(2)
With no more than this information, one might think of therapeutic cloning as a break-through in science and the key to curing many degenerative diseases including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as replace damaged heart muscles. It also offers benefits for many different patients who have been involved in accidents or in other ways have sustained different injuries and need a certain type of tissue replaced. But what exactly are the sources of the cells that are required for creating new tissue and what do the different procedures, these cells go through, involve?
The embryonic stem cells, which are vital for the tissue to grow from, are derived from human embryos. Once the embryos have been harvested for stem cells, they are destroyed, as they no longer serve any purpose for developing new tissue. The fact that they are destroyed has given rise to many ethical issues because some people consider them to be human although they are not allowed to develop beyond the embryonic stage. Some conservative Christians believe that human personhood begins at conception and therefore, therapeutic cloning requires the sacrifice or a “murder” of a person. On the other hand, “some believe that an embryo is simply a collection of cells containing DNA, not much different from skin cells that each person sheds by the millions daily. It is not a human being, not a person. It is composed of a few cells with no internal organs, arms, legs, sensory organs, brain, self-awareness, awareness of its environment, memory, thoughts, etc. It may eventually become a person, but only if allowed to mature in a woman's uterus. They believe that human personhood comes later in gestation, perhaps when the fetus "looks like" a human, or when its brain develops to the point where it becomes conscious of itself, or at birth.”
(2)
There seems to be a trend in how people from different countries consider therapeutic cloning. In western countries, many seem to agree that an embryo is not a human being, whereas in perhaps slightly poorer areas of the world, people tend to have more faith in a God and may therefore think of therapeutic cloning as immoral and unnatural.
The following quote supports this and was posted by a visitor to the BBC website, from Lebanon: “Why do people like to meddle with nature's way? It hurts us if one of our relatives or loved ones get sick but let's leave nature to take its course. Don't you think? What is meant to be is meant to be, no one can change God's will, it's like we are cheating death or sickness.”
(3)
With the controversy regarding therapeutic cloning, people might ask; “Are there no alternative sources to stem cells?” The answer is “Yes, there are”. Stem cells can be found in the bone marrow but researchers believe that these stem cells are already partially specialised and will therefore not be able to develop into any new cells, and so, the bone marrow is not a suitable source for stem cells. (5) But recent research shows that therapeutic cloning can be carried out using cells other than the controversial embryonic stem cells. Stem cells derived from the umbilical cord can be used because they have the essential qualities of embryonic stem cells so their clinical potential matches that of the EBC’s. This newly discovered group of cells which is referred to as “cord blood derived embryonic-like stem cells” or CBE’s are more versatile than the EBC’s and could be made into new tissue. Scientists have already coaxed the CBE’s into becoming liver cells. Obviously what distinguishes the CBE’s from the embryonic stem cells (EBC’s), is that they are ethically acceptable to many more, groups of people and religious beliefs, as it does not involve destroying embryo’s which is, (what was also mentioned earlier), considered, by some, the same as murdering a human being. With increasing numbers of ‘banks’ or clinics (currently eight in the UK) in which blood from the umbilical cord is saved the potential of therapeutic cloning using CBE’s is becoming ever more realistic. (4)
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3) - online debate
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6) - Online news paper article