AAMC Statement on Human Cloning
Adopted by AAMC Executive Committee March
29, 2002
The Association of American Medical Colleges strongly opposes
human reproductive cloning. To expose any person to the known
risks and uncertainties involved in reproductive cloning would
be unethical and unconscionable.
However, it is important to recognize the difference between
reproductive cloning and the use of cloning technology that
does not create a human being. We concur with the recent report
of the National Academies of Science that states, "[T]he
scientific and medical considerations that justify a ban on
human reproductive cloning at this time are not applicable
to nuclear transplantation to produce stem cells." This
technology has potentially important applications in research,
medicine and industry, including genetically engineered human
cell cultures that would serve as "therapeutic tissues"
in the treatment of currently intractable human diseases.
These uses of cloning technology are not intended to lead
to a cloned human being, nor do they.The AAMC urges Congress
to oppose legislation that would prohibit research on the
use of nuclear transplantation to produce stem cells. Such
a blanket prohibition would have grave implications for future
advances in medical research and human healing. Since other
nations have already decided not to enact such law, a Congressional
ban would also pose a serious threat to the continued world
leadership of the United States in medical research and biotechnology.
According to the National Institutes of Health, nuclear transplantation
could provide an invaluable approach to studying how cells
become specialized, which in turn could provide new understanding
of the mechanisms that lead to the development of the abnormal
cells responsible for cancers and certain birth defects. Improved
understanding of cell specialization may also provide answers
to how cells are regulated and how they age- leading to new
insights into the treatment or cure of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's
diseases, or other incapacitating degenerative disease of
the brain and spinal cord. The technology promises also to
help us understand how to activate certain genes to permit
the creation of customized cells for transplantation or grafting.
Such cells would be genetically identical to the cells of
the donor and could therefore be transplanted into that donor
without fear of immune rejection, the major biological barrier
to organ and tissue transplantation at this time.
Two examples of recent attempts of ban the use of new scientific
knowledge and technologies are illustrative of the dangers
of this approach. Recombinant DNA technology, the foundation
of the biotechnology revolution, and in vitro fertilization,
which has brought joy into the lives of tens of thousands
of infertile couples, were both targets of such attempts,
which the Congress, in its wisdom, chose to reject.
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