Why the West Should Not Share Its Technological Research Despite Ethical Concerns

And so it has come to pass, after some outlandish claims from the Raelians, some near misses by Italian obstetrician, Dr Severino Antinori and Professor Panos Zavos, Reproductive Physiologist from the University of Kentucky, US, a team of South Korean researchers recently reported the production of cloned human embryos. In fact it is almost two years since Dr. Antinori announced he had successfully implanted a cloned embryo into a woman and that she was 8 weeks pregnant, while speaking at a conference on Healthcare Ethics in Abu Dhabi, UAE but little has been mentioned about the pregnancy since. The most recent and most scientific claims were published in Science on February 12, 2004 after a Korean newspaper broke an embargo on Woo Suk Hwang and Shin Yong Moon of Seoul National University to say they had used somatic nuclear transfer to produce 30 human blastocysts and a single embryonic stem cell line; SCNT-hES-1. The research team apparently used 242 oocytes and cumulus cells from 16 unpaid donors, and they achieved a cloning efficiency of 19 to 29%, on par with that seen in cattle (25%) and pigs (26%).

In reality, this is the first time that anybody has cloned human cells beyond the eight-cell stages. It is nearly three years since Michael D. West, President of the biotechnology company, Advanced Cell Technology, reported using cloning to produce a six-cell human embryo. More importantly, the paper demonstrates the first time that anybody has achieved a stem cell line derived from a human blastocyst, which was the product of a cloning technique. After achieving this unique stem cell line, the Seoul National University team then passaged the cells more than 70 times, maintaining both a normal XX karyotype and normal embryonic stem cell surface markers. To crown the achievement, the researchers, Wook Suk Hwang and Shin Yong Moon later injected the stem cells into the testis of SCID mice, where they formed teratomas with endoderm-, mesoderm- and ectoderm-derived tissue.

Therefore, where does this leave us all? The moral and ethical issues relating to this achievement have been well documented at this stage and our nation has been coping with the moral pain of trying to make an intellectual ethical decision regarding formulating guidelines on the conduct of embryonic stem cell research in this jurisdiction. Certainly, the research brings us that little closer to the eventual day that will see us as medical practitioners considering the prospect of therapeutic cloning in the treatment of spinal cord injury, Parkinson disease, and other ailments. The practice of therapeutic human cloning is effectively banned in Europe and in the United States, where Congress recently passed a five-year moratorium and ban on the medical technique, which has been described in legislation as 'a violation of human rights'. However, this day is a wake up call for the Western world, which has now effectively contracted out much of its cloning research to countries such as India, China, South Korea and Singapore to pursue as more liberal legislation in these countries allow them to pursue stem cell technology on our behalf.

In a 2001, IMT article entitled "Is the West losing its grip on cloning technology?" these lines were written, "In 1998, researchers from South Korea claimed to have grown a cloned embryo to the four-cell stage before destroying it. We should really be concerned that these announcements only lend weight to the growing assumption that while the research in the US and UK is being rightly curtailed by political and ethical concerns, it is probably occurring elsewhere in the world. It would be horrific to think that Western governments may be farming out research to Asian locations where there are well-educated scientists but no apparent laws controlling research on embryos. The accelerating pace of research around the world, the huge number of IVF clinics, the ease of access to scientific publications on the internet, the number of foreign graduates in Western universities and the lack of regulation outside traditional scientific countries make it entirely likely that future stem cell and cloning breakthroughs will now be made in countries such as South Korea, China, India or even the Gulf States. For our own sake and the sake of the world our children will live in, we have to get back in control of this technology before it becomes too late".

To be fair, nearly half of the South Korean research team was Christian, including Dr. Moon, who is a Methodist. Bernard Siegel, Director of the Genetics Policy Institute immediately stated that the "ramifications of the paper could be serious for the US scientific community," He continued that there currently exists a Europe-US brain drain due to better funding/remuneration packages and career prospects for stem cell scientists. Future advances made in countries like South Korea and the UK, which support therapeutic cloning, will lead to those countries becoming more attractive for scientists due to the opportunities the research produces.

The concern is that eventually one of these countries scientists will succumb to greed, acquire a false sense of invincibility to moral criticisms, ignore good advice from religious experts, and the result will be an ethically downward spiral ultimately ending in disaster. We saw it recently where, Pakistan's brilliant atomic scientist Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan sold the secrets of nuclear technology to governments of Iran, Libya, and North Korea. The American government is not stupid enough to consider for am moment that he acted alone. It is nearly sixty years since the brilliant German scientist and discoverer of the uncertainty principle Prof. Heisenberg, was asked by the Nazi Government to develop the atom bomb. Realising the horrific implications for the rest of the world, Heisenberg stalled the Nazi war efforts by stating that he would require a few tons of unattainable fissionable material to achieve this goal. Heisenberg consulted his Jewish friend, the famous Danish physicist Niels Bohr before he took his ethical stance, yet he did specify the amount of material necessary which was very close to the actual amount eventually used in the Manhattan project. To allow South Korea to clone the first human is in essence giving away the fruits of our technology by running away from our moral responsibilities.

We should consider the case of Socrates who chose to drink hemlock and die, as ordered by a politically weighted Athenian court. In his closing testament, he stated, "his life was really less important than the principles that he had learned, lived by, taught, and preached". Many scholars today feel that single humble act of Socrates lit the beacon of ethics which eventually saved all of Western civilization from total annihilation. So let us be strong like Socrates of old, gird our loincloths and face up to the ethical and moral responsibilities of this new technology, because believe me, if we give it way, as Socrates could have taken the advice of his friends and moved away, we will rue the day we were feeble.

Dr. Patrick Treacy is a cosmetic expert. He is Medical Director of Ailesbury Clinics Ltd and the global Cosmetic Medical Group. He is Chairman of the Irish Association of Cosmetic Doctors and is Irish Regional Representative of the British Association of Cosmetic Doctors. He is European Medical Advisor to Network Lipolysis and the UK's largest cosmetic website Consulting Rooms. He practices cosmetic medicine in his clinics in Dublin, Cork, London and the Middle East.

Dr. Treacy is on the Specialist Register in the UK and Ireland and holds higher qualifications in Dermatology and Laser technology and skin resurfacing. He was amongst the first doctors worldwide to use the permanent facial endoprosthesis BioAlcamid for HIV Lipodystrophy patients. He was also the first person to introduce many techniques such as Radiofrequency assisted lasers, Fibroblast transplant and Contour Threads to Irish patients.

Dr. Treacy is an advanced aesthetic trainer and has trained over 300 doctors and nurses from around the world. He is also a renowned international guest speaker and features regularly on national television and radio programmes. He was invited to speak about stem cells and cosmetic medicine at the World Aesthetic Conference in Moscow this year.

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