Look who just got paid for writing this article..yeah its that bitch in the top right of your screen
“Six little cells stirred up anew the global controversy over human cloning, and before it was over, the president, the pope, politicos, pundits, and professors had chimed in on what was or wasn’t ethical, moral, or just. The six cells belonged to the most developed human ‘embryo’ recently produced by Advanced Cell Technology.”(Applied Genetics News) The topic is human cloning and the opposition to it is fierce and loud. Cloning has become the most hopeful possibility for cures of crippling diseases in critically ill patients, but its moral and ethical issues must be decided before technology can move forward.
Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. is a private company located in Worcester, Mass. that has discovered scientific techniques for harvesting stem cells from genetically altered human cells. They found a way to artificially stimulate a human egg into splitting as though it had been fertilized, but it had not. Cloning is the process of replacing the nucleus of one egg with the nucleus, and therefore all its DNA material, from a cell of a desired animal, fusing the nucleus lacking egg with the donor cell. In a process called parthenogenetically activation, a jolt of electricity, or nuclear transfusion tricks the egg into dividing as if it had been fertilized. (Lauritzen) Scientists have pushed the limit of human experimentation with a desire to harvest stem cells which can be grown into various human organs perfectly adapted to the patient’s own genetic code, thus eliminating the devastating rejection factor in transplants.
The way cloning works is an intriguing process with many complications. The first thing researchers argue is great distinction between therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning. Reproductive cloning of animals, such as Dolly the sheep in Scotland in 1997 by Ian Wilmut, requires the transfer of genetic information from a living animal into the egg of another with the goal of reproducing a genetically identical twin. This has many people concerned that reproducing genetically identical duplicates of humans is next, which conjures up images of Frankenstein. Some are even concerned that couples will place an ‘order’ for a child with desired traits including sex, I.Q., and even eye and hair color to accompany their ‘thin’ genes. The moral and ethical issue of replacing a dead person with its clone is also being discussed as outrageous. This science is very far from possible as the difficulties when the growing embryo reaches the stage where it becomes multicellular, known as a blastocyst, is ready to be transferred into the uterus of a surrogate mother. The technological problems are overwhelming and include failure of the embryo to implant, rarity of full-term birth, and malformations at time of birth. There is also evidence that cloned animals such as Dolly carry diseases associated with old age, such as arthritis. (Science News) At a recent meeting deciding whether human cloning should be allowed in America researchers discussed whether it was worth the underlying risk involved.
Johnathan Hill from Cornell University has done extensive research in the cloning of cattle. His message has been clear; the death rate is far to high to be working with human beings. (Travis 2) Hill noted that incomplete reprogramming of a nucleus is the main reason most cloned embryos fail and about one third of the cloned cow embryos never made it past the first month of a cow’s regular gestation period. Of those that do survive, another half dies in the next month or two. This is apparently because of abnormal development of cloned embryo’s placentas. The placenta basically fails to supply nutrients and the fetus eventually starves to death. Hill warns that the prenatal death rate continues all throughout birth as well. Making it to birth is not a guarantee for clones either. Hill noted that of the newly born cattle he’s cloned, a majority was born with less than perfect side effects. Some had skeletal abnormalities while others suffered a variety of lung and heart complications. Despite the odds stacked against cloned pigs, sheep, and cows, 90 to 100 percent that make it to birth struggle. Due to Dolly the sheep and other cloned animals that have birthed normal offspring, researchers are led to believe that cloning doesn’t create any permanent mutations to an animal’s genes.
