WORCESTER – News of the world’s first reported cloned human embryo has drawn strong protests from Bishop Reilly and area groups.

Advanced Cell Technology Inc., a Worcester-based privately held biotechnology company, announced Sunday it had successfully produced three embryos using a process called therapeutic cloning. Though many experts have speculated that other researchers have also succeeded in cloning human embryos, Advanced Cell was the first to report it.

Bishop Reilly, in a statement released Monday, said the Church supports the search for cures of debilitating diseases. However, he said, when that search "involves ignoble means, namely cloning embryonic human life for the sole purpose of destroying it, the Church must stand in opposition to human cloning and join with those who understand the broader dangers of such actions."

Cloning, the bishop added, "robs people of their gift of individuality; it reduces reproduction to a manufacturing process devoid of love or even human interaction; worse still, it treats human life as a commodity to be owned and traded, bought and sold. It is the manufacture of a separate class of life for enslavement."

Therapeutic cloning involves transplanting a cell from an individual into a donated egg which has been emptied of its genetic material. Chemicals are then used to force the egg to divide. Following several divisions, the egg, now a cluster of cells called a blastocyst, is broken apart so that stem cells can be removed. These embryonic stem cells, scientists believe, may be the key to the cure for diseases such as cancer, diabetes, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

The Catholic Church opposes this type of research because extracting the stem cells destroys the embryo, which is the earliest form of human life. The Church teaches that the destruction of human embryos is wrong and that human life must be respected from the moment of conception.

The National Catholic Bioethics Center also condemned ACT’s research. In a statement released Monday, the center said the cloning technique used creates a new human being which is then violated "by being subjected to the manipulation and destructive acts of others."

"If an embryo is engendered by either in vitro fertilization or cloning, it is still a human being and is entitled to the protection of law," the statement reads. "The only way truly to protect human rights at this level is to have a national ban against all human cloning, whether it is called therapeutic or reproductive."

Raymond Flynn, former ambassador to the Vatican, called the cloning breakthrough "a moral breakdown."

"Human reproduction is now in the hands of man when it rightfully belongs in the hands of God," Mr. Flynn said in a statement.

Life Action League of Massachusetts, a local pro-life group, said the cloning procedure perfected by Advanced Cell Technology can be used not only to provide possible treatment for serious diseases but also to manufacture human beings.

During an appearance Monday on CNN’s Crossfire, Michael D. West, Advanced Cell’s chief executive, said the company has no plans to clone a human being, a stance he has since repeated in conversations with the media. He called the cloned embryo "a balls of cells, not yet human" and said "not to use them is a moral evil."

The technology developed by ACT, Mr. West added, will be used solely to find cures for debilitating diseases, a goal that, by all accounts, is still years away from being realized.

"Do we want to trust biotech firms who say, ‘we don’t want to do this’?" asked Jesuit Father William E. Stempsey, a medical doctor and philosophy professor at Holy Cross College. Scientists by definition test the boundaries of what can be achieved, he said.

Father Peter Beaulieau, who chairs the diocesan bioethics committee, said other, less reputable companies or groups will undoubtedly attempt to fully develop cloned embryos now that the technology exists.

However, Father Beaulieau, also director of pastoral care for St. Vincent Hospital at Worcester Medical Center, suggested the hype surrounding ACT’s announcement may be premature.

"Scientists will tell you they haven’t gotten that far," he said, adding that the embryos produced by ACT researchers died after a few days without yielding stem cells.

Legislation needed

Bishop Reilly, in his statement, called on legislators to ban human cloning, which he said, would "publicly acknowledge this scientific breakthrough for what is – an ethical breakdown."Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Carl Anderson echoed the bishop’s sentiment in a statement released Monday. Mr. Anderson urged the U.S. Senate to pass the Human Cloning Prohibition Act (HR 2505), a comprehensive ban on human cloning. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill last July by a 265-162 margin. Both area U.S. Representatives Richard E.Neal (D) and James P. McGovern (D) voted against the ban.

The bill, which now sits in the U.S. Senate, would ban all human cloning, including the type of cloning attempted by ACT, according to Michael Mershon press secretary for Rep. McGovern.

On the state level, two bills are currently pending concerning human cloning, according to David Martin, chief of staff for state Sen. Richard T. Moore, D-Worcester, Norfolk District.

The bills, one of which is co-sponsored by Sen. Moore, would ban all attempts to fully develop a cloned embryo, Mr. Martin said. ACT’s therapeutic research work would not be prohibited because the embryos the company produces are destroyed in the stem cell harvesting process.

However, he added, because researchers’ intent is difficult to prove, some believe these bills could result in blanket bans on human cloning.

The bills, which are presently before the joint committee of science and technology, have a long way to go before they arrive on the Statehouse floor, he said.