Sebuah opini yang layak didengarkan...
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Human stem cell cloning: 'Holy Grail' or techno-fantasy?
By David King, Special to CNN
May 17, 2013 -- Updated 1440 GMT (2240 HKT)
Human cloning: One step closer
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Scientists in Oregon say they've successfully cloned human stem cells
for first time
* Advocates of human stem cell cloning say the development will save
lives
* King says there is little scientific substance to the purported
benefits of therapeutic cloning
* King: Scientists are irresponsible to publish research before global
ban on cloning
Editor's note: David King has a PhD in molecular biology and is the director of
Human Genetics Alert, an independent watchdog group. He focuses on the ethical
and social issues raised by genetics.
(CNN) -- Today was a strange day. I'm used to
handling the brief but overwhelming burst of media attention that comes
with new stories about medical breakthroughs and ethical issues. But I
don't often get an accompanying deluge of passionate e-mails and phone
calls from people who had read my comments, denouncing me for
criticizing science, especially medical research that "can save millions of
lives."
There is definitely
something special about this idea of "therapeutic cloning," something
that has a religious feel to it. Most of those messages come from people who
have family members suffering from some of the diseases that we are told will
be cured, and it's hard to have to pour cold water on
people's hopes.
TIME: Scientists clone human stem cells
David King
I feel really angry at
the scientists and PR people who have sold the idea of cloned human stem cells
to so many patient support groups, when there is so little
scientific substance to their promises. We are told that there will be
great medical benefits and that the risks that there will be cloned
babies are small, but in truth it's the other way round.
Let's deal with the
cloned babies issue first. Ordinary people know perfectly well why human
cloning is wrong, and that's why governments around the world,
including all developed nations except the USA have banned it. But there are
plenty of desperate people and egoistic tycoons wanting to be
cloned, and plenty of unscrupulous IVF doctors happy to relieve them of
their cash. And there are still countries where those doctors can go to
evade legal sanctions.
What the Oregon
scientists have done is to deliver the baby that the would-be human
cloners have been waiting for 15 years -- what looks like a reliable
technique for creating cloned embryos. I think it was irresponsible to
publish their research before there is a comprehensive global ban on
cloning, with tough sanctions.
But I think what makes me even angrier as a scientist is the hype and false
promises around
therapeutic cloning. Let's be clear: this is not about embryonic stem
cell research, which, despite the hype may deliver something given time,
although the alternatives of adult stem cells and induced pluripotent
stem cells look set to deliver results much quicker. And I'm not a
pro-lifer; destruction of embryos is not what bothers me.
The cloning element is
there purely for the purposes of creating tissues genetically identical
to the patient that won't be rejected, and that's a nice idea. The
trouble is it brings a whole raft of biological problems with it that
create major risks to the patient as well as creating an impossibly
expensive process.
With cloning, you are
forcing nature to do something that it does not want to, so the new
risks are to be expected. Cloning creates abnormalities in the genetic
read-out, which is the reason that cloned animals are so often sick.
Those errors will be there in any stem cells and tissues produced by
cloning. Those problems are another reason why cloning babies would be
hugely unethical, but they don't necessarily make it impossible.
Finally, even if you
could somehow solve these problems, the use of genetically matched
tissues in mainstream medicine is simply not feasible and, unlike
electronic gadgets, medical costs go up, not down.
In addition to the
extremely expensive process of cloning, for each patient you have to
culture stem cells and reliably turn them into the tissue you want with
100% efficiency, so you don't get a single left over stem cell that will cause
tumors. You have to do all that to a standard of accuracy that
will satisfy government regulators and medical liability lawyers when
something goes wrong. Forget it. We don't do anything remotely
approaching this in medicine and it doesn't look like medical budgets
are growing, does it? There are other much better solutions to the
tissue rejection problem that will cost a fraction of the price.
The fact is that the
cloning paper published on Wednesday is zombie science. Therapeutic
cloning was dead and buried years ago, but it just seems to keep on
going, and so do people's hopes. There is definitely something weird
here, something that brings out religious terminology like "the Holy
Grail of medicine" around therapeutic cloning. That's because
therapeutic cloning is a fantasy, one that belongs to the modern
religion, the religion of technocracy. That's the only way I can explain how
scientists who ought to know better seem to get drunk on their
power over nature and keep pursuing this absurd dream.
People often say to me
that scientists pursuing therapeutic cloning are "just trying to make
money," but the truth is worse. Driven by their technocratic ideology,
they betray their own credo of sticking to the facts, and that's bad
enough. But to keep raising people's hopes in this way is really
unforgivable
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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