On the political front, issues of reproductive cloning are far from answerable at this time, but the cloning debate’s loudest opposition comes from pro-life political forces who claim that abortion is the real issue. Objecting to cloning on religious, ethical, or moral grounds has become the standard. They continue to debate that human life begins at conception and that any interference with that life is equal to murder and should be treated as a crime. President Bush has spoken out clearly against cloning of any kind stating, “We should not, as a society, grow life only to destroy it.” The Senate was pushed to quickly pass the anti-cloning bill that already cleared the house. House leader Dick Armey claimed, “We are in a race to prevent amoral, scientifically suspect tinkering with the miracle and sanctity of life.” (Applied Genetics Research) Soon the Catholic Church announced its position that human life begins at conception and must not be destroyed. In response, but to little avail, scientists have pointed out that their method does not use a fertilized egg, but parthenogenetically activated eggs that cannot result in a live birth and are not embryos, therefore should not be considered in the language of abortion. In his article Broadening the Debate on Cloning and Stem Cell Research, Paul Lauritzen explains that the abortion language neglects the fundamental social issues associated with the cloning and stem-cell research issue. He says that if Congress really wanted to address the moral and ethical aspect of research it would ban the SALE of human gametes and see how far the world of reproductive medical experimentation would go. He believes that exploitation happens at the level where society’s less fortunate citizens would sell their eggs for money.
Therapeutic cloning, according to advocates, has a much more society friendly goal and involves cloning only for the purpose of curing known human diseases such as heart disease, kidney failure, cancer, diabetes, and even spinal cord injuries. This cloning process involves DNA transfer from a patient’s own healthy cell into a genetically stripped egg and growing the new egg until stem cells can be harvested and grown. Despite objections, many globally followed organizations, the United Nations and the World Health Organization included, believe human cloning, genetic screening, and embryology may be a legitimate defense against certain ailments. It’s surprising that America isn’t quick to jump on the cloning bandwagon due to the fact that America’s number one cause of death, heart disease, could soon be eliminated. Despite the many drugs introduced to battle the rapidly growing amount of heart disease cases in America the number still rises. Through the implementation of cloned cells, it is believed hearts can be injected with a serum of cloned stem cells to fix damaged heart cells. The same positive results were found when injecting pancreas cells derived from stem cells into patients who had suffered since childhood years with Type I diabetes and were required to undergo years of insulin injections. Within two months of treatment, the need for insulin was gone and rejection rate was zero. Besides heart disease and diabetes, America’s other major killer is cancer. According to ABC Nightly News, one quarter of the population will have a cancerous tumor some time in their life. The research used now to combat cancer is limited. If doctors and scientists were allowed to use therapeutic human cloning, more testing opportunities could increase the chances for a cure for cancer. Other abnormalities including Downs Syndrome, leukemia, cystic fibrosis, liver disease, and kidney disease are also excellent candidates for genetic cures. Over half of the diseases listed are terminal. Families dealing with these diseases are desperately pleading for the opportunity to live longer and better lives if the technology can move forward.
The opponents speculate that microbiologists and scientists are cloning human embryos only to see how far they can push the technological limit. This idea may have been sparked by the case with cloning’s first brush with mass media. The first media hype that pertained to human cloning came from the fringe religious group known as the Raelian Sect. (Travis 5) Followers of the Raelien Sect believe alien beings contacted a French journalist, now known as Rael in 1973. According to the Raelians, aliens came and created all life on Earth but were mistaken for Gods. Followers also believe the aliens contacted Buddha, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed. The company they were associated with was known as Clonaid. One of the scientists, also a devote follower, leaked information that the group had successfully cloned 3 babies. Without any physical proof, such as photos, DNA samples, or names of mothers, the Clonaid myth quickly vanished from the public arena. (Travis 6) Until the relatively recent birth of Dolly the sheep, the thought of cloning was limited to dreams and sci-fi movies. How far will the world be allowed to push this newly discovered cloning technology? Without allowing the science of human cloning to continue will the answers to these questions ever be found?
