Execution cannot be cloned

An obstacle has been placed on the way to the human clone
Deputies intend to extend the ban on human cloningIrina Vlasova, GZT.RU
On February 26, the State Duma adopted in the second reading a bill extending the ban on human cloning in Russia.

This means that the necessary amendments will now be made to the federal law "On a temporary ban on human cloning." The ban on human cloning has been in effect in the Russian Federation since 2002 and was limited to five years. The deadline expired two years ago.

The bill states that the current temporary ban on human cloning is being established until special legislation can come into force "establishing the procedure for using technologies for cloning organisms for human cloning purposes."

The document permits the cloning of other organisms and cells (including human cells) for research purposes. During the presentation of the document in the first reading, the Deputy Minister of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation, Yuri Voronin, stated that the meaning of the document is "the prohibition of a human clone." If the law is not passed, the official said, "foreign researchers can use Russia to conduct unethical experiments against humans."

Olga Borzova, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Health Protection, explained that "the technology of human cloning has not yet been definitively developed, perhaps in the future, when the molecular mechanisms of cloning are studied in more detail, technologies are improved, it will be possible to return to the problem."

Will science lag behind

"From a medical point of view, this decision does not threaten to lag behind Russian science," explained GZT.EN legislators' decision one of the developers of the law, Head of the Genetics Laboratory of the Medical and Genetic Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Professor Lyubov Kurilo. "After all, we are only talking about a ban on reproductive cloning from somatic cells of a new human body."

Love Smoked
Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Head of the Laboratory of Genetics of Reproductive Disorders of the Medical and Genetic Research Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. In 1997-2003, she was an expert of the working group on the protection of the human embryo and fetus (CDBI-CO-GT3) of the Steering Committee on Bioethics of the Council of Europe.
Member of the Committee on Biomedical Ethics of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, member of the Committee on Biomedical Ethics of the Ministry of Health and Social Development, member of the Church and Public Council on Biomedical Ethics of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Member of the editorial boards of the journals "Problems of reproduction", "Andrology and genital surgery", "Rights of the child". Author of more than 300 publications, including normative documents on the problems of biomedical ethics, law, human reproduction.

Why can't this be done?

We are talking about cloning by transferring an already living somatic cell, geneticists explain, which means that a number of mutations in such a cell could already have occurred.

Technically, it is already possible to clone a living being. The most successful of several methods of cloning higher animals was the "core transfer" method. It was he who was used to clone Dolly the sheep in the UK, which is known to have lived for six years. According to scientists, this technique is the best available today, and with its use, scientists could begin to potentially develop human cloning techniques.

Although, according to Lyubov Kurilo, Dolly the sheep appeared in 1997 on the 278th attempt and was "mentally unbalanced", but the very principle of implementing such a process is clear to scientists. However, this example showed geneticists that the process of controlling cell development in such cases may be lost, and it is possible that clones will appear "not quite healthy".

"From the point of view of psychology and bioethics, it is also not at all clear: when such a cloned child appears in the family, who will be to whom and by whom? Who will bear legal, medical and other responsibility for the fate of such a creature? – the geneticist argues. – It may only seem from the outside that such problems mean little. These are great biological, medical and moral risks."

The bill does not prohibit cloning at the molecular level, on cells, on animals. "The health status of the offspring should be checked on several generations of animals, and a taboo should operate for human cloning," Lyubov Kurilo believes.

Almost all states and international organizations – the UN, WHO, UNESCO – have signed conventions and bioprotocols prohibiting human cloning.

Reproductive technologies

Scientists most often still work not with somatic, but with germ cells. In this case, when a new cell is formed, the paternal and maternal cells "come into operation" at the time strictly allotted to them by nature, while in the somatic cell "genetic imprinting" occurs according to other laws.

With reproductive manipulations, for example, with in vitro fertilization, only 5% of attempts made by biologists are usually successful, but even with success, genetic pathologies in "test tube babies", according to the medical and genetic center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, are more common than in the population.

Therapeutic cloning

In some countries, so-called therapeutic cloning is allowed, that is, manipulations on cells up to the 14th day of development. In this case, the nucleus in the egg is removed and replaced by the DNA nucleus of another organism. The resulting cell forms an early stage of the embryo, consisting of several dozen cells with DNA roughly similar to the primary organism. Thus, scientists receive stem cells that are genetically compatible with the donor body for the treatment of certain diseases, for example, Alzheimer's disease. In the Russian Federation, such technologies are prohibited as not legally clarified.

Does the state not see or does not want to see?

Among the aspects that should be strictly regulated by law, geneticists call medical reproductive manipulations, in which several fertilized cells are planted in the mother's body to guarantee the onset of pregnancy, sometimes up to six or eight in the Russian Federation. Then the embryos with the best heartbeat are left (usually two embryos are left), and the rest are "reduced". According to unofficial information, there is also a market for fertilized cells. In a number of countries, it is legally possible to plant no more than two fertilized cells during in vitro fertilization. "Such manipulations should be carried out strictly for medical reasons, more control should be established over them," Professor Lyubov Kurilo believes.

Bio-ethical gaps

A number of biomedical problems in the Russian Federation today continue to remain not completely "covered up" by law and leave opportunities not only for unethical behavior, but also for abuse.

"I would name among such subtle matters the attitude to the human embryo. The state has not clarified from what moment the embryo can be considered as a person, as a person who must be respected," Lyubov Kurilo said. – This issue has not been resolved in many other countries. There are many different points of view on this, according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, only a born child has such a right. For example, French laws require respect for the embryo as well."

Requests to allow cloning for various reasons, at least as an exception, are sent to the President of Russia almost every year, the geneticist explained. They are treated by politicians, famous directors (in particular, in the presence of scientists and the media, the politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the director and actor Alexander Porokhovshchikov spoke about the possible and desirable cloning of a person), mothers who have lost their child, inconsolable wives and husbands who have some biomaterials of deceased relatives.

Zhirinovsky wants to clone Einsteins, Yesenins, Pushkins... and myselfHe said this on the air of the Russian channel "Vesti 24".

 And also – that there should be no bans on cloning in the Russian Federation because such work is underway in the West, and that the LDPR will seek to lift the ban on cloning people, since it is necessary for the economy and demography of Russia.

"I will be glad if I can clone myself, order scientists to create a second person like me. It will be very good, it will be good for the nation. It is necessary to clone all our famous scientists," Zhirinovsky said. "It is necessary to clone smart people, talented people, and there should be a database of cloned people. We must have new Einsteins, Kurchatov, Tsiolkovsky, Yesenin, Pushkin. Scientists should work, we should not be afraid. Cloning is the salvation of humanity, the replacement of organs that have failed," Zhirinovsky is sure. 

And he also suggested "growing people and taking organs from them for replacement."

An old gamer joke: it would be good to be preserved, and then go to the polls and vote for the LDPR...

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru04.03.2010