A Harvard professor this week petitioned the U.S. government under the Freedom of Information Act to make public information relating to the laboratory cloning of human beings.
Jonathan R. Beckwith '57, professor of Microbiology and Modern Genetics at the Med School, said yesterday he filed the suit in response to claims of a soon-to-be published book that doctors secretly created a human baby through cloning.
"There is a reasonable chance that it's a hoax," Beckwith said, but added that scientists may be able to perform successfully this procedure in the near future.
Bad Uses
Beckwith said he fears the possible implications of such research. "Considering the present social and scientific climate, I have a strong feeling it would be used in bad ways," he said.
Dr. Ethan R. Signer, professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who also called for release of information concerning cloning experiments, said cloning is "an abomination," because scientists may use this knowledge in an attempt to improve the human race by controlling hereditary factors.
Transplants
Cloning is a procedure that transplants the nucleus of a donor cell into a fertile egg cell from which the nucleus has been removed, thereby creating an individual genetically identical to the donor. Scientists have successfully cloned frogs but have been unable to clone mammals.
David Rorvik, the author of the book that stirred the controversy, claims that doctors successfully cloned a human male, now 14-months old, from the cell of a wealthy donor.
"Cloning is an ethical, legal and psychological question as well as a political one," Beckwith said. "Research costs taxpayers money and people have a right to know what's going on."
Read more in News
Varsity Nine To Face Navy, Eagles HereRecommended Articles
-
MIT Genetics Conference Features Dolly CreatorThe methods and morals of cloning took center stage at MIT this weekend, as over 1,000 students, faculty and community
-
Rosenthal Urges Senate to Reject Human Cell Cloning BillIn recent weeks, David S. Rosenthal '59, director of University Health Services and president of the American Cancer Society (ACS),
-
Sandel Says Some Embryo Cloning NeededBreaking with more conservative colleagues on President George W. Bush’s Council on Bioethics, Bass Professor of Government Michael J. Sandel
-
Ex-TF Signs Onto Cloning Project To Review ClaimsA company claiming to have created the first successful human clone has tapped an ex-Core TF to prove its work
-
Aliens, Clones, the News at TenWhat’s scarier than sects that worship space aliens and obsess over cloning humans? Perhaps it’s that a well-known science journalist
-
Forging Ahead Blindly With CloningWith scientists in South Korea successfully extracting stem cells from a cloned human embryo last month, Harvard has vowed not