By Lisa Seachrist

Washington Editor

WASHINGTON -- The National Bioethics Advisory Commission's (NBAC) report on cloning received mixed reviews on the Hill as the House Subcommittee on Technology reviewed the commission's recommendations to the President.

"I appreciate the depth, thoughtfulness and the inclusiveness of the commission's deliberation," said Constance Morella (R-Md.), subcommittee chair. "Your recommendations appear to reflect a national consensus."

The commission delivered its report to the President on Monday, recommending that the moratorium on cloning human beings remain in effect until passage of legislation that would prohibit cloning a human being using somatic cell nuclear transfer -- or the Wilmut technique.

The NBAC hung the basis of its recommendation on the fact that any attempts to clone a human being would be unacceptably dangerous to the fetus and would therefore be unethical. In addition, NBAC recommended that any legislation have a sunset clause (an expiration date) to force the issue to be reevaluated as the science matures.

Science Committee Chair F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., (R-Wisc.) took issue with the recommendations in a written statement noting that "while science and technology change with time, our ethical and moral standards must remain constant. I believe cloning humans is both morally and ethically wrong."

NBAC Chair and Princeton University President Harold Shapiro said, "Several scientific uncertainties were clear and at present time the use of this technique is unacceptable, but the questions raised in our discussions merit further reflection. That is why we recommend the sunset clause."

Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-Mich.), who has sponsored two bills, one to prohibit federal funding of human cloning and the other to ban human cloning, stated that he has no intention of inserting a sunset clause into his legislation. "I understand that scientific development may make it necessary to alter the legislation so that we don't ban good research, but you don't understand the problems that can arise in a sunset clause," he said. "We can write those types of reviews into the legislation."

Committee members repeatedly asked the panel of commission members whether they had any recommendations on using the "Wilmut technique" in human cells without the intention of implanting the resulting embryo to create a human.

Shapiro said the commission understood from the beginning that any effort in humans to transfer a somatic cell nucleus into an enucleated egg involves the creation of an embryo. However, he also noted that the ethical dilemmas surrounding human embryo research have been extensively debated and that the cloning of Dolly brought nothing new to the debate.

"Some people say that we ducked the tough issues in this report," said David Cox, commission member and professor of Genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine. "I don't believe we ducked anything. There is no consensus on embryo research in this country which is something that we absolutely need to resolve. But, there is consensus about cloning a human being." *