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Human-cloning try nears as company spurns rules
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加拿大公司下周将克隆人
Within the next week, a Canadian company will use the DNA of a dead infant to clone the world's first human being at an undisclosed U.S. location, says the company's scientific director. Fortunately, independent scientists are skeptical(怀疑) that Brigitte Boisselier's team at CLONAID will succeed. Even the cloning of less-complex mammals（哺乳动物） is successful in fewer than one in 25 tries. But the fact that Boisselier and other scientists say they are proceeding with human-cloning experiments is a disturbing(令人不安的) sign of how quickly science is outpacing ethics and law.
News of human-cloning experiments has touched off(1) a scramble(混乱) among lawmakers anxious to prevent the gruesome（可怕的） deaths of deformed newborns, and harm to surrogate mothers(2). They have good cause to worry.
To date, the few animal clones that didn't die before or shortly after birth mostly suffered birth defects ranging from incomplete immune(免疫) systems to unexplained explosions in weight. Scientists who have conducted animal cloning testified before a congressional subcommittee last week that attempts to clone humans could result in hundreds of failures before a healthy child is born.
First there would be miscarriages（流产） and pregnancy problems that could put surrogate mothers' lives at risk. If babies were born, most would die within days. Any survivors would be time bombs, because even the most knowledgeable scientists don't know what would happen years from now.
Until those facts change, cloning an entire individual would be a reckless disregard of human life. The difficulty comes in calibrating a ban on human cloning that won't outlaw or discourage promising lines of research involving the cloning of human cells.
If successful, for example, human-tissue cloning could rebuild new organs to replace diseased ones or provide perfectly matched cell implants（细胞移植） to arrest such degenerative diseases as arthritis(关节炎) and Alzheimer's.
Responsibility for striking a balance falls to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration(3). It says CLONAID's plan requires approval and that it is investigating. But the FDA's authority is legally untested, and the company just thumbs its nose at the agency, flaunting(炫耀) the secrecy of its U.S. location. Clearly, the deterrence(威慑) to cloning is not high enough.
Notes:
1. touch off：引起。
2. surrogate mothers：代孕妇，此处指孕育克隆婴儿的妇女们。
3. U.S. Food and Drug Administration：美国食品及药物管理局。
USA Today
April 5, 2001
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