JACKI LYDEN, HOST: This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I’m Jackie Lyden.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: And I’m Robert Siegel. A scientist in Chicago says he wants to begin work on cloning a human being within the next 90 days. Entrepreneur Richard Seed plans to offer cloning to infertile couples who want to have a baby.
Seed is a physicist who was involved in fertility research in the 1980s. He hopes to build on the success of Scottish scientists who cloned the adult sheep Dolly in 1996.
NPR’s Joe Palca has a report about Richard Seed’s plans and
whether they are really likely to produce
the world’s first human clones.
JOE PALCA, NPR REPORTER: Just days after news of Dolly made headlines
last February, political, re-ligious,
and scientific leaders from around the world were issuing statements condemning
the idea that the same technology might be used to clone humans. Some called
it immoral under any circumstances. Others said it might be morally acceptable,
but cloning humans is certainly unethical right now, since the procedure
has not even been perfected in animals.
Richard Seed doesn’t agree. He’s raising money so he can open what he calls the Human Clone Clinic.
RICHARD SEED, PHYSICIST AND PROSPECTIVE FOUNDER OF HUMAN CLONE CLINIC: It is our objective, it is my objective, to set up a human clone clinic in greater Chicago here; make it a profitable fertility clinic. And when it is profitable, to duplicate it in 10 or 20 other locations around the country and maybe five or six international.
PALCA: Seed is trained as a physicist who has turned his interest
to biology, specifically embryology. In 1983, he published an article in
the Journal of the American Medical Association describing a new
fertility technique. The technique involved transferring a fertilized egg
from a healthy woman to an infertile woman. The technique resulted in one
successful pregnancy, but never caught on as a fertility treatment. Since
then, Seed has worked on applying the technology to livestock. Seed has
been negotiating with a Chicago area clinic where he hopes to make the first
cloning attempt. NPR has agreed not to reveal the name or exact location
of the clinic. That clinic has all the equipment you would need to try cloning.
Seed says the only way to find out if cloning will work is to try. But practical
considerations may prevent Seed from opening his human clone clinic. Right
now, he doesn’t have the money. He doesn’t have a firm commitment
from the physicians who must perform the procedure. And he doesn’t
have an infertile couple willing to undergo the procedure. Seed says he
has faced similar roadblocks in the past with other projects and he believes
he can overcome these. In fact, Seed believes there is a moral imperative
to proceed with cloning.... Even if Seed fails in his attempt to clone a
human this year, by saying he’s going to try, he is forcing
society to confront a difficult question that won’t be going away.
SEED: I think, like other new developments, it will first be accustomed to and then it will be accepted. And I even think it will be embraced.
PALCA: If cloning is someday embraced, someone will have to be the first to try it. Richard Seed hopes it will be he.
Joe Palca, NPR News. Dateline: Joe Palca; Jacki Lyden,
Washington, DC; Robert Siegel, Washington, DC