Washington

President George Bush's bioethics council has issued a split decision on whether to ban cloning for research purposes — increasing the likelihood that Congress will fail to legislate on cloning this year.

The President's Council on Bioethics issued a report on 11 July that unanimously endorsed a ban on human cloning to produce children. Ten of the council members recommended a four-year moratorium on cloning for research purposes, sometimes referred to as therapeutic cloning, whereas seven said that research cloning should proceed once appropriate regulations are in place.

Leon Kass, chairman of the council and a philosopher at the University of Chicago, says he hopes the president will consider both recommendations — while recognizing that one is the majority opinion. “The president asked for a debate of the issues and he's got it,” Kass says.

But it is the Congress that must pass any law to ban cloning. And early indications are that the divided recommendation will entrench the deadlock that has so far prevented the Senate from passing any legislation on the issue.

Gene Tarne, a spokesman for Americans to Ban Cloning, a coalition of anticloning groups, claims that the majority recommendation will help to muster support for a moratorium on human cloning in the Senate. “The four-year period will give time for discussion and encourage scientists to expand work on alternative research,” he says.

But Kevin Wilson, director of public policy for the American Society for Cell Biology, which supports cloning for research purposes, says a moratorium would amount to the same thing as an outright ban. He draws comfort from the fact that seven members of a panel named by Bush supported the society's position. “You have a sizeable number of presidentially appointed members thinking that the research should continue,” Wilson says.

In a rare display of unity, lobbyists on both sides conceded that the split decision reflected the diversity of opinion among the US public on cloning for research.