Fears of Cults and Kooks Push Congress Towards Cloning

news Fears of cults and kooks push Bush appoints venture capitalist as Congress towards cloning ban technology adviser Paul Smaglik,Washington Irwin Goodwin,Washington The United States is moving closer to outlaw- President George W. Bush has surprised ing human reproductive cloning after a scientists with the appointment of his dramatic congressional hearing drew atten- first main adviser on science and tion to the prospect that attempts to clone a technology. human are imminent. Bush last week named Floyd Kvamme But despite agreement on Capitol Hill as co-chairman of the President’s that such experiments should be banned, Committee of Advisors on Science and the means of achieving a ban remain elusive. Technology (PCAST). Scientific societies fear that any proposed Kvamme is an electrical engineer with legislation might be amended by opponents a management track record in several of abortion to ban not only human cloning, Silicon Valley corporations, including but also therapeutic cloning and other scien- National Semiconductor and Apple, and is tifically useful work. a partner in the venture-capital firm of Billy Tauzin (Republican, Louisiana), Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in chair of the House Committee on Energy Menlo Park, California. But he is best and Commerce, whose investigations sub- known in Washington as chairman of the committee held the hearing on 28 March, Arthur Caplan, head of the Center for conservative advocacy group Empower said before the hearing that he had not decid- Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, America. ed whether to propose legislation. But sever- told the hearing that immediate safety con- Announcing the appointment of al committee members said during the hear- cerns should supercede any ethical discus- Kvamme, Bush said: “He is an ing that legislation was necessary, and sion. Such concerns are so great, he said, that entrepreneur. He is a risk taker. He Tauzin’s staff said later that he may introduce only “cults, cranks, kooks and capitalists” understands risk and reward. But, more a bill when Congress reconvenes after Easter. would propose cloning a human given the importantly, he knows the players, the The hearing was triggered by claims from known risks. people who can bring good, sound advice two research groups that each intends to Thomas Okarma, president of the Cali- to this administration.” clone a human soon.Both groups were asked fornia-based biopharmaceutical company Bush’s decision to appoint Kvamme to testify at the hearing, despite some scien- Geron, testified on behalf of the Biotechnol- before filling the post of president’s tists’ concerns that this would alarm and ogy Industry Organization. He said human science adviser — who leads the White confuse the public. reproductive cloning should be banned for House Office of Science and Technology A company called Clonaid, founded by a safety reasons, because the success rate in Policy (OSTP) and will be PCAST’s man who claims extraterrestrials told him to animals is between 3 and 5%. other co-chair — is seen as unusual by change his name to Raël, and whose parent Boisselier claimed that success rates in some. In addition, the White House did group, Valiant Venture Ltd, is registered in animals were no indication of the tech- not consult scientific or engineering the Bahamas, says it plans to clone a human nique’s efficacy in humans. And Zavos said societies, or the national academies, at an undisclosed location in the United his group would pre-screen the viability of which like to provide lists of suitable States. Raël told the hearing that the human embryos before implanting them. candidates. race had been cloned by extraterrestrials and Rudolf Jaenisch, a professor of biology at “It’s most unusual to name a co-chair that it was our duty to clone ourselves. the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, of PCAST without having the key figures An international group of reproduction said these arguments contained “serious fac- of the OSTP on board,”says Jack Gibbons, specialists, meanwhile, has announced plans tual errors”, the most glaring of which was who was science adviser to former to use human cloning as a technique to help the claim that the researchers could screen president Bill Clinton. I infertile couples have children (see Nature for viable embryos. This would mean look-

410, 293; 2001). Neither ing at the expression of all 30,000 or so AP AP Brigitte Boisselier, Clon- human genes, which is currently not techni- aid’s scientific director, cally possible in any organism,Jaenisch said. nor Panos Michael Zavos, Jaenisch added that even if such technol- a partner in the other ogy existed,using it on an embryo would not effort, has ever success- help, because many genes are expressed only fully cloned an animal. later in development. After the hearing, he Other witnesses sought said he was concerned that airing the claims to draw distinctions of the two groups could taint mainstream between good and bad sci- science. “These nuts get much too much Panos Zavos: ence and between safety publicity,”he said. would pre-screen and ethics. Congress’s per- Larry Goldstein of the University of Cali- human embryos. ception of such distinc- fornia at San Diego, vice-chairman of the tions is likely to shape any American Society for Cell Biology public legislation or regulation of cloning.A focus on policy committee, says he is concerned that safety, rather than ethics, might provide a such publicity might lead to hasty legislation Techno speak: Bush anticipates ‘good, sound basis for regulation by the Food and Drug that would block potentially valuable areas advice’ from appointee Floyd Kvamme. Administration,the hearing was told. of research. I