Michelle Thompson
Dr. Natalie Rosenberg
English III Honors
5 March 2014
Therapeutic Cloning
What is immoral about saving lives? Therapeutic cloning is a realistic opportunity for patients suffering from a number of diseases. Murnaghan states:
“The process of therapeutic cloning is simple: a scientist extracts the nucleus (which contains genetic material) and then extracts the nucleus of a somatic cell (any body cell except sperm and egg cells). Next, the somatic cell nucleus is inserted into the egg [of a donor female]. The egg now contains the patients DNA. The egg is simulated to divide shortly after and forms a cluster of cells known as a blastocyst. Cells in the center of the blastocyst are isolated and utilized to create stem cell lives which are infused into the patient where they are ideally integrated into the tissues imparting structure and function as needed.”
Therapeutic cloning is a relatively safe procedure. One reason therapeutic cloning is safe is because cells can be safely removed from embryos or adults. Cloning does not require a human embryo in some cases; cells can sometimes be removed from a live adult. Therapeutic cloning can be performed with cells that can be safely removed from adults or adolescents (Marzilli, pg.19) Embryos must sometimes be destroyed in this process, but the pros of treating diseases outweigh the cons (Murnaghan). Therapeutic cloning is also safe because, the organs made are from the same DNA as the patient; and there is a smaller risk of rejection from the body (Murnaghan).When a new organ is transplanted into the human body, heavy medication must be taken so that the body does not reject the donated tissues; this medication does not ensure that the organ won’t be rejected. “...
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...d be the same as the patients and there would be a less likely rejection after a transplant. Therapeutic cloning has the potential to treat “many neurological, cardiovascular, and hematological diseases” (Ballaro). By using stem cells to create different tissues, more organs could be used for transplants. If dedicated scientists continue the research, incomprehensible progress could be made in this field and many lives could be saved by this process. In merely 56 years, the human species went from building the first successful airplane to landing on the moon; anything can be achieved through knowledge. If this determination was applied to learning about cloning, millions of lives around the globe would be saved from horrible diseases. In the future, therapeutic cloning can be a treatment that is used by many, and why should any human be denied a treatment option?
Therapeutic cloning is the process whereby parts of a human body are grown independently from a body from STEM cells collected from embryos for the purpose of using these parts to replace dysfunctional ones in living humans. Therapeutic Cloning is an important contemporary issue as the technology required to conduct Therapeutic Cloning is coming, with cloning having been successfully conducted on Dolly the sheep. This process is controversial as in the process of collecting STEM cells from an embryo, the embryo will be killed. Many groups, institutions and religions see this as completely unacceptable, as they see the embryo as a human life. Whereas other groups believe that this is acceptable as they do not believe that the embryo is a human life, as well as the fact that this process will greatly benefit a large number of people. In this essay I will compare the view of Christianity who are against Therapeutic Cloning with Utilitarianism who are in favour of Therapeutic Cloning.
Children grow up watching movies such as Star Wars as well as Gattaca that contain the idea of cloning which usually depicts that society is on the brink of war or something awful is in the midsts but, with todays technology the sci-fi nature of cloning is actually possible. The science of cloning obligates the scientific community to boil the subject down into the basic category of morality pertaining towards cloning both humans as well as animals. While therapeutic cloning does have its moral disagreements towards the use of using the stem cells of humans to medically benefit those with “incomplete” sets of DNA, the benefits of therapeutic cloning outweigh the disagreements indubitably due to the fact that it extends the quality of life for humans.
Brown, Alistair. "Therapeutic Cloning: The Ethical Road To Regulation Part I: Arguments For And Against & Regulations." Human Reproduction & Genetic Ethics 15.2 (2009): 75-86. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.
By applying research from cloning normal cells to cloning stem cells, a wider range of people can be helped, and the cost of procedures will be lowered. Scientific research into cloning will allow doctors study how to safely replicate
...cloning can be divided into two broad category: potential safety risk and moral problems, and these concerns overweigh its achievement.
Cloning is, and always has been an extremely contentious topic. To some, the ethical complications surrounding it, are far more promiscuous than what scientists and medical experts currently acknowledge. Cloning is a general term that refers to the process in which an organism, or discrete cells and genes, undergo genetic duplication, in order to produce an identical copy of the original biological matter. There are two main types of artificial cloning; reproductive and therapeutic, both of which present their respective benefits and constraints. This essay aims to discuss the various differences between the two processes, as well as the ethical issues associated with it.
Brannigan, C. Michael. Ethical Issues in Human Cloning. New York: Seven Bridges Press, Chatham House Publishers, 2001.
