My thesis is that we need an international moratorium on human
cloning, that is, on any production of human embryos through
somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) at this time, because this
is the only way to achieve a prohibition of reproductive cloning,
for several reasons. Practically, if any laboratory is free
to create human embryos through SCNT, the result will be cloned
babies or, at the very least, serious attempts to create them.
Politically, in order to enact a ban on reproductive cloning
at the federal level, it appears very likely that a moratorium
on research cloning will also be needed. By the end of the moratorium
period, means can be developed-which do not now exist in state
or federal law-both to rein in some of the wilder, entrepreneurial
aspects of the "fertility business" in the United
States and to exercise appropriate control over the manner and
circumstances under which cloned human embryos would be produced
for therapeutic purposes.
Not only is a moratorium on the laboratory production of cloned
human embryos needed for prudential reasons, but it can be...