All the other methods are used widely by animals, plants, and humans. Larger plants and animals that are cloned already have specific jobs that go on in the body and help work together to make these jobs happen, this is called specialization. A specialized cell cannot change to do another job and this means cells that are cloned can only be used in the same way as its mother cell.
Human reproductive cloning
There are a lot of moral issues with this topic mostly affected by religion, I believe that it is the making of clones unnaturally that people do not agree with as cloning can happen naturally, this is called human reproductive cloning that naturally occurs and forms twin’s.
In large and complex animals all the unspecialized cells have been used up and this is why cloning in animals is very uncommon. Despite this, cloning can also be a natural process in sexual reproduction, however it is fairly rare. In humans, this cloning process will create identical twins. They may not have many features like the parents, but exactly the same to each other. Identical twins are formed when the one fertilized egg cell splits into two cells in the womb which develops into two identical embryos with identical genes. Therefore they are clones of each other.
Image on the page before shows how identical twins are naturally formed and was found at -
Human cloning is not the only type of cloning; it can also be used in animals, as well as being a natural process used in bacteria, human reproduction and in some plants for asexual reproduction. They would use selective breeding to choose the plants with the most desirable features that they want all their plants or crops to have, for example being resistant to diseases or having the largest crop yield. This has its advantages, such as being able to make more of what of what is in demand in a shorter space of time; however a disadvantage would be that the reduction in any genetic variation reduces any future selective breeding.
There is great potential with human cloning as it offers the possibility to cure previously incurable diseases, repairing injuries and saving lives, if not improving the lives for many. Therapeutic cloning is allowed in the UK; however, reproductive cloning, and the cloning of human embryos with the intention of creating a baby, was made illegal in 2001. The UN has been trying to ban all types of human cloning for a number of years with the thought that it is unethical. Therapeutic cloning can provide identical cells for medicine, organs and tissue to be transplanted into some patients. If used regularly instead of transplants, it would prove a lot quicker and more efficient as the patient’s body wouldn’t reject the new cells because they have been grown from their own stem cells, so they have identical DNA.
The following flow chart explains how therapeutic cloning works:
Nucleus is taken out of human egg cell. It is replaced with a nucleus from one of the patient’s cells.
The egg cell is triggered to develop into an embryo
After 5 days the cells are removed from the embryo with a pipette.
Stem cells from the embryo are grown in a dish with nutrients; they then develop into different tissues and organs and are ready for medical treatment.
I found the information that I used for the flow chart in a 21st century science GCSE Biology book. Because the book is used in schools across the country and is used for education, I am reassured that the information will be reliable enough to use for my investigation.
‘Dolly the sheep was the first ever cloned sheep. Dolly the sheep was highly significant as it showed that cloning of a complex animal was possible. Dolly was born in 1996 but her birth was only announced in 1997, and died young in 2003. Dolly’s genetic information came from a 6 year old sheep’s cells and it is thought that her death was because she was a clone. Because there has never been another successful cloning story, it is hard to tell if that is truth or just speculation.’ This quote was from Wikipedia -
This information is fairly reliable, as Wikipedia is available worldwide, and supplies a vast amount of information but the website is a public website, so people are able to change some of the information. However, by getting information for facts and not opinion I can be reassured that there isn’t bias. The diagram on the following page shows exactly how Dolly the sheep would have been created. Although the web address is not from a website that is particularly well known having researched other diagrams I could see that they all showed the same methods, although this was the clearest.
The example of Dolly the sheep just shows the possibility of being able to clone more complex animals. Dolly took 277 failed attempts before it was successful, which took a lot of time and money. An unsuccessful clone is when you take the nucleus and change the DNA, but it does not work and nothing is produced. A human body is much more complex than an animal, so if you think how many times cloning Dolly failed, then it is bound to take even more to clone a human. However, no one can say that as human cloning has not been tried and this is science fiction rather than science fact.
