Therapeutic Cloning: A Scientific Breakthrough or a Step Too Far?

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Therapeutic Cloning: A Scientific Breakthrough or a Step Too Far?

In order to discuss the advantages and disadvantages as well as some of the ethical issues that are raised regarding therapeutic cloning, we must first define this term, in order to understand it properly.

Therapeutic cloning: "A procedure in which cells, typically skin cells, are taken from a patient and inserted into a fertilized egg whose nucleus has been removed. The cell that is so created is permitted to divide repeatedly to form a blastocyst. Scientists then extract stem cells from it, and use those cells to grow tissue that are a perfect genetic match for the patient."

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What this means is that patients who have suffered serious injuries or diseases in which a significant amount of tissue has been damaged or lost, can have these replaced by new tissue that is grown from their own cells and therefore has the exact same DNA as the patient. Because the tissue, which is formed artificially, has the same genetic makeup, the patient will not need to take any medication such as anti-rejection drugs. (These allow foreign tissue to function as part of your own body