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Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008
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Cloning questions to the fore

South Korean firm says no checks are warranted for commercial dog-cloners

SEOUL: A South Korean dog cloning company said on Monday it has no plans to conduct background checks on future customers, despite revelations that its very first client was accused of abducting a man decades ago in a British case that became a tabloid sensation.

Other scientists called that policy foolish, and warned that cloning projects should be more tightly regulated.

Ra Jeong-chan, head of Seoul-based RNL Bio, said he was unaware of the accusations against Bernann alias Joyce McKinney, who was accused in 1977 kidnapping a Mormon missionary in England, handcuffing him to a bed and enslaving him.

McKinney returned to prominence recently when she had RNL Bio clone five puppies from her beloved pit bull, Booger. The firm claims the puppies that cost McKinney $50,000 were the first successful commercial canine clones.

After initial denials, McKinney admitted to The Associated Press over the weekend that she was indeed the person previously known as Joyce McKinney, who faced charges in 1977 of unlawful imprisonment in the missionary case. She jumped bail and eluded justice.

The company shrugged off the news, however, and the revelation drew scant reaction in South Korean media preoccupied with the country’s medal tally at the Beijing Olympics.

RNL Bio head Ra said even if he had known about McKinney’s record, it would not have affected his decision to clone her pet. “There was no reason to check her background,” when she made a cloning request, Mr. Ra said, describing the matter as “a privacy issue.”

He also said criminal records will not disqualify future customers, saying the cloned animals could even help them find stability and thus prevent crimes.

But Robin Lovell-Badge, head of developmental genetics at Britain’s National Institute for Medical Research termed the company’s policy “ridiculous.” He said clients who wanted their pets cloned should undergo counselling to ensure their motives were justified and that they understood the risks involved.

“You should certainly vet your customers, particularly in an area that’s as contentious as this,” Mr. Lovell-Badge said. “What if their intent was to breed a vicious pit bull terrier to be used for criminal purposes?” Mr. Lovell-Badge said that a request like McKinney’s would not be approved in Britain.

However, Park Jae-hyun, who teaches medical ethics at Seoul’s Kyung Hee University, said the background of would-be cloning clients should not matter as long as the copied canine is not used for criminal acts. “It is difficult to take issue with activities unrelated with a dog, unless a person harms someone by cloning a dog or causes social problems.”

South Korea’s Welfare Ministry said it has no plans to enact any laws requiring cloning firms to conduct background checks of clients.

Calls to Lee Byeong-chun, the key scientist who helped RNL in cloning the dogs, went unanswered. Dr. Lee’s team at Seoul National University created the world’s first cloned dog in 2005, and has since cloned some 30 dogs and five wolves.

Bizarre twists

The revelation about McKinney was not the first bizarre twist for scientific efforts relating to cloning in South Korea. Hwang Woo-suk, a scientist once revered as a national hero, became a global embarrassment after it was revealed in 2005 that he faked evidence to bolster claims of what would have been breakthrough research on cloning human stem cells. Dr. Lee was a colleague of Hwang, though his achievements in dog cloning have been reconfirmed as genuine. — AP

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