The report by President Clinton's National Bioethics Advisory Commission on the cloning of human beings is a "sensible attempt" - according to one of its members to find common ground between opponents of human cloning and those who see it as an important medical research tool.
The report will recommend to Congress that the production of human embryos by cloning with a view to implanting in the womb with the intention of producing of a full grown infant, be banned. It will, however, recommend allowing the production of embryos by cloning for the purposes of medical research by privately funded doctors and clinics. Federal funding of such procedures is already banned but it is this suggestion that the private sector be allowed experiment with human embryos which has, not surprisingly, produced the widest divergence of opinions.
It a strong argument can be put forward for the termination of a pregnancy in, for instance, the case of a woman who has been raped, it is difficult to imagine an argument of any moral force being posited for the creation of embryos in the advance knowledge that they will be killed. Most will be relieved that the manufacture of adult humans through cloning has been rejected by the commission. Fears of the emergence of a dominant Super Race were, at least, mollified by the fact that environmental factors may be every bit as important in producing a person of genius as genetic ones. But concerns over the possible creation of a so called "under race" to be used for purposes which are abhorred by most ordinary people will remain. These developments are, we are assured, technically possible and it is doubtful if legislation can prevent some scientists, particularly in an unregulated private sector, from following that path. One member of the commission has described the section of the report dealing with embryo research as "the worst of both worlds. The place you're likely to get all the rules strictly adhered to and the research published openly is the federal government and the place where things will get done shoddily and just for the money will be the private IVF clinics that already have bad reputations for conducting research without proper oversight".
But it is the Congress and not the Commission which will make the key decisions on this highly sensitive issue. Given its conservative complexion, the report will almost certainly be rejected and all forms of human cloning banned.