- Alexander Capron,
Los Angeles Times: Capron, a professor of law and medicine at
the University of Southern California and a former member of the National
Bioethics Advisory Commission, suggests in an L.A. Times
op-ed that Congress impose a five- or 10-year moratorium on human cloning
before deciding whether to implement a permanent ban on the practice. A
moratorium on cloning could "reassure researchers and patient advocates" that
the door may still be open for therapeutic cloning while giving scientists and
officials more time to understand the risks and benefits of the procedure
(Capron, Los Angeles Times, 11/28).
- Ellis Henican,
Newsday: Newsday columnist Ellis Henican
profiles Randy Wicker, who wants to clone himself as soon the technology
becomes available. Wicker runs the
Reproductive Cloning Network and has become "a leading national
spokesperson for the cause of human reproductive cloning" (Henican,
Newsday, 11/28).
- Regina Linder,
New York Times: Linder, director of the Medical Laboratory
Sciences Program at Hunter College, writes in a letter to the editor that
ACT's "[a]ssurances that the goal of the experiments was the production of
therapeutic stem cells seemed to be ignored, and the leap was made to a
grossly oversimplified discussion of the morality of 'creating life'" (Linder,
New York Times, 11/28).
- Robert Matz,
New York Times: Matz, a professor of medicine at Mt. Sinai
School of Medicine, writes in a letter to the editor that although Congress
and the Bush administration are trying to "legislate scientific knowledge,"
science is "morally indifferent." Matz says that the American scientific
community must "use it or lose it" because if U.S. researchers do not pursue
scientific advances, "then someone else will, and we risk being relegated to
the dustbin of history" (Matz, New York Times, 11/28).
- Dale McFeatters,
Scripps Howard News/Nando Times: Columnist Dale McFeatters
writes that the "promise, however distant, of human stem cell and cloning
research is too great to impose a ban on all kinds of experimentation," and he
states that the research should continue under government monitoring (McFeatters,
Scripps Howard News/Nando Times, 11/27).
- William Murchison,
Washington Times: Murchison, a syndicated columnist, writes
in an op-ed published in the Washington Times that the idea of
therapeutic cloning "sounds wonderful, until you stop and reflect that in the
process various somebodies die" (Murchison, Washington Times,
11/28).
- Gregory Pence,
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Pence, a professor in the
school of medicine at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, writes in a
Journal-Constitution op-ed, "A long legacy in science fiction novels
and movies make the word 'cloning' so fraught with bad connotations that it
can hardly be used in any discussion that purports to be impartial" (Pence,
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 11/27).
- Gregory Pike, Sydney Morning Herald: Pike, deputy director of
the
Southern Cross Bioethics Institute in Adelaide, Australia, writes in a
Morning Herald op-ed, "Cloning embryonic human beings and either
destroying them or bringing them to term was previously thought to be
ethically 'unthinkable.' What type of society have we become when our
scientific champions celebrate it as a spectacular medical 'breakthrough'?"
(Pike, Sydney Morning Herald, 11/28).
- Therese Raphael, Wall Street Journal Europe: Wall
Street Journal Europe columnist Therese Raphael writes that British
Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George Bush illustrate examples of the
"two competing approaches to solving the moral dilemma" of human cloning.
While Bush has strived to "resolve seemingly conflicting obligations by
appealing to a system of moral values," Blair has "unflinchingly embraced the
creation of human embryos explicitly for research purposes" (Raphael,
Wall Street Journal Europe, 11/28).
- Stephen Bede Scharper,
Globe and Mail: Globe and Mail columnist Stephen
Scharper writes that the cloning debate "is not between oppressive moral
authorities and forward-looking scientists but between public good and private
gain. ... Who ultimately do we want driving this agenda?" (Scharper,
Globe and Mail, 11/28).
- Russell Smith/Michael Valente,
Richmond Times-Dispatch: In a Richmond Times-Dispatch
op-ed, Smith, vicar for the Health Care Ministry of the
Catholic Diocese of Richmond, and Valente, a neurologist and a member of
the Richmond health care ministry, compared human cloning to slavery and Nazi
genocide. "It is immoral and unethical to judge human life as being valuable
only when it serves some utilitarian purpose," they write (Smith/Valente,
Richmond Times-Dispatch, 11/28).
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