Women
Recruited as Donors
By Amy
Contrada
August 16, 2001
Egg cell “donors” (i.e., women)
at Advanced Cell Technology have been recruited through newspaper
ads and are being paid $4,000 apiece for the embryonic cloning.
This is relatively low (compared
to the $20,000 that some college-student donors have been paid by
infertile couples). This price is intended “to avoid an undue financial
inducement that could taint the project.”
The women are informed that
their egg cells will be used in a cloning experiment and that they
will need “10 to 15 injections of potent fertility drugs and then
a biopsy-like procedure to remove the eggs.” There is no mention
that they are ever warned of possible infertility and other health
problems from the procedure, which some critics have raised as an
ethical concern.
A company scientist, Dr. Jose
Cibelli (who used his cheek cells in the original cow-man experiment),
has already begun work on the donor egg cells, “dousing the eggs
with chemicals that mimic the effect of sperm, hoping he can trick
the eggs into dividing on their own.” This technique would work
to make therapeutic stem cells for women who have their own egg
cells.
“To make stem cells for the
rest of us would require nuclear transfer,” the process they will
soon use, if they haven’t already. This type of clone requires the
removal of the egg’s nucleus and injection of skin (or some other)
cell from the person to be cloned. The resulting stem cells would
then be extracted when the embryo is about five-days-old and contains
about 100 cells. “Dr. West says no embryo will be allowed to develop
for more than two weeks,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
The company has security cameras
mounted throughout its lab to document the destruction of each embryo,
so that no one will attempt to steal (or implant?) the embryos.
They have also hired bodyguards to escort their scientists while
transporting donor eggs, claiming to be worried about attacks from
“anti-abortion extremists.” Dr. Lanza is nervous about the repercussions
of undertaking the experiment without explicit government approval.
“Somebody is probably going to get shot,” he says.
Most interestingly, the company
will not say, according to the Wall Street Journal, “who will donate
the skin cells for the experiments, noting merely that the people
to be cloned are ‘highly educated’ individuals outside the company.”
Was this a slip? What could be the reason for mentioning the “highly
educated” status of the donors? (This was not mentioned concerning
the egg donors, so it doesn’t seem they are concerned about the
donor’s ability to understand the project.) Are they just possibly
thinking of producing a few “elite” babies?
Dr. West refused an offer
from network-news producers to clone a well-known TV anchor because,
he said, “That wouldn’t be treating the embryo with respect.” He
said he doesn’t want a “circus.” There was no mention of the educational
level of the news anchorperson.
Manufacturing
Human Beings in Worcester?
Similar
to Nazi Experiments in Producing ‘Superior People’
Dr.
West as Theologian
Dr.
Diggs Says Dr. West’s Assertions Are ‘Erroneous’
Human
Cloning: Illegal in Massachusetts?
Two
Ethical Advisers to Advanced Cell Have Resigned
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