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American Morning
Cloning Controversy Reaches Capitol Hill
Aired June 20, 2001 - 10:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: On Capitol Hill, the controversy over human cloning moves center stage this morning. It's the subject of a congressional hearing. And you can see now live pictures from that hearing. And there's quite a bit at stake in this.
And for more on that, we turn now to our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen, who joins us here in the studio.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Leon, there's one big reason that they're having this hearing today. And that's that two groups have said they are all ready to clone a human being.
In fact, one group told Congress this past month -- in April -- that's two months ago -- they could be all ready ready to go. Before we get to today's hearing, let's talk a bit about this group. They're called the Raelians. And they say 50 young women have volunteered to be surrogate mothers to the world's first clone.
The way cloning works is, you actually make an embryo in the lab that's a copy of an existing human being. Then you implant that embryo into a woman to start a pregnancy. Now, this is definitely a case where science is ahead of the law. Ever since 1997, when Dolly the sheep was cloned, legislators have talked about banning human cloning. And, in fact, several other countries, including Israel and Germany, have banned it.
Now, today, the subcommittee will hear from scientists and ethicists about two bills that propose to ban human cloning in the United States.
HARRIS: Well, if there are so many people who are averse to cloning in the first place -- none of the polls that I have read about this have shown any -- or much strong support for it -- why is it taking so long to get to this point?
COHEN: You know, it sounds a little bit strange, because the only people who want a clone are sort of these, what most people would consider fringe groups. If this were just about cloning, it would be a slam dunk. But it's not just about cloning. The same technology that you would use to clone a human being, you could also use for medical research that would help people and that would cure disease like cancer and Parkinson's and Alzheimer's and a whole array of diseases. Or you could use the same kind of technology that is used for technology and you could grow a liver that you would use to put into someone who needs a transplantation. So the same technology could also do good things to help sick people, as well as to clone a human being. And you don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water. You want to ban the cloning. And what people are saying is, you want to ban the cloning, but not ban the research. And that gets a little sticky.
HARRIS: There you go. But for those who are wondering what's going to go on happening with this group, that somebody is saying that they are going to go ahead with cloning, in fact, I think they said April is the time they expect to have a baby produced by cloning. Is there a woman already who has been impregnated now?
COHEN: There could be a woman walking around -- or even more than one woman, because they said they would try even three women, hoping they would get one viable pregnancy. So there could be a couple of women walking around two months pregnant with the world's first clone. We don't know, because this group said: We're not going to talk to the media or to anybody else until we actually have a baby in hand.
So we just don't know if they are kind of bragging and saying, "Hey, we could start a pregnancy any time now," or if they are really serious.
And one thing to remember about cloning -- because people get confused about this -- if I were to clone you, not I would want to -- but if I were to clone you...
HARRIS: I wouldn't recommend it, yes.
(LAUGHTER)
COHEN: We wouldn't come up with a 40-year-old, 6-foot-tall Leon.
HARRIS: Right.
COHEN: We would come up with an embryonic Leon, put it into a woman, a pregnancy. And you would have a baby Leon who would always be 40 years behind you. So you don't get a replica of you; you get a baby replica of you.
HARRIS: Forty years behind me is still not a good place to be, believe me.
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: Elizabeth Cohen, thanks much -- very serious issue. And we'll be talking about this, no doubt, in the days to come. All right, take care.
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