Australian plans for designer babies
GLOBALISATION / Asian nations could emerge as stem cell leaders
CLONING / More criticism of haste and hype
INFERTILITY / NZ research offers hope to childless couples
GENE THERAPY / US concern about change in germline
CORD BLOOD BANKS / Critics decry commercialism
IN BRIEF / Russian Duma debating cloning ban

DESIGNER BABIES / Australian plans for matched siblings
Researchers from the Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development want to create three "designer babies" to help save dying siblings. Professor Alan Trounson said that his institute was ready to proceed and was waiting for approval from the Victorian Infertility Treatment Authority. After the babies are born, some of their tissue would be used to treat children who are dying of Fanconi's anaemia, a rare blood disease.

The procedure is regulated in Victoria because it involves creating embryos through IVF and destroying both those which carry the gene for the disease and those whose tissue is not a perfect match for the sick child. The Monash scientists acted after an American couple went through the procedure in August 2000 and after the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority authorised it in certain cases earlier this year.

Argument is expected over the ethical and legal implications of creating child for "spare parts". Critics say that it is a first step towards eugenics. A lecturer in medical ethics at the University of Auckland, Dr Jan Crosthwaite, said that she did not object but she conceded that if one felt that "it's wrong to ever use a person as a means to somebody else's end, then you'd have a serious concern about whether children are being conceived as instruments for others. Also, some people have been very concerned about whether a parent ever has the right to subject a child to procedures for other than his own good." -- Cybercast News Service, Dec 27; The Age, Dec 24 RETURN TO TOP

GLOBALISATION / Asian nations could emerge as stem cell leaders
Taking advantage of a less government regulation about cloning, Chinese scientists are pushing ahead with human-animal hybrids and other controversial treatments. At Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, Dr Chen Xigu is implanting human chromosomes in rabbit egg cells. He and others say that cloning is an area of research in which Chinese scientists can compete with the US and Europe. "As long as we have the idea and the skill to do it, we can do the research," he says. One of his ambitions is to grow human organs in animals for use in transplants.

Chinese authorities appear to have few qualms about this kind of research. An ethicist working on new research guidelines for the Ministry of Health, Yanguan Wang, says that there is no moral or ethical problem in destroying embryos less than 14 days old.

Similarly, Singapore is hoping that its liberal regulations will attract top-flight scientists from around the world. ES Cell International, a Singapore-based company formed in conjunction with Monash University in Melbourne, is trying to develop a stem cell production facility to supply scientists from all over the world. "Therapeutic" cloning may be approved there as well. The Straits Times, whose editor sits on a government bioethics committee, called American concerns over the announcement that a company had cloned human embryos "hysterical and irrational". Using stem cells from cloning was as natural as using dentures, it argued. -- Knight Ridder, Dec 26; AP, Dec 23 RETURN TO TOP

CLONING / More criticism of haste and hype
A number of leading scientists have harshly criticised the announcement last month that a company had cloned human embryos. Many feel that Advanced Cell Technology should never have published its results because it did not produce any stem cells -- and because the cloning may never have happened. Biologists interviewed by Scientific American said that cells can grow to the eight-cell stage without signals from the DNA in the nucleus. In ACT's experiment, one clone grew to six cells, which was not enough to prove that the company had actually succeeded.

Brigid Hogan, a member of a National Academy of Sciences panel studying human cloning, spoke disdainfully of the research. "If that had been [about anything but] human embryos, it would have never gotten accepted in any journal whatsoever, and I'm not the only one that thinks that. I mean, they should have kept quiet until they got some results that were worth publishing."

The president and CEO of ACT, Michael D. West, explained that the paper had been published as part of a public relations campaign to make the public believe that "therapeutic" cloning can be achieved without reproductive cloning, which most people think repugnant. "The reason we decided to publish this was purely because we're promoting the idea of human therapeutic cloning, and we felt it was important to be transparent about where we're at and publish frequently," he told Scientific American. West has used this strategy before. In 1998, his company claimed in the New York Times and on a CBS broadcast that it had fused a human fibroblast with a cow egg and created an embryo. But the research was never published.

Even ethicists who do not oppose "therapeutic cloning" have been critical. "When relatively underdeveloped science gets touted, first and foremost, patient hopes get raised," says Arthur Caplan, of the University of Pennsylvania. "So a lot of people say, 'Hey, I want this research to proceed because I'm dying and I'm very sick.' But it's cruel to offer something everybody knows is going to take a minimum of 10 years." -- Scientific American, Dec 24 RETURN TO TOP

INFERTILITY / NZ research offers hope to childless couples
Researchers at the National Women's Hospital in Auckland say that they may have made a breakthough in treating infertility. Dr Neil Johnson says that a number of women have conceived naturally after their fallopian tubes were flushed with an oil-soluble substance called lipiodol. He says that it is less costly and less invasive than IVF. Dr Johnson says that he does not know why the flushing appears to succeed. It may remove debris in the tubes which impede sperm or eggs or it might make the uterine lining more receptive to an embryo. -- New Zealand Herald, Dec 26 RETURN TO TOP

GENE THERAPY / US concern about change in germline
An experiment with gene therapy may have affected a patient's germline, to the consternation of US scientists. A California company, Avigen, is trying to insert a corrective gene into the liver of patients with haemophilia B using a virus vector. To its surprise, it discovered the vector in the patient's seminal fluid, although not in his sperm cells. The trial has been allowed to proceed, but with additional precautions.

The two federal agencies which monitor gene therapy trials insist that corrective genes must not enter patients' eggs or sperm (the germline cells). Even though the genes might prevent a disease from being passed on to the next generation, the government regards a change in the human germline as a step which should not be taken without further public discussion.

However, a bioethicist at Case Western Reserve University, Dr Eric Juengst, has criticised the decision to continue with the trial. He contends that if the haemophilia treatment works only if the germline is also changed, the public might accept germline therapy without a proper understanding of the issues involved. -- New York Times, Dec 23 RETURN TO TOP

CORD BLOOD BANKS / Critics decry commercialism
Companies which store umbilical cords to use for future medical treatments for children are exploiting parents' fears, says critics of the new business of cord blood banks. Exaggerated claims are being made. One company in California displays on its website X-ray images of brain and breast cancers treated successfully with pluripotent stem cells, even though these are not the same as cord- blood stem cells.

In both the United States and Australia, public donor banks exist for umbilical cord blood, while private banks charge a hefty sign-up fee and an annual maintenance fee. But critics say that there is only a 1-in-10,000 chance that a child will develop a disease treatable with cord-blood cells and a one-in-four chance that the child will be able to use the cells. Promotions of the service are sometimes based on therapies that do not currently exist, and may never exist. Furthermore, cord blood may not even be viable after ten years of storage. -- Wired News, Dec 20 RETURN TO TOP

IN BRIEF / Russian Duma debating cloning ban
The Russian Duma is considering a five-year ban on human cloning and the import or export of cloned human embryos. "While there are gaps in legislation, Russia may be used as a testing ground for unethical experiments by foreign researchers," says an explanatory note to the Duma. -- Reuters, Dec 20 RETURN TO TOP