The ins and outs of therapeutic cloning

Loane Skene was one of the public faces of the prolonged debate on therapeutic cloning in Australia last year as a member of the Lockhart committee.

At the International Society for Stem Cell Research annual meeting, being held in Cairns next week, she will discuss the findings and implications of last year's Lockhart Review recommendations and her personal stand on the recently passed federal legislation allowing SCNT.

The Lockhart committee comprised a group of eminent Australians, mainly scientists, appointed by the federal government in June 2005 to report on the regulations governing stem cell research.

Former federal court justice, John Lockhart, chaired the committee but sadly died shortly after the recommendations of the review were handed to government.

Stepping in to chair the committee following Lockhart's death, Loane Skene was given the task of publicly advocating for the committee's main recommendation - lifting the ban on SCNT, also known as therapeutic cloning. It was this, out of 54 recommendations presented to government, which received the most attention from both politicians and the public.

The committee recommended that scientists be allowed by law to create human embryos by the process of transferring somatic cell nuclei to human egg cells to create an 'embryo', under licence.

Late in 2006, most of the committee's recommendations, including that on SCNT, were passed by both houses of the federal parliament and subsequently implemented by legislation.

In early April, similar legislation was passed overwhelmingly in the lower house of the Victorian parliament and is now on the table or forthcoming in the other states and territories.

The NSW lower house passed its legislation last week, with the upper house vote expected later this month.

Moral arguments

Skene, Professor of Law at the University of Melbourne and deputy chair of the Lockhart Committee on Human Embryo and Stem Cell Research, is an articulate advocate for the creation and use of human embryos by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) for research.

SCNT describes the process by which an unfertilised donor egg cell has its nucleus removed and replaced with an adult somatic or body cell nucleus. Thus, the genetic make-up of the egg cell becomes that of the adult tissue source.

The egg is then activated or 'fertilised' and allowed to grow to the blastocyst stage, when cells can be harvested as embryonic stem (ES) cells. Those stem cells are then a match for the tissue from which the nucleus was derived and have the potential to be used therapeutically to replace damaged or diseased cells.

In her presentation, Skene will discuss the major arguments against SCNT from groups in the community.

Skene says that these include the views that "human embryos have a special moral status and it is therefore morally abhorrent to create and destroy them for research, that allowing SCNT will inevitably lead to reproductive cloning, and that ES cell research is ill-founded as it has produced no new insights or therapies and can be done using adult stem cells."

The committee carefully considered these moral arguments but could not justify prohibiting the technology on ethical grounds, she says.

"We saw the issue as not so much: should scientists be doing the research, but rather, should they be prevented from doing the research."

The committee's decision also took into account that not all communities in Australia attach the same significance to the human embryo as Christian churches, for example, and that other moral questions such as the need to care for the sick and vulnerable and respect the wishes of individuals must be considered.

She also emphasises that the community, legal system and government have allowed donated embryos to be used in research for some time, but almost unanimously disapproves of reproductive cloning or techniques such as implanting an SCNT 'embryo' into a woman's body.

"This is a criminal offence, punishable by up to 15 years in prison," she says. "The committee recommended that reproductive cloning should remain prohibited by law."

Skene also notes that instances of non-compliance with legislative and regulatory requirements governing such research have not occurred in Australia (where embryo research is allowed under licence) or in the UK (where SCNT is allowed).

During the review process, Skene talked to many in the field of stem cell research and realised that under the current legislation, Australian scientists would simply not be able to do some of the fantastic research being done elsewhere, particularly in the UK.

This would mean more Australian researchers either leaving the field or the country to continue their research.

This realisation also brought up discussion about whether it would be morally correct for Australians to benefit from that research if it led to a treatment or cure. Along with many other scientists, politicians and ethicists, Skene believes this is really a moot point.

"It seems inconceivable that we would say, well, this research involved a procedure that many people in Australia think is morally wrong, and therefore we won't take the benefits of the research by dispensing drugs or diagnostic tools to people here.

"Can you imagine somebody with a moral objection to this use of embryos arguing against the right of somebody else to get up and walk?"

Background

Skene has been at the University of Melbourne since 1992, where she is now pro vice-chancellor in addition to her professorial roles in the faculties of Law and Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.

Prior to joining academia, she worked for many years as a solicitor in Melbourne and England, and as a policy adviser in Canada and in Melbourne with the Victorian Law Reform Commission.

She has authored two books, as well as numerous book chapters and articles in legal, medical and scientific journals.

Skene has achieved many awards and honours over her career including a Centenary Medal in 2003 for services to Australian society through the exploration of legal and ethical issues of health care.

Skene's on-going research interests include the legal regulation of genetic testing and assisted reproductive technology and her personal quest is to engage people in the scientific research process and to highlight the advantages for the community as a whole.

Skene admits to a fairly optimistic view of society and believes that understanding and acceptance of such research "creates a moral force of its own".

The 5th ISSCR annual meeting, co-hosted by the Australian Stem Cell Centre, is being held at the Cairns Convention Centre from June 17 to 22. For more information, see ISSCR or the Australian Stem Cell Centre