USA : Excellent document du Conseil de Bioéthique Présidentiel :

President's Council on Bioethics Defends Dignity of Human Procreation

At a meeting held last week in Washington, DC , the President's Council on Bioethics alerted the world to bizarre new reproductive technologies, such as the creation of animal-human hybrids and "fused" human embryos with multiple sets of biological parents, that are now being explored by scientists. The Council, which was established by President George W. Bush to provide recommendations on emerging bioethical issues, warned in an internal working paper that such procedures gravely threaten "the dignity of human procreation," and should therefore be prohibited.

In the paper, "Defending the Dignity of Human Procreation," the Council recognized that many current ethical dilemmas began with the advent of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). In the paper, the Council stated that, by "bringing the beginnings of human life outside a woman's body," human embryos were exposed "for the first time to possibilities of manipulation and alteration," therefore raising "unprecedented and vexing ethical issues."

The paper expressed particular concerns about several biological experiments that are now being performed, or are at least theoretically possible. One procedure mentioned in the paper was the division of an embryo into its separate cells, and their fusion with other embryos' cells, in order to create a hybrid human embryo of four or more biological parents. The paper also discussed the extraction of eggs or sperm from aborted fetuses, thereby "making it possible that a child might have a fetus or a five-day old embryo as its biological mother or father." Also now possible is the creation of human-animal embryos and the implantation of human embryos in animal wombs.

On a more general level, the paper showed concern over the possibility that scientists and the biotechnology industry may come to treat embryos, eggs, and sperm as "articles of commerce," and that the industry may treat the human embryo as a "novel 'invention' or 'product' suitable for patenting."

To protect the dignity of human procreation, the paper recommended that Congress prohibit the transfer of any human embryo into the body of an animal, as well as "the production of a hybrid human-animal embryo". To protect women from the potentially exploitative and degrading nature of these new experiments, the paper also stated that "a woman and her womb should not be regarded or used as a piece of laboratory equipment, as an 'incubator' for growing research materials, or as a 'field' for growing body parts."

The paper also suggested that a number of other procedures should be banned, including the fusing of cells from two or more other embryos, as well as fertilization techniques using gametes obtained from a human fetus or derived from human embryonic stem cells. Lastly, the paper suggested that Congress should "prohibit the buying and selling of human embryos" and should instruct the US Patent and Trademark office to refrain from issuing patents encompassing human gametes, embryos or fetuses.

It is likely that the contents of the paper will eventually reflect official Council policy recommendations. However, a high-ranking Congressional staffer told Culture & Cosmos that politicians on the Hill "don't follow the Council much" and that he is not aware of any legislative action that has resulted from the Council's reports, which does not bode well for the future of such regulatory suggestions. Absent appropriate legislation, the scientific experimentation so vividly described, and condemned, in the paper will most likely continue. Source: Culture of Life Foundation Website: http://www.culture-of-life.org

Quality of Life -  Bruxelles – Janvier 2004