<p>One of my daughter's favorite movies is "Multiplicity." In this comedy, a busy contractor (Michael Keaton) is cloned by a large medical institute. There was no informed consent; he was just told that everything was going to be OK.<br/><br/>The clone (Number One) lived over the contractor's garage and was kept a secret from his family. While the contractor played golf or went to his kids' games, Number One would get the contracting jobs done.<br/><br/>At first, everything was going so well that the contractor returned to the institute and had a Number Two clone made from Number One.<br/><br/>Then, things started to go wrong. When chaos and mayhem ensued, the contractor returned to the institute for help. It was only then that he was informed that clones are not quite as good as originals and sometimes cloning does not turn out as intended.<br/><br/>Until recently, I have seen genetic therapy in medicine as a mysterious process that may not work as well as we have been promised, just like in the movie.<br/><br/>But its promise prompted Californians to pass Proposition 71 for $10 billion in stem cell research over 10 years. So far, there is only a patchwork of guidelines and state laws for researchers. The prospect of such important work being done without guidelines could be disastrous.<br/><br/>Three areas of uncertainty stand out: reproductive cloning, human embryonic stem cells and therapeutic cloning. After Dolly was cloned in 1997, most scientists worried that cloning a human (reproductive cloning) might be possible. Most, but not all, argue that reproductive cloning should not be attempted. In addition, human embryonic stem cells are a major point of contention and therapeutic cloning has also raised controversy.<br/><br/>Some countries have banned all forms of cloning. Other countries have regulations that run the gamut. In the United Kingdom and Israel, both the production of new lines and therapeutic cloning are legal.<br/>In the U.S., there is no federal legislation to regulate and guide cloning. In March 2005, the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2005 was submitted to Congress, but it has not become law. It is a federal ban on all forms of cloning--reproductive and therapeutic.<br/><br/>This past year, I showed my daughter, who is a grad student in equine endocrinology, a picture of the first cloned dog, Snuppy. After looking at the picture of the South Korean researcher holding the dog, she said, "Cloning a dog is pretty hard to do. I'll bet he didn't really do that."<br/><br/>It turns out my daughter may be right. In January, the researcher's other human stem cell work was exposed as fraud, and the origin of Snuppy was called into question as well.<br/><br/>The point is that cloning is complex and there are many issues that need deciding before we are faced with real-life Number Ones and Number Twos. What better group to propose research guidelines than doctors. As physicians, we are all aware of patients who might someday benefit from genetic therapy.<br/><br/>Now is the time for organized medicine to step forward with guidelines for cloning research. Not only should physicians insist on uniform research standards for California, but for the whole country.<br/><br/>At the end of "Multiplicity," the contractor takes his clones back to the institute. After the fact, none of us wants to be in the position of uttering those sad words, "Say it ain't so, Snuppy."</p>