human cloning

A Can of Worms

Nigel M. de S. Cameron
President & Co-founder
Institute on Biotechnology & the Human Future

The Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future recently convened a private meeting for our Fellows and other professional colleagues to discuss one of the most pressing issues on the agenda for ethics and biopolicy: the procurement and trafficking of human oocytes.

It was of course the scandal over the source of his eggs that began the undoing of Hwang Woo-Suk, who tumbled in a few short weeks from the stratosphere of scientific attainment (of which free first-class air travel and a special postage stamp were the most overt perks) to a lasting place in the rogues' gallery alongside the forger of Piltdown Man, but in a blaze of 21st century public relations.

The egg scandal was, of course, just the first round, and even now the whole truth is far from clear, as universities and prosecutors have taken over the investigative task from websites and journalists. What is plain is that even if Hwang had not falsified his cloning experiments, the wide-scale deception in his procurement and use of eggs should have been enough to unmask him as a charlatan. It also shed light on what had so far been a theoretical problem with the application to humans of cloning techniques (somatic cell nuclear transfer): the need for a ready supply of eggs, and the fact that quantities of eggs can generally be had only through the use of dangerous super-ovulatory drugs. The two particular facts that emerged in the Hwang egg scandal were that junior researchers had been put under pressure to "donate" eggs, and other women had been paid for them.

There are many lessons to be drawn. For one thing, the theoretical objection to research cloning that it would require large numbers of eggs is not simply theory: it led the world's most prominent researcher in the field into a series of deceptions to secure eggs at all costs. No one doubts that the pressures on him and his team were enormous, and that the hype that has cast its shadow over this technology and its search for miracle cures played its part in driving him on - and offering him glittering prizes and heroic stature in his homeland. This is about as far from the traditional idea of science in the public interest as could be imagined.

Yet the numbers Hwang needed for his experiments were minute when compared with the billions that would be required for "therapeutic cloning" to be developed as a cure for all those serious degenerative diseases that its advocates love to list.

The egg procurement issue was a major factor in the success of the United Nations (UN) Declaration on Human Cloning, supported by the United States and passed by the UN General Assembly last year with a majority of nearly 3-1. The Declaration specially notes the need for biotechnology to be carried on with care for women's health.

At our Fellows' Consultation, one theme that resounded from progressives and conservatives of all stripes was that egg procurement should never be remunerated, and that eggs should not cross national boundaries - to ensure that poor women will not be put under intolerable economic pressure to sell their eggs, risk their health, and part with genetic endowment.

Of course, the scandal of college newspapers advertising for eggs for reproductive purposes remains. The procurement of sperm has generally been less remunerative (though there is a market in eugenic sperm from high-achievers), and avoids health concerns to the donor.

The Hwang scandal has opened a can of worms. Perhaps we should be grateful. The commodification of our gametes, and the heedless threat to women's health that goes hand in hand, should haunt the biopolicy discussion as we move into the post-Hwang world, chastened and - just perhaps - freed from some of the pressures and expectations of hype.

What California Can Learn from Korean Cloning Scandal
Nigel M. de S. Cameron, M. L. Tina Stevens, December 13, 2005
San Francisco Chronicle
full article