During the next three years, Chinese and French scientists will team up to study the likely problems - ethical and technical - that will arise with the development of human-cloning technology and other cutting-edge life sciences, said Zhang Naigen, director of Fudan University's Intellectual Property Research Center.
Researchers from Fudan, Shanghai Second Medical University, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and Paris I University will join the 3-year study.
The study should offer recommendations for legislation on human-cloning in both China and France.
"The United States and the European Union have already imposed some restrictions on human-cloning. So we should also be prepared for the day when more and more stories on the problems associated with cloning crop up or when some scientists demand to conduct experiments to clone an entire human being," Zhang said.
"I hope the three-year study will help us draw lessons from the European experience in forging legislation on human-cloning that we might be able to use in China," Zhang added.
Chinese and French researchers are expected to meet every year to discuss their researches, Zhang said.
Han Jianjun, the chief researcher on the legal implications of life sciences at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said that the fundamental debate will center on stem-cell research to clone human organs to provide a source for transplant. The study will also focus on reproductive cloning to replicate an entire human being.
"Most people support stem-cell research since it benefits people, offering the opportunity to prolong lives. But many believe that cloning an entire human being goes against bioethics," Zhang said.
In the United States, a debate is raging over whether U.S. President George W. Bush should permit federal funds to be used for stem-cell research.
Advocates say taxpayers' funds would further research on embryonic stem cells that could lead to cures for juvenile diabetes, heart, Parkinson's and other diseases. But critics, including many anti-abortion advocates, argue that the research rests on destroying embryos to get to the stem cells that are studied.
The debate heightened this week when scientists in Virginia disclosed they have created human embryos for the sole purpose of harvesting their stem cells. Previously, the embryos that were used were "leftovers" from infertility treatments.
Critics of human cloning note that when Dolly the sheep was cloned in 1997 in Scotland, she was the only one of 29 embryos that survived.
Director Zhang said there are hundreds of issues to be discussed.
Among the issues to be studied:
How should those who become the "victims" of failed cloning experiments be treated?
What should we call those who receive many organ transplants from animals?
Can the cloning of entire human beings be justified - even legalized - if human beings become as scarce as pandas?
"Just as the rules of grammar have a shorter history than its language, legislation always chases after the advances in technology," Han said.
(Eastday.com 07/13/2001)