Religious views on human cloning
Religious views are some of the strongest views around in this time, with multicultural areas all over the world there is often a conflict in religious views. Below are some of the main religions views:
Christianity – “Roman Catholicism and other Christian denominations believe that the soul enters the body at the moment of conception when the sperm and egg unite. They feel harvesting cells for embryonic cloning is tantamount to live human experimentation and contrary to God's will. Further, they maintain producing cloned zygotes that are unlikely to survive is tantamount to murder. Some Christian conservatives express concern that cloned embryos would have no soul, since it was, in their view, born outside of God's parameters.” This is one view however nothing against cloning is mentioned in the bible. – found at
Judaism - Judaism does not equate life with conception and, though some question the wisdom of cloning, Orthodox rabbis generally find no firm reason in Jewish law and ethics to object to cloning. Liberal Jewish thinkers have cautioned against cloning, among other genetic engineering efforts, though some eye the potential medical advantages. – found at
Buddhism - Ronald Y. Nakasone, a Buddhist priest and Professor of Buddhist Art and Culture at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California stated, "The Buddhist response to the possibility of cloning human beings is not if, but when . . . Would we accord a cloned person the benefits enjoyed by those who are born naturally? I would hope so." – found at
Hinduism - The editors of Hinduism Today, in a compilation of Hindu thought on the issue of cloning, suggested a morally neutral stance, indicating that Hinduism neither "condones not condemns" cloning research. "If done with divine intent and consciousness, it may benefit; if done in the services of selfishness, greed and power, it may bring severe negative karmic experiences." But research may pose difficulties: Hindus are not allowed to injure sentient beings, so the tradition rejects both animal research and the destruction of embryos. – found at
Islam - Preservation of parent-child lineage is of utmost importance to Muslims, who object to third-party assisted reproduction but endorse procedures that assist in the fertility of committed parents. Leading U.S. scholar on Islamic cloning views, Dr. Abdulaziz Sachedina, believes Muslims would support cloning if it helped parents have children. But the potential breakdown of filial relationships that could ensue from the creation of cloned persons gives Muslims pause. So does the destruction of embryos, as there is not consensus among schools of Islamic thought about the moral status of the human embryo. Some traditions affirm the presence of a soul at point of conception, but others place ensoulment at 40 days, and still others at 120 days. Within these latter traditions, therapeutic cloning research can be justified. – found at
Legality of cloning
This is a source about laws on human reproductive cloning in the UK - Human reproductive cloning is illegal in the UK and many other countries because it has not been proven to be medically safe, scientifically sound, or socially and ethically acceptable. – found at . This source shows that human reproductive cloning is current illegal in the UK, this is mainly because the public aren’t likely to accept it and science can’t prove that this cloning is safe for the mothers or the child.
This is a source about human reproductive cloning in the USA - The House of Representatives of the United States passed a bipartisan bill banning human cloning in the USA. The U.S. Senate failed to pass its own version, and as a result it remains legal at the federal level to experiment with, and create, human reproductive clones, as long as no federal funding is utilized. While several state legislatures have banned human reproductive cloning within their jurisdictions, still many states have not acted, leaving a legal opening for privately funded cloning experiments to proceed unhindered within the United States. – found at . This shows that currently in some states of the USA it is legal to perform human reproductive cloning as long as it is privately funded for, however is currently illegal to perform using federal funding.
Reported experiments
Currently there is a shortage of reported experiments with human cloning, however I was able to find this one report made by 3 scientific officers in California - On January, 2008, Wood and Andrew French, Stemagen's chief scientific officer in California, announced that they successfully created the first 5 mature human embryos using DNA from adult skin cells, aiming to provide a source of viable embryonic stem cells. Dr. Samuel Wood and a colleague donated skin cells, and DNA from those cells was transferred to human eggs. It is not clear if the embryos produced would have been capable of further development, but Dr. Wood stated that if that were possible, using the technology for reproductive cloning would be both unethical and illegal. The 5 cloned embryos, created in Stemagen Corporation lab, in La Jolla, were destroyed. -
The main point here is that human reproductive cloning is possible, yet the public are not ready for it and do not want it, but this argument will still go on for many years.
The same biotechnology company that brought us Dolly the sheep, along with one of its competitors, announced it has now successfully cloned genetically modified pigs. What’s special about these pigs is that they have certain of their genes shut off or “knocked out,” which the companies hope could eventually lead to growing animals whose organs can be transplanted into humans.
This could be a major medical advance that would change the way we think about organ transplantation. We might move from the current situation of severe shortage and patients dying long before organs become available, to a time when organ transplant could be treated like other surgeries.
