Political, religious leaders voice protest

BOSTON, NOV. 26. Swift protests have been voiced by political and religious leaders against reported cloning of the first human embryo, though aimed at aiding stem cells research to treat a wide range of diseases, as they view it as a step towards cloning human beings.

Several U.S. States, including California, have banned human cloning, and Congress is considering such a ban. But company officials insisted their work is the first step in providing hope for people with spinal injuries, heart diseases and other ailments.

``These are exciting preliminary results,'' said Dr. Robert P. Lanza, one of the researchers at Advanced Cell Technology (ACT). ``This work sets the stage for human therapeutic cloning as a potentially limitless source of immune- compatible cells for tissue engineering and transplantation medicine.'' Mr. Lanza and the company's top executive Mr. Michael West said they had no interest in transplanting such early embryos into a woman's womb to give birth to a cloned human being, nor was it clear that their embryo would be capable of that.

But the Washington DC-based National Right to Life Committee wasted little time in denouncing the announcement.

``This corporation is creating human embryos for the sole purpose of killing them and harvesting their cells,'' said the group's legislative director, Mr. Douglas Johnson. ``Unless Congress acts quickly, this corporation and others will be opening human embryo farms.'' The ACT said in a paper to be made available in the Journal of Regenerative Medicine that it had effectively cloned early-stage embryos by performing somatic nuclear cell transfers.

The ACT announcement provoked angry reactions across Italy and inside the Vatican on Monday. Defining it as ``shocking'' and ``dangerous'', newspapers printed the news on their front pages, along with critical comments and fiery editorials. The Milan- based Il Corriere Della Sera published a long interview with the Italian Health Minister, Mr. Girolamo Sirchia, who said the experiment was ``useless'' and ``morally unacceptable''. The cloning of a human being should be considered a crime against humanity, he said.

In the Vatican, Archbishop Javier Lozano Barragan, regarded as its ``Health Minister'', said the Church opposed any form of human conception that was not born from an act of love between husband and wife.

- Reuters

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Section  : International
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