Therapeutical cloning

The possibility of human cloning raised when Scottish scientists at Roslin Institute created the sheep "Dolly". Since then, worldwide interest and discussion concerning scientific and ethical aspect of that controversial issue aroused. Cloning is a method that involves the production of a group of cells or organisms that all derive from a single individual. There are different types of cloning involving three technologies: recombinant DNA technology or DNA cloning, reproductive cloning, and therapeutic cloning. The last one is also called “embryo cloning” which is the production of human embryos for use in medical research. The goal of this process is not to create cloned human beings, but rather to harvest stem cells that can be used to study human development and to treat disease. As such we maintain that cloning is beneficial for medicine and for the future of humankind evolution.
Taking into account medical aspect of the issue, therapeutic cloning is a highly pro-life technology which can be used in curing many diseases. The embryonic stem cells extracted from a cloned embryo can become any other type of human cell. In the future, they may be used to develop pancreatic cells for curing diabetes, cardiac muscle cells in heart diseases, neurons killed by degenerative diseases such as Huntingdon, Chorea or Alzheimer. What is more, scientists hope that one day therapeutic cloning can be used to generate tissues and organs for transplants. To do this, DNA would be extracted from the person in need of a transplant and inserted into an enucleated egg. After the egg containing the patient's DNA starts to divide, embryonic stem cells that can be transformed into any type of tissue would be harvested. In theory, the cloned organ could then be transplanted into the patient without the risk of fatal immune rejection. If organs could be generated from cloned human embryos, the need for organ donation could be significantly reduced. (ornl.gov). “There is no area of medicine that this technology will not potentially impact” says Nobel laureate Harold Varmus.
Secondly, in reference to moral point of view, we believe there are reasons for not regarding the embryo in its earliest stages as the moral equivalent of a human person on the ground that they could develop into adults. Between fifty and seventy per cent of embryos are lost naturally through failing to implant in the wall of the uterus. The potential of an embryo to develop does not itself make it human. As Peter Singer has observed, this approach would mean that every sperm and ovum should be treated as microscopic human beings. Moreover, until approximately 14 days after fertilisation, the embryo can split into two or more genetically identical embryos. How can we consider an embryo to be an individual that lives or dies, when it could naturally develop into twins or become nothing at all?
Thirdly, cloning for medical reasons may become one of the most revolutionary and profitable invention in the forthcoming future which is worth any money. Although it seems to be very expensive, treating many chronic debilitating diseases and disabilities, providing aid and relief to millions outweighs the great good that may come from it. Therefore, the government instead of spending everyday money as fast as McDonalds sells hamburgers, should invest in this honourable aim. In the United Kingdom, the Human Embryology and Fertilisation Act 1990 and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) require the licensing of each project involving the use of embryos. There should be no fear that money will be wasted. Eventually, cloning can save a lot of money in medicine since prevention and treatment will be more developed.
All in all, we believe that power of medicine underlies in its ongoing development. Every new invention in the beginning seems to be risky but without such it would be difficult to achieve anything. Since cloning technology is relatively novel development, people still imagine it as a production of identical human beings. However, cloning can turn out to be the way which gives infinite number of opportunities in medical field. We already accept the creation and destruction of “spare” embryos for cycles of in vitro fertilization treatment.



Citation


http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/cloning.shtml#ethics/
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http://www.newscientist.com/channel/sex/

http://www.howstuffworks.com/human-cloning.htm/

http://www.alexepstein.com/articles/cloning.htm