Virginia authorities quiz fertility clinic about cloning

From Kathleen Koch
CNN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Virginia state officials questioned the directors of a fertility clinic for more than four hours Tuesday to determine whether it was violating a new state law banning human cloning.

The Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine is one of the only facilities in the United States that creates embryos strictly for use in stem-cell experiments.

"We demonstrated to the state that our stem-cell research does not involve cloning," said Dr. J. Sumner Bell, president of the East Virginia Medical School, of which the Jones Institute is a part. "I'm convinced we made a convincing argument."

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Bell explained that while the medical school receives $14.1 million in state money for indigent care and medical education grants, only private money funds the stem-cell research.

Virginia Health and Human Resources Secretary Louis F. Rossiter will report to Governor Jim Gilmore by Labor Day on the Jones Institute visit.

His spokesman, Richard Parker, called the meeting "very cordial. We were pleased with what we found."

The Virginia General Assembly this year passed a law that prohibits the genetic duplication of humans and sets a maximum fine of $50,000 for creating human embryos by inserting genetic information into an unfertilized egg.

Dr. William Gibbons, chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Jones Institute, gave reporters a slide show demonstrating the difference between cloning and stem-cell research.

He, too, insisted the institute's work did not involve cloning.