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Cloning Humans to Be Undertaken In Japan
Chicago-based physicist Richard Seed says he will participate in a Japan-based project that he hopes will eventually make human cloning possible.
Start Date: 12/01/98
According to a story distributed on December 1, 1998 by the Kyodo News Service, Chicago-based physicist Richard Seed says he will "participate in a Japan-based project to develop genetic technology that he hopes will eventually make human cloning possible." Seed made headlines last year when he vowed to defy U.S. government porhibitions against human cloning research following the international uproar over announcement that a sheep named Dolly had been cloned from another adult sheep by Scottish scientists.
The Japanese are now in the forefront of cloning research on higher animals such as livestock. While some Japanese researchers apparently do not share the general repugnance against human cloning that is widely expressed in the United States and European countries, a recent survey showed that 70% of Japanese doctors and academics do want legal regulations against human cloning.
Meanwhile, in a demonstration of their progress in cloning research, Japanese scientists in early December announced that they had cloned eight calves from a single adult cow. However, four of the calves died shortly after birth.
Richard Seed's plans include research that will, in his view, "help infertile couples, treat genetic defects and clone endangered animal species such as the white tiger." His proposed projects include establishing clinics in Japan that will "perform such services as single sperm implantation, embryo transfers and in vitro fertilization," according to Kyodo News Service. Seed says that the demand for cloned children for infertile couples alone will outweigh all the adverse pressures against the procedure.
Seed earlier announced that he would demonstrate the ability to clone humans by first cloning himself. Later, he said cloning himself would look like "an ego trip," so he intends to clone his wife instead.
Meanwhile, on December 8, a scientific panel in England urged the British government to ease restrictions on human cloning research aimed at creating replacement organs and treating certain diseases. The panel, however, endorsed the continuing ban on cloning complete human begins.
 Excelsior, Michael Lindemann's new novel (written under the pen name Michael Paul), depicts a wholly plausible near future in which human cloning is both widespread and widely abused; terrorists have access to target-specific biological weapons; recreational space travel is commonplace; and mounting pressures of global climate change, environmental decline, population growth and civil unrest inspire radical new approaches to urban security.
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