any cell or tissue in the human body. Of eight eggs, two divided to form early embryos composed of four cells. One progressed to a six-cell stage before it stopped dividing. This breakthrough occurred October 13, 2001. Source: Advanced Cell Technology Inc.

"A human life, we know scientifically, begins upwards, even into two weeks, of human development, where this little ball of cells decides, 'I'm going to become one person or I am going to be two persons.' It hasn't decided yet."

West said the breakthrough in what he called "therapeutic cloning" could lead to advances in fighting a variety of ailments, including Parkinson's disease and diabetes.

He said his company was not interested in cloning human beings and did not create the embryos for reproductive purposes.

Immediate criticism

The news drew immediate criticism from some lawmakers.

"I think that people are concerned about the ethical problems here," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, said on NBC's "Meet the Press." He said he expected lawmakers would soon take up the issue.

"I believe it will be a big debate, but at end of day I don't believe we'll let cloning of human embryos," Shelby said.

"I find it very, very troubling, and I think most of Congress would," Sen. Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, said on NBC.

A White House spokeswoman reaffirmed President Bush's opposition to human cloning.

"The president has made it clear that he is 100 percent opposed to any type of cloning of human embryos," said spokeswoman Jennifer Millerwise. "The president supported the House legislation to ban human cloning which passed overwhelmingly."

Last summer, the House of Representatives voted to ban human cloning and set penalties of up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine for those convicted of attempting to clone humans.

The measure was never taken up by the Senate, so it never became law.

Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Illinois, said he hoped the Senate could find a compromise that would allow some cloning research to continue, without opening the door to the creation of human beings through clones.

"We in the Senate have to draw that line so it's a reasonable line, so we can continue medical science and breakthroughs, without crossing that line into something none of us want to see," he said on CNN's "Late Edition."

'Lifesaving therapies'

In the study, published in the online Journal of Regenerative Medicine, scientists removed the DNA from human egg cells and replaced it with DNA from a human body cell. The egg cells began to develop "to an embryonic state," according to a press release from the company.

Of the eight eggs, two divided to form early embryos of four cells and one progressed to a six-cell stage before it stopped dividing.

ACT's Michael West: "I'm just trying to help people who are sick, and really that's our focus."

"These are exciting preliminary developments," said Robert P. Lanza, vice president of medical and scientific development at ACT and one of the authors of the paper.

"This work sets the stage for human therapeutic cloning as a potentially limitless source of immune-compatible cells for tissue engineering and transplantation medicine.

"Our intention is not to create cloned human beings," Lanza said, "but rather to make lifesaving therapies for a wide range of human disease conditions including diabetes, strokes, cancer, AIDS and neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease."

Though he described the advance as a "very primitive development," the director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania deemed it a "significant" one.

"When you get to the point where you've made a human embryo, even for research purposes ... it's a line that's crossed," Arthur Caplan told CNN.

The medical ethicist said an argument could be made for using the technology to create cells that could be used to treat diseases.

"If you could make cell lines from these creations and turn them into something that the body wouldn't reject ... that would be a wonderful breakthrough in terms of being able to offer cures to people."

Earlier this year, Italian fertility doctor Severino Antinori and U.S. researcher Panos Zavos announced plans to clone humans. They said hundreds of couples had volunteered for controversial procedure.

The announcement was criticized by officials in several countries, and Italian authorities threatened to ban Antinori from practicing medicine if he goes ahead with the experiment.

Another organization, Clonaid, moved its research into human cloning outside of the United States after being investigated by the federal government.

Clonaid was founded by members of a religion called the Raelian movement, which believes extraterrestrial scientists created life on Earth and that cloning is a way of achieving eternal life.

The Food and Drug Administration investigated the company after its research director, Brigitte Boisselier, told a congressional hearing the company wanted to clone a human in the United States.