President's bioethics panel narrowly supports 4-year moratorium on creating cloned human embryos.

The advisory committee that was appointed by President Bush to be the nation's medical bioethics watchdog finally weighed in with its much-anticipated report on human cloning and the two recommendations did nothing to resolve the current impasse.

By a slim majority - 10 of the 18 members supported a 4-year moratorium on the creation of cloned human embryos or therapeutic cloning. Of the remaining 8 members, 7 supported allowing research using cloned embryos to move forward under strict government scrutiny and 1 member who failed to attend most meetings took no position at all.

President Bush's Bioethics Council, headed by Leon Kass, PhD, a bioethicist at the University of Chicago who has adamantly opposed human cloning of any kind, not only failed to end the debate, but may have added fuel to the fire.

"The council, reflecting the differences of opinion in American Society, is divided regarding the ethics of research involving cloned embryos," the report said. "Yet we agree that all parties to the debate have concerns vital to defend."

Not surprisingly, the members agreed unanimously that reproductive cloning should be banned outright, for both practical and ethical reasons.

But the lack of consensus on therapeutic cloning reflects the quandary facing the US congress as it has debated whether to legislate a total ban. Advocates on both sides of the Senate debate maintained that the report supports their respective positions which would support conventional wisdom that no bill will be passed this year.

President Bush has said repeatedly that he supports a total ban on all cloning and has urged Congress to ban the practice. The president had not responded to the report's recommendations as Transplant News went to press.