HUMAN CLONING should be put on hold—but only temporarily, the National Bioethics Commission concluded in a report issued last month.
"Clearly, there is a need for further public deliberation on the serious moral concerns raised by the prospect of cloning human beings," the commission said.
President Bill Clinton asked the 18-member group in February to review the legal and ethical issues surrounding cloning and report back within 90 days. The president's request was a response to the report that researchers in Scotland had succeeded in cloning a sheep (Nature. 1997;385:810-813). The news sparked worldwide interest and concern that the cloning of humans was just around the corner.
In a letter transmitting the Bioethics Commission report to the White House, chair Harold T. Shapiro, PhD, president of Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, said there is a need for a "great deal more widespread education and deliberation" to resolve the legal and moral