One is forced to question whether the use of human reproductive eggs is worth the infinite possibilities of lives that could be saved or improved. The outcry against cloning seems to stem from two areas. One is the shocking new idea that comes with any new technology. Less than 100 years ago people could only dream about flying from one city to the next, or even needing to drive one’s own vehicle to get to local shops, work, church, or school. The early days of television, computers, and cell phones were seen as luxuries only the rich could afford, but certainly not everyday conveniences. Medical advances have been treated with the same kind of resistance by society with ‘experimental’ procedures such as organ transplants, bone marrow transfers, and in-vitro fertility treatments. Now it seems these procedures are accepted as common and seen as useful to society. The second, and loudest, outcry against cloning comes from the political conservatives who oppose abortion at any price and who find experimentation on human embryos, even a woman’s eggs, to be immoral and unethical. The history of groups like Nazi Germans performing horrifying experiments on humans has only added fuel to the concept of choices in producing ‘perfect’ humans through cloning.
Advocating for continuation of research and funding, Bert Vogelstein spoke out in the National Academy of Science, “The clear distinction between therapeutic cloning and human cloning is again becoming lost in reactions to reports that scientists are breaking new ground in the effort to obtain stem cells from cloned human embryos. Without an understanding of the differences between the two, policymakers and the public risk curtailing research that may lead to effective treatments and even cures for debilitating diseases. Therapeutic cloning is an unfortunate term that describes a method for creating stem cells to produce tissues that are less likely to be rejected by the immune system of a transplant recipient.” (Applied Genetics News)
New technological advances are almost always looked at with scrutinizing eyes at first. Why would human cloning be any different? Debate will and should continue as America is best served when all sides of an issue are brought into focus. However, new methods that can possibly prolong life, cure diseases, or create new technology should not be turned down. But the situation of cloning does need to be looked at thoroughly as it does present a danger of corruption and exploitation. Bio-ethicist R. Alta Charo of the University of Wisconsin-Madison said, “The United States is almost incapable of a sensible policy discussion in this area.” (Travis 6) Outlawing all human cloning is only hurting those so desperate for cures and delaying the day that any given method may lead to the cure of cancer, diabetes, leukemia, heart disease, or any other crippling and possibly lethal illness. The technology should be understood and the research methods fully explored. Stem cells harvested using one’s own DNA might be the obvious answer in a decade or two. If America wants to remain a world leader, its politicians will need to rethink its total opposition to cloning and stem cell research. The benefit to the health of all of humanity is at stake.
Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. is a private company located in Worcester, Mass. that has discovered scientific techniques for harvesting stem cells from genetically altered human cells. They found a way to artificially stimulate a human egg into splitting as though it had been fertilized, but it had not. Cloning is the process of replacing the nucleus of one egg with the nucleus, and therefore all its DNA material, from a cell of a desired animal, fusing the nucleus lacking egg with the donor cell. In a process called parthenogenetically activation, a jolt of electricity, or nuclear transfusion tricks the egg into dividing as if it had been fertilized. (Lauritzen) Scientists have pushed the limit of human experimentation with a desire to harvest stem cells which can be grown into various human organs perfectly adapted to the patient’s own genetic code, thus eliminating the devastating rejection factor in transplants.
The way cloning works is an intriguing process with many complications. The first thing researchers argue is great distinction between therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning. Reproductive cloning of animals, such as Dolly the sheep in Scotland in 1997 by Ian Wilmut, requires the transfer of genetic information from a living animal into the egg of another with the goal of reproducing a genetically identical twin. This has many people concerned that reproducing genetically identical duplicates of humans is next, which conjures up images of Frankenstein. Some are even concerned that couples will place an ‘order’ for a child with desired traits including sex, I.Q., and even eye and hair color to accompany their ‘thin’ genes. The moral and ethical issue of replacing a dead person with its clone is also being discussed as outrageous. This science is very far from possible as the difficulties when the growing embryo reaches the stage where it becomes multicellular, known as a blastocyst, is ready to be transferred into the uterus of a surrogate mother. The technological problems are overwhelming and include failure of the embryo to implant, rarity of full-term birth, and malformations at time of birth. There is also evidence that cloned animals such as Dolly carry diseases associated with old age, such as arthritis. (Science News) At a recent meeting deciding whether human cloning should be allowed in America researchers discussed whether it was worth the underlying risk involved.
