Therapeutic Cloning

Bio II-A

Lily Mu and Anna Pettersen

Quotes on Therapeutic Cloning

"...[medical] methods that fail to respect the dignity and value of the person must always be avoided. I am thinking in particular of attempts at human cloning with

a view to obtaining organs for transplants: these techniques, insofar as they involve the manipulation and destruction of human embryos, are not morally

acceptable, even when their proposed goal is good in itself." ﾊ Pope John Paul II in an address before International Congress on Transplants on 2000-AUG-29

"Somatic cell nuclear transfer (more commonly called therapeutic cloning) is about saving and improving lives. It is fundamentally different from human reproductive cloning; it produces stem cells, not babies." U.S. Newswire

Cloning in general Cloning is the process of creating genetically

identical cells or organisms by using individual animals/plants.

There are three main types of cloning: DNA cloning, reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning.

Cloned Sheep

What is it? Therapeutic cloning (research cloning) is when

stem cells are extracted to grow into a piece of human tissue which is encouraged to grow into a human organ for transplant.

What are its uses? - It is used for medical purposes, such as creating organs

to transplant into a patient in need of that organ. If replacement organs are available to the sick and dying people, countless numbers of lives could be saved. Therapeutic cloning is a fast and efficient way to ‘repair’ damaged organs.

- Therapeutic cloning can be used to make insulin-secreting cells to cure for diabetes; nerve cells to cure stroke or Parkinson’s disease

How is it done? DNA is extracted from a human’s cell. The DNA

is inserted into a woman’s ovum and allowed to develop and produce stem cells. The stem cells are removed from the pre-embryo and are treated to grown inyo whatever organ is needed. Thus, the new organ is transplanted into the patient.

Stem cells

Possible Benifits-Cloned organs using therapeutic cloning is better than

organs donated by another person:-No rejection of organ because the organ’s DNA would match the patient’s DNA-Patients do not need to wait for an organ donor to donate his/her organs-Brand new organs can work more efficiently than donated organs-Saving more lives, which otherwise would be lost due to the waiting for a transplant

Potential Problems-There are still many deficiencies/ethical

disputes in therapeutic cloning:-Since therapeutic cloning is still in its early stages of development stem cells sometimes become mutated, thus rejected by the recipient’s body. -The production of stem cells needs to become more efficient. So far we need 100 eggs to produce one usable stem cell line.-Many pro-life supporters believe that human comes into existence at conception. When the stem cells are extracted the embryo dies, therefore pro-life supporters believe that this is murder.

Bibliography • http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Geno

me/elsi/cloning.shtml• http://whyfiles.org/148clone_clash/4.html• http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00016C

F7-CE54-1CF4-93F6809EC5880000• http://www.religioustolerance.org/clo_ther.htm• http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2007/11/17/

PM_Dolly_narrowweb__300x395,0.jpg