Position Paper / European
Policy
CF
Statement to European Parliament, Temp Cttee on Human Genetics
Stem Cell
Research,
Therapeutic Cloning and Embryo Status
Therapeutic
cloning holds promise for development of future successful treatment of patients suffering
from severe life-threatening diseases for which no cure exists thus far.
Production
of embryonic stem cells by transplanting into an unfertilized egg the nucleus from a
patient’s own body cells ('therapeutic cloning') may very likely result in
development of immunologically compatible replacement tissues thus resulting in a targeted
clinical treatment (maybe even a cure) of severe degenerative or inherited diseases like
Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer, Diabetes and Cystic Fibrosis.
The
Danish Cystic Fibrosis Association and its members consider the unfertilized egg cell as
any other cell of the human body, as merely a physical component of a human being. In the
therapeutic cloning process, the nucleus of the unfertilized egg is removed and replaced
by another nucleus – e.g. from a body cell of a cystic fibrosis patient’s lung-,
which by genetic engineering has been deprived of the genetic CF defect. In the proper
artificial circumstances the transnuclear cell grows for a few days, dividing and forming
a culture. If the transnuclear egg at the first 2-4 days of development is implanted into
a uterus, it will start development - from the embryonic stage towards a foetus.
If however, the transnuclear egg is not implanted but kept in a petri dish, it will
merely form an in vitro cell culture – from which stem cells at a certain stage can
be harvested and used in clinical treatment of the patient, without any reason to suggest
that cells or tissues derived through the process of therapeutic cloning should begin to
develop human characteristics and moral Status.
We
believe it is both understandable and acceptable that Cystic Fibrosis patients’
greatest wish is to obtain effective treatment of their life threatening lung disease.
Therapeutic cloning is a light in the tunnel, which has genuine potential to reinforce
these hopes. Therefore, if therapeutic cloning is - as we hope from our perspective -
recognized as of potential benefit to patients for whom no other cure exists, we think it
is unethical to block development based on a hypothetical misuse of the cloning technology
as such. Nor does the society, for example, neither ban nor prohibit the general use of
knives in e.g. kitchens, though a knife might represent a serious threat in criminal
contexts.
Critics
of ‘the slippery slope’ may still be tempted to prohibit this technique as it
may be perceived to pave the way to reproductive cloning.
Refinement of the technique of therapeutic cloning to produce stem cells does not
automatically result in reproductive cloning. Reproductive
cloning requires a separate decision to implant the transnuclear egg cell before it
reaches the blastocyst stage where stem cell harvest is possible.
If reproductive cloning should not be allowed to happen, this is what
should be prohibited – and not therapeutic cloning.
28. November 2001
Danish Cystic Fibrosis Association
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