WASHINGTON — A majority of the President's Council on Bioethics has recommended a ban on reproductive cloning and a four-year moratorium on therapeutic cloning in the Council's first report, released July 11.

In the report, 'Human Cloning and Human Dignity', all 17 of the Council's members advocate a ban on cloning to produce children. But while 10 members also recommend a four-year moratorium on cloning for the purposes of biomedical research (so-called therapeutic cloning), seven of the members recommended the use of cloned embryos for biomedical research with regulation. At press time, President George W. Bush, who was given the report on Wednesday night, had not yet issued a response to the report, which includes the position statements of all 17 members.

The Council, composed of a mix of scientists, ethicists, physicians, and lawyers, was created by the President last summer to evaluate the ethical ramifications of several scientific issues, particularly human cloning and embryonic stem cells. Members first met in January of 2002.

Those members who supported the moratorium suggested that the delay would allow time for further discussion and public debate on the issue of therapeutic cloning. Council chairman Leon Kass, a professor at University of Chicago's Committee on Social Thought, voted with the majority, emphasizing the potential of adult stem cell research and the insufficient scientific justification for crossing the moral, social and political boundary represented by any human cloning.

The minority view held that animal experimentation and the study of embryos obtained by in vitro fertilization were insufficient because only stem cells from human cloned embryos can provide insight into human disease. "The effect of extending and expanding this moratorium will be to maintain our ignorance by preventing any research for four more years," council member Janet D. Rowley said in a statement.

Rowley, a professor of medicine, molecular genetics and cell biology at the University of Chicago, also questioned the value of further public debate. Both the National Institutes of Health and the National Academy of Sciences have evaluated and issued reports on human cloning. Kass told The Scientist that he hoped future debate and discussion would better incorporate the contributions of those other than scientists.

The Council's majority recommendation for a moratorium could rekindle hopes of a Congressionally approved moratorium. In a statement, U.S. Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, the author of a bill calling for the prohibition of all human cloning, praised the Council's support for a temporary ban but disagreed with the separation of human cloning into categories of "reproductive" and "therapeutic." "Ultimately, all human cloning is reproductive," he said. Thus far, Sen. Brownback's bill and his call for a moratorium have failed to garner adequate support in the Senate.

The Council is now deciding the subject of their next report. Possibilities include the gene therapy, genetic enhancement, and patenting of human organisms.