In the world this is starting to be seen as a crime against humanity. In Israel there is no moral problem with this * unlike most Western countries, which are overwhelmingly opposed to human cloning, in Israel the ban is temporary. At the meeting of the committee that discussed its extension, no principled reasoning was put forward against embryo cloning, and there are even those who suggest no
Tamara Traubman, Haaretz, and Walla News
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While the percolation of the idea of human cloning causes international bodies such as the United Nations to draft treaties prohibiting the cloning of humans, and prominent lawyers and ethicists in the world suggest that it be made a crime against humanity, in Israel they support cloning in principle and see it as a legitimate method for the future solution of fertility problems.
This month, the UN is expected to renew its work on a treaty prohibiting human cloning; The spirit of the convention, which strongly opposes human cloning, is evident in its draft, which has already been published. In Israel, too, the discussion on the issue has recently been renewed, in preparation for the expiration of the law prohibiting human cloning. The Israeli law - drafted in the form of a five-year moratorium - will expire this January, but the necessary legislative procedures in the Knesset to extend it have not yet begun. A review of the minutes of a committee appointed by the Ministry of Health shows that not only is Israel, contrary to the prevailing trend in the world, not going to tighten the law, but that it may even entrust the Minister of Health with the authority to allow, in special cases, to euthanize a person.
The Israeli law is completely different from the treaty being formulated at the UN. Although both prohibit cloning for reproductive purposes, Israeli law establishes a temporary ban, while the draft UN convention calls for a permanent ban. Apparently it seems that this is a minor legal difference, but in fact two opposing concepts are embodied here. One, which is supported by most of the world, sees human cloning as an inherently bad thing: the very attempt to reproduce a genetic copy of an existing person is defined in the convention as an "attack on human dignity".
According to George Anas and Rosario Isasi of Boston University and Lori Andrews of Yale University, three of the world's leading lawyers and ethicists in their field, cloning is fundamentally different from any form of human reproduction. They drafted a proposal similar to that of the UN, which calls for making human cloning a crime against humanity. "No scientist or corporation has the moral authority to reshape human beings," claim the three researchers. According to them, the cloning ban is an issue that directly concerns all of humanity and is "the most important decision we will ever make."
The petition drawn up by the prominent American feminist organization "Collective Boston" Women's Health Book states that "there is no possibility that human cloning will be developed without mass and unethical experiments on women and children". They cite as an example in vitro fertilization, which was tried on the bodies of hundreds of women around the world before the risks of the method became clear.
In addition, the petition claims, cloning embryos for research purposes and the production of stem cells will create a market for egg trade "and will provide an unethical incentive for women to undergo life-threatening hormonal treatments." Such a "market" already exists; The eggs are traded in it for the purposes of having children. But what will happen when scientists start buying eggs for embryo research? And what if they seek to realize their vision and create for every patient who needs a tissue transplant a compatible embryo, from which the tissue will be taken, so that there is no problem of transplant rejection?
The approach embodied in Israeli law is quite different from the approach prevalent in the world. She does acknowledge the current ineffectiveness of the method and the risks involved (such as a very high rate of birth defects and many abortions), and therefore opposes its use at the moment; But in the future, if the method is perfected and becomes safer in humans, the Israeli approach does not rule out its use among infertile couples.
In Israel, there is a lack of awareness of all the aspects of the issue and a disregard for the need to hold a public debate on it. Although the Cloning Law requires a committee of the Ministry of Health, the Helsinki Supreme Committee for Genetic Experiments on Humans, to submit to the Minister of Health every year a report reviewing the developments in the field of cloning and genetic engineering in reproductive cells, such a report has not yet been submitted. Such a report is important not only for formulating the position of the decision makers on the matter, but also - and above all - for creating a public debate on the issue.
The Ministry of Health's final position regarding the cloning law will be formulated following recommendations submitted by a committee appointed by the Ministry for the purpose of "examining the status of the human fetus in medical sciences". The committee consists almost entirely of doctors and scientists, and its chairman is Dr. Sharaga Belzer, a doctor from Rambam Hospital. Recently, the minutes of the committee's meeting were published, revealing the current mindset.
The members of the committee are unanimous that the moratorium on cloning for reproductive purposes should continue. They also agreed that embryo cloning for research purposes should be allowed. The main issue that worries the members of the committee is what tactics should be adopted when renewing the law. Prof. Neri Laufer, director of the women's department at Hadassah Ein Kerem, said that it is necessary to discuss "our status in front of the international scientific community... because our status is unusual and not necessarily for the better." "The debate," said Prof. Avraham Steinberg, a doctor in Shaare Zedek and an expert in medical ethics and Halacha, "is what tactics we as the State of Israel should take." Should we say it (that cloning for research purposes should be allowed - XNUMX) openly or should we hide it." Prof. Rivka Karmi, dean of Ben Gurion University's medical school, agreed that "from a moral point of view we have no problem" with extending the moratorium, but argued that it is not "wise to say today in a country that is so permissive in all kinds of ways, that we are the first to actually allow cloning human".
During the discussion, none of the members of the committee presented any principled argument against human cloning. Ethicist Prof. Asa Kosher from Tel Aviv University stated that none of the arguments against cloning "are really convincing". According to him, "we need to work against the (public's) fear of cloning... we are the ones who know the facts better... and what have we done to allay the fear of a citizen who today hears about cloning for the first time because he saw 'The Children of Brazil' on TV?" Kosher added that "this fear can bring the Knesset... to interfere with scientific research in a significant way and to interfere with medicine in a significant way."
In the current law, there is a section that allows the Minister of Health to permit, in cases defined as "special", to carry out genetic engineering in reproductive cells (seeds and eggs). The biologist and chairman of the Bioethics Committee of the National Academy of Sciences, Prof. Michel Rebel, with the support of many on the committee, proposed to allow the Minister of Health to also allow the cloning of babies. The members of the committee debated how this proposal should be implemented in a way that would not arouse too much criticism in the world. "People abroad, they don't read the comma," said Prof. Rebel, and proposed a "small" amendment - a seemingly negligible technical change, which would allow cloning before the end of the moratorium and pass almost unnoticed.
Prof. Rebel said in response that his intention is that a special permit will be granted by the Minister of Health, in accordance with the recommendation of a committee established by law, in the case of infertile couples whose condition would be "medically justified" for the use of cloning, and this only if it turns out that the method is effective and safe. According to him, "What is important is that today we have a ban on cloning. True, there are differences between Israel and other countries, for example we do not prohibit cloning for the purpose of producing stem cells. But we are not alone, the English are also in favor of it."
It should be noted that in Great Britain there is a state authority that strictly monitors research on embryos, and in Israel there is no state monitoring system on research on embryos and eggs.
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