Human Cloning 2008 – Science and Ethical Concerns

Science educator Regina Bailey writes:

"Imagine a world where cells could be created for the therapeutic treatment of specific diseases or organs could be produced for transplantation... People could replicate themselves or make exact copies of loved ones they have lost... (Cloning and biotechnology) will define our time for future generations."

By 2008, when American scientist Samuel Wood became the first person to clone himself, an ethical storm had already begun.

Reproductive human cloning essentially means producing a person who is genetically identical to someone else. This can be achieved by placing the nucleus of an adult donor cell into an egg cell whose nucleus has been removed, potentially creating a developing embryo that can be implanted in the uterus. A new organism can also be cloned by splitting an early embryo, with each part developing into a separate organism (as with identical twins). In therapeutic human cloning, the clone is not implanted; instead, its cells serve a useful purpose, such as growing new tissues for transplantation. These patient-specific tissues do not trigger an immune response.

In 1996, Dolly the sheep became the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult cell.

In 2008, Wood successfully created five embryos that could provide a source of embryonic stem cells used to repair injuries and treat diseases, using DNA taken from his own skin cells. Embryonic stem cells can develop into any type of cell in the human body. All five embryos were destroyed for legal and ethical reasons. 

Following the news of human cloning, a Vatican representative condemned the act in these words:

"This ranks among the most morally illicit acts."

Other methods of harvesting stem cells do not require embryos to be cloned. For example, skin cells can be reprogrammed to create induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) without the need for embryos. These could serve as potential sources of various new tissues to replace those destroyed by degenerative diseases.

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