UNMIK ON AIR

9 Jan. 2003

HUMAN CLONING

(Zoran ĆULAFIĆ)

Hello and welcome to this edition of UNMIK ON AIR with Luan Qorraj and Martin Redi

By the end of 2002 and the very begining of 2003 the world public was shocked by the headlines annoucing that some scientific circles had suceeded, like in a «Star Trek» episode, in cloning human beings. In December the first born cloned-baby was anounced and the suspense grew bigger when the birth of a second cloned baby was anounced for January in Belgrade.

Although news wires were very unclear and confusing, with many basic scientific facts missing, the issue opened a sharp “pros and cons debate” which resulted in the urgent move of Serbia’s Health Minister Tomica Milosavljevic, promptly signed a regulation banning all human cloning in Serbia, it is expected that Serbia’s Parliament will adopt a cloning-ban-law later this month.

Tomica Milosavljevic: (By that regulation) Reproductive cloning is banned and it is allowed to do just a genetic intervention on sex cells and on the early embryo exclusively in the cases of healing some hereditary diseases. So we have now a regulation which ban all human cloning and it is in force in all medical institutions in Serbia

Brigitte Boisselier, is the director of Clonaid, a USA based organization, established by a religious group called «the Raelians»; who are dedicated to the study of cloning human beings. Clonaid claims to have been involved in recent human clonings, dismissing all arguments that human cloning is immoral and eventually dangerous.

Mrs. Boisselier argues that the people trying to give her a lesson, “are the same ones who are spending billions in producing bombs to kill people on the other side of the earth”, so they have no lessons to give her, she says, about human dignity.

According to Clonaid, it's everybodies fundamental right to reproduce the way they want, and further more, they added that twenty more women are to be inseminated by Clonaid during January 2003.

Meanwhile Dr Patriciia Baird, who heads the Canadian Royal Commision on «New Reproductive Technologies in the early 90’s” argues firmly that reproductive cloning is ethically wrong. She said to the press: that «given what we know of the success rate and what happens in animals, it is absolutely reprehensible, indefendeble and arrogant that these people would even try to apply the technique to humans».

So, the issue is pretty much more complex than just adopting the law to ban human cloning.

MUSIC

Back in Belgrade Dr. Nebojsa Radunovic ectopic pregnancy expert claims that the posibility of human cloning is still a hypotethical issue in Serbia but that doesn’t prevent a woman from giving a clone-birth in Belgrade clinics.

Nebojsa Radunovic: The birth of a clone-baby is not necessarily linked to the scientifi advance of the area where the baby is born. It could be enough with the insemination been done in the USA, for example, and after the mother could come back to give birth in Belgrade and no one would know about it. Because, every pregnancy is a just a pregnancy and no one would necesserily have information about its origin.

Doctor Radunovic stresses that human cloning needs top level scientists, which could be found in Belgrade as well, but it needs also a very sofisticated technology which is only obtained in the USA. But, the US Congress banned human cloning. Since 1998 there are at least five contries in the world which suceeded in cloning adult animals and theres been ongoing human cloning reaserch in those countries as well, they are United States, United Kingdom, Japan, New Zealand and Korea. But not Serbia, adds Nebojsa Radunovic.

Nebojsa Radunovic: Those labs which have been dealing with the issue, those were the labs in the USA. And after 1998, after debates at the Congress, most of the top experts an equipement were dislocated out of the States and settled down somewhere in countries which have weaker control. So, I’m not sure that something like that (human cloning) could be done here in Belgrade, but giving such a clone-birth is hipotethicaly possible.

And it seem that Doctor Radunovic is not alone in this. Tomica Milosavljevic, Serbia’s Health Minister shares the same opinion, he says human cloning is not posible in Belgrade at the moment.

Nebojsa Radunovic: The posibility to do it (in Belgrade) on humans at this moment, I think, is very problematic and controversal. Knowing the posibilities of our laboratories, disregarding the teorethical skills of our scientists, I think that it is not posible to do it in Belgrade at the moment.

Regarding the skill of Serbia’s scientists, Phd Aleksandar Jurisic from Belgrade Gynecology clinic, is more optimistic.

Aleksandar Jurisic: Our doctors who are dealing with the issue of ectopic pregnancy are skilled in all the techniques of ectopic insemination, from the ordinary technique, up to special metods for spermatosoids to be put directly inside the ovary. There are a few labs in Belgrade today which are dealing with that . I suppose that they are, or they will be capable very soon, to do something like that (human cloning).

Those who opose human cloning as immoral and unethical claim that dealing with such an issue could result in various and unpredictable human degenerations which no one could foresee at the moment. Aside from ethical issues, most scientists have scaffed at efforts to clone human beings and say “technology is not yet advanced enough to succeed.

Serbia’s Health Minister Tomica Milosavljevic adds that there are many speculations regarding human cloning and calls for caution when reading media news.

Tomica Milosavljevic: Media announcements claiming that the first clone-beby was born, it’s just a media news which was not confirmed yet by the experts and relevant circles. And also, the statement made by collegue Antinori that there are more clone-pregnancies, are just a news wtihout clear proof. So, knowing all of that I would accept it with reserve.

Human cloning has become a sexy media and marketing issue. Surfing the Internet one can find innumerable web-sites oposing or promoting human cloning. One of them, sponsored by “The Christians for The Cloning of Jesus”, urges for the cloning of Jesus, saying that, “…thanks to the advances in science we can take DNA samples from the Holy veil and use them to clone the second coming! We should clone a Jesus for anyone who wants one. Just imagine a world with a Jesus in every household”.

So, sceptical or not, the issue is among us anyway and it seems like the scientific society, worldwide, has taken up a very sensitive issue which could be dangerously manipulated .

And that brings us to the end of today’s program. Thanks for tunning in and stay tuned for more.