Report by: CNN; a very trusted news reporting company.
This source is from the news; it says that genetically modified pigs have been created with organs that could one day be used as transplants into a dying human. This source relates to therapeutic cloning because the pigs have been cloned and they have grown organs that could be theoretically transplanted into a human.
Arguments for and against human reproductive cloning
Pros:
- When the vital organs of the human body can be cloned, they can serve as backup systems for human beings. Cloning body parts can serve as a lifesaver. When a body organ such as a kidney or heart fails to function, it may be possible to replace it with the cloned body organ.
- Cloning in human beings can prove to be a solution to infertility. Cloning has the potential of serving as an option for producing children. Cloning may make it possible to reproduce a certain trait in human beings. We will be able to produce people with certain qualities, human beings with particular desirable traits, thus making human beings a man-made being; often known as designer babies!
Cons
- Cloning created identical genes. It is a process of replicating a genetic constitution, thus hampering the diversity in genes. While lessening the diversity in genes, we weaken our ability of adaptation. Cloning is also detrimental to the beauty that lies in diversity.
- Moreover, cloning will put human and animal rights at stake. Will cloning fit into our ethical and moral principles? Cloning will leave man just another man-made being. Won't it devalue mankind? Won't it undermine the value of human life?
Conclusion
It has to be said that media likes to paint things in a dark light so that they seem bad, this has happened a lot on any issue involving cloning, because of this a lot of the public shear away from the idea of cloning and automatically look at the bad points. However there are also always good points and a reason to why cloning would need to be a part of every day life. As mentioned earlier reproductive cloning could be used to help infertile couples have a baby genetically identical to one of the parents, however the media feels that these clones will be mutants with horrible deformities as a result of not being naturally made. After a lot of experimenting on animals it is clear that cloning is not yet ready to be risked on humans, however I feel that in the future there is a very real chance of clones being in the general public. If we were to look at something that isn’t natural like the creation of test tube babies, this isn’t completely natural because the fertilisation happens in a laboratory. Also, test tube babies were very experimental in the early stages and it took many attempts to get it to work, but after many trials it is finally working and is an every day thing. Test tube babies now walk on the streets as citizens and not outcasts (which a lot of clones are predicted to be). Therefore if test tube babies are now accepted it is only a matter time before human clones are accepted and start to be created.
If I was to look at the advantages and disadvantages of reproductive human cloning earlier in my project there were more disadvantages than advantages, however I feel that more experimenting needs to be done until scientists are confident enough to move the experimenting a step further. After enough experimenting is done then most of the disadvantages of human reproductive cloning will not be a problem, one of which could be the number of attempts it takes scientists to create an embryo.
Human therapeutic cloning is disliked by a lot of people because of how fetus’s need to be ‘harvested’ for organs and then ‘destroyed’ in the process of gathering various organs. A lot of these fetuses have been cloned so the scientists have started to create their own fetuses. This type of cloning is very different to human reproductive cloning because a new organ is created as appose to an entire human, these organs that have been created are then used to help improves the quality of life to people whose organs are failing and need transplanting. An added benefit is that the waiting list for transplant will go down because rather than taking organs from a dead person (where the organ is not genetically identical to that of the patient receiving it) a new genetically identical organ can be grown and there is also less of a risk of the organ being rejected by the patients body. I feel that a bit more testing and experimenting needs to be done for human therapeutic cloning, however not as much as with human reproductive cloning.
Now for my final verdict my title question ‘should human cloning be banned in the UK’, my answer is split into two, one for human reproductive cloning and another for human therapeutic cloning…
Experimenting into human reproductive cloning should be legal in the UK, however only once sufficient testing has been done to show that it safe for the mother (to give birth to the clone- which are usually larger than other babies once first born) and to the clone themselves (to make sure that no deformities are made) then it should be legal to fully clone humans in the UK.
Experimenting into human therapeutic cloning is very much still being done and therefore should be legal in the UK, I still feel that we are not at a stage were either type of clone should be made however I still feel that it should be legal, even though it could take 50 years before a clone is made. Finally therapeutic cloning is such a benefit to patients that could be dieing today that I feel It should be legalised and the government should help finance the experimenting to help make this form of cloning a reality very soon.
