SEOUL, July 26 (UPI) -- South Korea's government is moving to regulate cloning following reports that a woman was impregnated with a cloned embryo and a company had been set up to clone pigs for organ transplants.
South Korea has no effective rules on cloning and officials worry the country could be used as a laboratory for controversial human cloning, which is mired in ethical and moral controversy.
"The government is speeding up efforts to create legal measures against any attempts toward human cloning and the sale of eggs and sperm," a senior government official said Friday.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official told United Press International the Health Ministry was investigating the U.S.-based firm Clonaid's claims it had successfully implanted a cloned embryo in a South Korean woman. Clonaid's South Korea branch office announced that the woman was pregnant with an embryo Clonaid cloned abroad. The company said the woman is staying in South Korea and is expected to give birth in six months.
"The surrogate mother, who arrived in South Korea a month ago, came with an embryo which had been implanted in her uterine wall by foreign technicians," Clonaid Korea spokesman Kwak Gi-hwa said in an interview with UPI. "Everything is fine with her and her baby so far."
Kwak also vowed to continue working on a human-cloning project, despite the government's warning of punishment.
"I am not concerned about the government's probe because the implant was done outside Korea and Korea has no laws that ban human cloning," he said. "It will be human rights abuses if the government blocks people from enjoying benefits from science."
The Health Ministry unveiled guidelines on human cloning last week and they allow cloning of embryos only for medical treatment.
"Embryo cloning is totally different from human cloning, which isn't permissible anywhere in the world," said Lee Ui-kyung, of the ministry-run Korea Institute of Health and Social Affairs, who wrote the guidelines.
The Health and Science ministries have agreed on joint measures to crack down human cloning attempts. They would submit a single anti-human cloning bill to the National Assembly in a bid to expedite it becoming law. The two had drafted separate bills that would ban cloning of humans and limit stem cell research.
"Under the combined bill, those who attempt or help to clone humans can face up to five years in prison," Chang Hyun-sup, of the biotechnology department of the Science Ministry, said.
A number of South Korean lawmakers pledged to swiftly pass the proposed regulations. Rep. Kim Sung-soon of the ruling party stressed the need for legal measures to punish Clonaid. Opposition lawmaker Kim Hong-shin also called for action to prevent human cloning.
Further embarrassing the government, a venture firm specializing in animal cloning for the production of internal human organ for transplant recipients was announced in South Korea.
Park Kwang-wook, who was the first in the world to clone pigs for human organ production, will head the company, which aims to produce cloned human internal organs and protein medicines utilizing nucleus transplantation technology.
"It has been the dream of humans to utilize internal organs of swine for human kind. We hope our technology helps prolong the life span of people," Park said.
Science Ministry officials said they also would set rules on animal cloning for medical treatment.
"The government would allow medical research through animal cloning," said Chang Hyun-sup, who added the issue concerns "safety" in transplantation, rather than "ethics."