Johnathan Hill from Cornell University has done extensive research in the cloning of cattle. His message has been clear; the death rate is far to high to be working with human beings. (Travis 2) Hill noted that incomplete reprogramming of a nucleus is the main reason most cloned embryos fail and about one third of the cloned cow embryos never made it past the first month of a cow’s regular gestation period. Of those that do survive, another half dies in the next month or two. This is apparently because of abnormal development of cloned embryo’s placentas. The placenta basically fails to supply nutrients and the fetus eventually starves to death. Hill warns that the prenatal death rate continues all throughout birth as well. Making it to birth is not a guarantee for clones either. Hill noted that of the newly born cattle he’s cloned, a majority was born with less than perfect side effects. Some had skeletal abnormalities while others suffered a variety of lung and heart complications. Despite the odds stacked against cloned pigs, sheep, and cows, 90 to 100 percent that make it to birth struggle. Due to Dolly the sheep and other cloned animals that have birthed normal offspring, researchers are led to believe that cloning doesn’t create any permanent mutations to an animal’s genes.
On the political front, issues of reproductive cloning are far from answerable at this time, but the cloning debate’s loudest opposition comes from pro-life political forces who claim that abortion is the real issue. Objecting to cloning on religious, ethical, or moral grounds has become the standard. They continue to debate that human life begins at conception and that any interference with that life is equal to murder and should be treated as a crime. President Bush has spoken out clearly against cloning of any kind stating, “We should not, as a society, grow life only to destroy it.” The Senate was pushed to quickly pass the anti-cloning bill that already cleared the house. House leader Dick Armey claimed, “We are in a race to prevent amoral, scientifically suspect tinkering with the miracle and sanctity of life.” (Applied Genetics Research) Soon the Catholic Church announced its position that human life begins at conception and must not be destroyed. In response, but to little avail, scientists have pointed out that their method does not use a fertilized egg, but parthenogenetically activated eggs that cannot result in a live birth and are not embryos, therefore should not be considered in the language of abortion. In his article Broadening the Debate on Cloning and Stem Cell Research, Paul Lauritzen explains that the abortion language neglects the fundamental social issues associated with the cloning and stem-cell research issue. He says that if Congress really wanted to address the moral and ethical aspect of research it would ban the SALE of human gametes and see how far the world of reproductive medical experimentation would go. He believes that exploitation happens at the level where society’s less fortunate citizens would sell their eggs for money.
Therapeutic cloning, according to advocates, has a much more society friendly goal and involves cloning only for the purpose of curing known human diseases such as heart disease, kidney failure, cancer, diabetes, and even spinal cord injuries. This cloning process involves DNA transfer from a patient’s own healthy cell into a genetically stripped egg and growing the new egg until stem cells can be harvested and grown. Despite objections, many globally followed organizations, the United Nations and the World Health Organization included, believe human cloning, genetic screening, and embryology may be a legitimate defense against certain ailments. It’s surprising that America isn’t quick to jump on the cloning bandwagon due to the fact that America’s number one cause of death, heart disease, could soon be eliminated. Despite the many drugs introduced to battle the rapidly growing amount of heart disease cases in America the number still rises. Through the implementation of cloned cells, it is believed hearts can be injected with a serum of cloned stem cells to fix damaged heart cells. The same positive results were found when injecting pancreas cells derived from stem cells into patients who had suffered since childhood years with Type I diabetes and were required to undergo years of insulin injections. Within two months of treatment, the need for insulin was gone and rejection rate was zero. Besides heart disease and diabetes, America’s other major killer is cancer. According to ABC Nightly News, one quarter of the population will have a cancerous tumor some time in their life. The research used now to combat cancer is limited. If doctors and scientists were allowed to use therapeutic human cloning, more testing opportunities could increase the chances for a cure for cancer. Other abnormalities including Downs Syndrome, leukemia, cystic fibrosis, liver disease, and kidney disease are also excellent candidates for genetic cures. Over half of the diseases listed are terminal. Families dealing with these diseases are desperately pleading for the opportunity to live longer and better lives if the technology can move forward.
