Reproductive cloning have moral implications: Swaminathan

Chennai, Mar 17 (UNI) Eminent Scientist and UNESCO Cousteau Chair in Ecotechnology and M S Swaminathan Research Foundation Chairman M S Swaminathan has warned that reproductive cloning would have serious moral and spiritual implications.

Delivering the ninth Convocation address at Sri Ramachandra University here last evening, he recalled that biologists in South Korea and Seoul National University had in 2004, produced the first human cloned embryo, as well as stem cells from this embryo that were capable of differentiating into somatic cells.

''These claims have subsequently repudiated and discredited. The issue of reproductive cloning raises serious ethical issues. While there should be no objection to cloning for therapeutic processes, reproductive cloning had serious moral and spiritual implications'', he observed.

Stating that the ethical responsibility of the medical profession would increase as the power of technology grows, Prof Swaminathan citing an example said the use of stem cells derived from embryonic cells continued to be a thorny issue, as it is believed to facilitate reproductive cloning.

He said embryonic stem cells have medical promise as they have the capacity to become any one of the more than 200 cell types making up the human body.

''Geron, the most advanced of the firms that are studying these ecells, has worked out how to lead embryonic stem cells to turn into seven different types of normal cell line, which may be used to repair damaged tissue (heart, muscle, pancreas, bone, brain in Parkinson's disease, spinal injury and liver)'', he added.

Calling for a wide debate on ethics in medicine and research, he said social acceptance of medical biotechnology and related ethical issues emphasised that reliance should be placed not through a ban on basic research but through normal checks and balances, both legal and ethical.

In this context, he welcomed the Centre's move to set up a National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority to take care of research in the areas of food and agriculture and medicine and pharmaceuticals.

UNI