View Full Version : AMA Endorses Cloning for Research


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06-17-2003, 06:37 PM
By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer

CHICAGO - The American Medical Association endorsed cloning for research purposes Tuesday, putting the nation's largest organization of doctors officially at odds with the Bush administration.

The policy, adopted without debate at the AMA's annual meeting, says cloning for research purposes is ethical. But the policy allows doctors who oppose the practice to refuse to perform it.

The measure does not support reproductive cloning and is strong in its call for proper oversight.

This is the first time the 260,000-member AMA has taken a position on what is known as therapeutic cloning.

The Bush administration opposes all cloning, research or reproductive, and the U.S. House earlier this year passed a White House-backed ban on any form of the practice.

"The AMA is not bucking the president," said Dr. Michael Goldrich, incoming chairman of the committee that drafted the cloning report. "The AMA is giving guidance to physicians."

The proposal focused on a laboratory procedure designed to create human embryos for their stem cells, which are master cells that can potentially grow into any type of human tissue. Scientists believe such cells could someday be used to treat a wide range of human diseases.

Such embryos could theoretically develop into a human if implanted in a woman's uterus. But the embryos are destroyed in the laboratory when the stem cells are taken.

University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Art Caplan said the AMA may have been emboldened to endorse the procedure because of recent research challenging whether such early embryos could ever develop into human life.

"The AMA is conservative, and they know this is a controversial subject," Caplan said. "What they're saying is there's enough hope here for finding cures that we have to speak out."

The proposal received wide support from doctors and medical groups at the meeting, including the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. A National Academy of Sciences panel last year also said cloning for research should be allowed.

Opponents, however, likened the procedure to abortion.

Calling it medically ethical is "totally inappropriate ... when a number of us believe that human beings start with two cells," said Dr. John McMahon of Helena, Mont.

In other action Tuesday, the AMA also adopted a policy against allowing drug company representatives to sit in in the examining room unless the patient has given consent.

The drug companies maintain that the practice, known as "shadowing," is educational; opponents say it violates patients' privacy.

Barbara Felt-Miller, a former sales representative for two major drug companies, told doctors that the practice made her uncomfortable, especially when she witnessed patients in their paper gowns undergoing routine but intimate procedures, including pelvic and rectal exams.

"It was embarrassing, almost voyeuristic that I'm sitting in on these exams," she said in an interview. "I can't imagine how it feels for the patient."

Felt-Miller said some doctors never asked patients for permission.

But Ed Sagebiel, a spokesman for Eli Lilly and Co., said the AMA's policy echoes the company's own, which says patients' consent should always be obtained before a sales rep is allowed to observe.