The opponents speculate that microbiologists and scientists are cloning human embryos only to see how far they can push the technological limit. This idea may have been sparked by the case with cloning’s first brush with mass media. The first media hype that pertained to human cloning came from the fringe religious group known as the Raelian Sect. (Travis 5) Followers of the Raelien Sect believe alien beings contacted a French journalist, now known as Rael in 1973. According to the Raelians, aliens came and created all life on Earth but were mistaken for Gods. Followers also believe the aliens contacted Buddha, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed. The company they were associated with was known as Clonaid. One of the scientists, also a devote follower, leaked information that the group had successfully cloned 3 babies. Without any physical proof, such as photos, DNA samples, or names of mothers, the Clonaid myth quickly vanished from the public arena. (Travis 6) Until the relatively recent birth of Dolly the sheep, the thought of cloning was limited to dreams and sci-fi movies. How far will the world be allowed to push this newly discovered cloning technology? Without allowing the science of human cloning to continue will the answers to these questions ever be found?
One is forced to question whether the use of human reproductive eggs is worth the infinite possibilities of lives that could be saved or improved. The outcry against cloning seems to stem from two areas. One is the shocking new idea that comes with any new technology. Less than 100 years ago people could only dream about flying from one city to the next, or even needing to drive one’s own vehicle to get to local shops, work, church, or school. The early days of television, computers, and cell phones were seen as luxuries only the rich could afford, but certainly not everyday conveniences. Medical advances have been treated with the same kind of resistance by society with ‘experimental’ procedures such as organ transplants, bone marrow transfers, and in-vitro fertility treatments. Now it seems these procedures are accepted as common and seen as useful to society. The second, and loudest, outcry against cloning comes from the political conservatives who oppose abortion at any price and who find experimentation on human embryos, even a woman’s eggs, to be immoral and unethical. The history of groups like Nazi Germans performing horrifying experiments on humans has only added fuel to the concept of choices in producing ‘perfect’ humans through cloning.
Advocating for continuation of research and funding, Bert Vogelstein spoke out in the National Academy of Science, “The clear distinction between therapeutic cloning and human cloning is again becoming lost in reactions to reports that scientists are breaking new ground in the effort to obtain stem cells from cloned human embryos. Without an understanding of the differences between the two, policymakers and the public risk curtailing research that may lead to effective treatments and even cures for debilitating diseases. Therapeutic cloning is an unfortunate term that describes a method for creating stem cells to produce tissues that are less likely to be rejected by the immune system of a transplant recipient.” (Applied Genetics News)
New technological advances are almost always looked at with scrutinizing eyes at first. Why would human cloning be any different? Debate will and should continue as America is best served when all sides of an issue are brought into focus. However, new methods that can possibly prolong life, cure diseases, or create new technology should not be turned down. But the situation of cloning does need to be looked at thoroughly as it does present a danger of corruption and exploitation. Bio-ethicist R. Alta Charo of the University of Wisconsin-Madison said, “The United States is almost incapable of a sensible policy discussion in this area.” (Travis 6) Outlawing all human cloning is only hurting those so desperate for cures and delaying the day that any given method may lead to the cure of cancer, diabetes, leukemia, heart disease, or any other crippling and possibly lethal illness. The technology should be understood and the research methods fully explored. Stem cells harvested using one’s own DNA might be the obvious answer in a decade or two. If America wants to remain a world leader, its politicians will need to rethink its total opposition to cloning and stem cell research. The benefit to the health of all of humanity is at stake.