Articles

CULTURE & COSMOS
November 30, 2004 Volume 2, Number 17

Controversial Theory Claims to Discover Morally Acceptable Cloning

A member of the President's Council on Bioethics believes he may have
found a way to obtain stem cells with the same potential as embryonic stem
cells without creating or destroying a human embryo.

Dr. William Hurlbut is a medical doctor and a consulting professor in
human biology at Stanford University. An opponent of embryonic destructive
stem cell research, Hurlbut has been busy visiting prominent Catholic
clerics and other ethicists to see if the technology he proposes is
morally acceptable.

According to a recent Boston Globe story that gave extensive coverage
to Hurlbut's ideas, the new technique would mirror similar methods of
cloning. DNA from a human egg is removed and replaced with adult DNA. But
unlike traditional cloning, in Hurlbut's method the gene responsible for
creating the placenta is turned off. Hurlbut contends that this prevents
an embryo from ever being created. But like traditional cloning, the egg
still generates inner cell mass, or the "blank" cells, that some scientist
believe have the greatest research potential. The Globe reports that parts
of the technique are currently being performed on mice.

Hurlbut will present his findings at the next meeting of the
President's Bioethics Council later this week. The Council was established
by President George Bush in 2001 in the wake of his decision to deny
federal funds for stem cell research that requires the destruction of
human embryos; members "advise the President on bioethical issues that may
emerge as a consequence of advances in biomedical science and technology."

Leading up to the presentation Hurlbut has been selling the idea to
clerics like San Francsico Archbishop William Levada; Princeton professor
and Catholic intellectual Robert George; and Nigel Cameron, an Evangelical
who lectures and writes on bioethics. It has been reported that all three
are receptive to the proposal. In October he presented the idea at a
colloquium on the stem cell debate sponsored by Catholic University of
America's Columbus School of Law. Hurlbut told colloquium participants
that Archbishop Levada believes the new technology had great potential to
be acceptable and the Globe story reports that the archbishop wrote a
letter to the president offering support for Hurlbut's proposal.

There is a fundamental question that must be answered before
Hurlbut's proposal can be approved. Does the technique he proposes prevent
a human embryo from ever being created or does it actually produce a
deformed embryo? The question will require more study by serious students
of the ethical concerns that arise from cutting edge scientific
discoveries. But what Hurlbut's proposal does show is that scientific
advances may themselves offer solutions to pressing moral quandaries.

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