WASHINGTON — A majority of the President's Council on Bioethics has recommended a ban on reproductive cloning and a four-year moratorium on therapeutic cloning in the Council's first report, released July 11.
In the report, 'Human Cloning and Human Dignity', all 17 of the Council's members advocate a ban on cloning to produce children. But while 10 members also recommend a four-year moratorium on cloning for the purposes of biomedical research (so-called therapeutic cloning), seven of the members recommended the use of cloned embryos for biomedical research with regulation. At press time, President George W. Bush, who was given the report on Wednesday night, had not yet issued a response to the report, which includes the position statements of all 17 members.
The Council, composed of a mix of scientists, ethicists, physicians, and lawyers, was created by the President last summer to evaluate the ethical ramifications of several scientific issues, ...
