MANILA (PNA Features) - Members of the National Academy of Science and Technology have reiterated their stand against human cloning research initiatives in the Philippines despite the reported successful genetic copy of human embryos in Seoul Korea last February.

NAST, the advisory board of the Department of Science and Technology (DoST), leads the science community in supporting the ban on human cloning research. It reaffirmed its 1997 stand on non-support on any research on human reproductive cloning.

In statement, NAST said scientific data on the reproductive cloning of animals demonstrate that the procedure is far from perfect and that many clones die and only about one to five percent clones for sheep and pigs, have survived.

Abnormalities such as swollen placentas, enlarged hearts and defective kidneys have been observed in cloned mammalian fetuses. Coming up with implantable cloned embryos is also very difficult, NAST said.

Cloning Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from adult cell in 1997, was successful only after failures with 276 eggs, the agency noted.

At the age of five, Dolly was diagnosed to suffer from arthritis, indicating premature aging. Recently, at six years old, she was put down due to a progressive lung disease.

NAST added that the ethical, moral, sociological and theological issues surrounding human reproductive cloning have been widely discussed and even the Vatican, in 1997, through its Pontifical Academy of Life, called for a worldwide ban on human cloning.

The Vatican has cited anthropological and theological principles that human cloning opposes the dignity of fundamental relationships of humanity.

South Korean researchers in February reported they have created human embryos through cloning and extracted embryonic stem cells, the universal cells that scientists expect will result in breakthroughs in medical research.

The findings by a team of researchers led by Dr. Hwang Woo Suk of Seoul National University were presented to South Korean scientists and will be published in the US science journal.

The paper describes a detailed process of how to create human embryos by cloning, saying the scientists used eggs donated by Korean women.

Advances in stem-cell technology have been hailed as holding potential cures for many crippling illnesses, such as diabetes, spinal cord injuries and Parkinson's disease.

Cloning is not new. Experiments with frogs and toads date back to the 1970s.

Experiments involving plants and animal embryos have also been performed for years.

Experiments involving human beings, however, have never been tried or thought possible, until "Dolly".

Her birth shocked the scientific community and spurred discussions about the possibility of human clones.

Experts noted that true human cloning would require taking a somatic cell, as opposed to a reproductive cell such as an egg or sperm cell, from a person and removing its nucleus.