Two scientists yesterday expressed opposition to reproductive human cloning in any form in a seminar held by the French Institute Taipei (FIT) to discuss issues related to animal and human cloning.
Bertrand Jordan, project coordinator of the France-based Marseille-Genopole, and Chen Su-chee (陳樹基), head of Cathay General Hospital's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, attended the discussion.
Jordan is the scientist who worked out the first isolation and complete sequence of an HLA gene in 1982.
Jordan currently acts as a National Science Council (NSC) adviser on Taiwan's National Genome Project.
Jordan will release his new book, Le Chant D'amour des Concombres de Mer (the English version will be called "The Clone Merchants") on Friday, said FIT.
Chen is the first physician who introduced in vitro fertilization (IVF) to this country in 1983.
Jordan explained why he opposed reproductive human cloning under any circumstances. He said babies whose genes are predetermined would be very different from babies born naturally.
Natural babies derive their genes from their parents. As natural babies' genes are "unpredictable," said Jordan, "the babies are unique and will never exist again."
Cloned babies will be deprived of their freedom to be unique.
Human cloning predetermines what a child will be like, said Jordan, adding, "I believe this is wrong."
Chen and Jordan both refuted the pro-human cloning argument that parents who lost their children should be allowed to make attempts to clone their deceased offspring.
"The clone is unlikely to be the same as the original child," said Jordan.
Stating that reproductive human cloning is a dangerous thing to do, Jordan and Chen meanwhile expressed optimism about therapeutic human cloning.
According to Chen, the main purpose of therapeutic human cloning is to repair humans' damaged organs.
Through the growth of embryonic stem cells, scientists could differentiate the cells into many types of specific organ cells such as heart muscle cells, blood cells or nerve cells, said Jordan.
Many diseases could be treated by transplanting cells generated from human embryonic stem cells, Chen said.
Jordan also explained three major aspects of the current progress in animal cloning.
"First, exceptional animals such as a cow that produces a lot of milk or a bull whose semen sells at high prices could be cloned," Jordan said.
"Second, animals could be genetically modified to improve their meat or muscle tissue," he said.
Third, according to Jordan, a number of firms in the US, UK, and Europe are also genetically modifying pigs so as to make their tissues or organs more compatible with human bodies.
Still, Jordan estimated it may take at least 10 more years before pig organs or tissues could be transplanted to humans.
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