Cloning is defined as the process of duplicating biological materials such as tissues and new life forms (“Cloning Fact Sheet” 2009). The cloning of human tissue should be allowed because the fields of medicine benefit from it; however, the full cloning of humans is a mockery of life because it creates a population of people who will not evolve or adapt to changes in the environment. Therefore, the government should financially support the research of therapeutic cloning while condemning the act of reproductive human cloning. There is a major difference between therapeutic and reproductive cloning that sets them apart from one another. Therapeutic cloning is the creation of cloned stem cells in order to produce a genetic duplicate of an organ for a patient in need of a transplant (Robinson “Therapeutic.” 2000).
Last of all, Cloning is not ethical, many religious groups look down upon cloning and think it’s not proper because they think it’s like playing God. Many scientists were mainly thinking about cloning animals and, most likely, humans in the future to harvest their organs and then kill them. “Who would actually like to be harvested and killed for their organs?” “Human cloning exploits human beings for our own self-gratification (Dodson, 2003).” A person paying enough money could get a corrupt scientist to clone anybody they wanted, like movie stars, music stars, athletes, etc (Andrea Castro 2005),” whether it be our desire for new medical treatments or our desire to have children on our own genetic terms (Dodson, 2003).
Scientists have no problem with the ethical issues cloning poses, as they claim the technological benefits of cloning clearly outweigh the possible social consequences, not to mention, help people with deadly diseases to find a cure. Jennifer Chan, a junior at the New York City Lab School, said, "?cloning body organs will help save many patients' lives," she said. "I think that cloning is an amazing medical breakthrough, and the process could stop at cloning organs--if we're accountable, it doesn't have to go any further." This argument seems to be an ethical presentation of the purpose of cloning. However, most, if not all scientists agree that human cloning won?t stop there. While cloning organs may seem ethical, cloning a human is dangerous. Still, scientists argue that the intentions of cloning are ethical. On the other hand, there are many who disagree with those claims. According to those from a religious standpoint, it is playing God, therefore, should be avoided. From a scientific standpoint it is also very dangerous, as scientists are playing with human cells which, if done wrong, can lead to genetic mutations that can either become fatal to the clone, or cause it severe disabilities. This information does, in fact, question the moral of the issue. If cloning is unsafe and harmful, what is the point?
Human cloning is also unethical. Cloning, especially therapeutic cloning, requires the use of human embryos. Using these embryos would mean killing unborn children. Therapeutic cloning begins by removing the stem cells from an embryo (Human Cloning). The stem cells are used to grow bone, nerve, and muscle tissue. In the process of therapeutic cloning, an embryo, or a baby in the early stages of development, is taken and parts of it are grown to develop parts of the body including organs and limbs (Human Cloning). Removing these stem cells would kill the embryo. The embryo, which would result in a child if left in the mother’s womb, is separated into parts, which are used for science.
In a future of engineering where life like robots are being made its only time for scientist and doctors to start cloning organs. Therapeutic cloning is a breakthrough in science and would lead to scientist being able to regrow tissue and especially organs that won’t be rejected by the patients immune system. It’s also known as somatic cell nucleic transfer, is the process ( shown in figure1) of which scientists remove a nucleus from any somatic cell in the body which carries the genetic material. And is then transferred into an unfertilised egg, which nucleus has been removed as well. This can then be used to collect human embryonic stem cells with certain characteristics that scientist can use to develop patient- and disease- cell based therapies or tissue replacements (http://www.stemcellfoundation.net.au).
People protest the idea of cloning because many are mystified as to how it could be used and what its purposes can be. The purpose and use of cloning, in the scenario the paper is based on, is to save a life. This use and purpose of cloning is extremely specified in the sense that it would save a human being’s life. The fact that we, as humans, might be able to figure out how to clone so that lives could be saved is extremely exciting and inspiring. On the other hand, there is a time and a place for everything, including research. While cloning is justifiable in certain circumstances, I would want to make sure other healthcare issues were taken care before donating money to research for cloning.
Undeniably cloning shouldn’t be criticized just because people are not aware how beneficial it can be. By having the knowledge gained by cloning, vast majority of severely sick people would be able to be completely treated. People are not aware and a lot of them claim that cloning is against the God’s will “"If your religious beliefs will not let you accept a cure for your child's cancer, so be it," argued California Democrat Zoe Lofgren. "But do not expect the rest of America to let their loved ones suffer without cure."” (Gibbs, N., Goldstein, A., Cooper, M., & Duffy, M., 2001), 38.)
Cloning can be helpful to those who. “The hope is that cells can be generated to cure these types of diseases where one cell has gone wrong. The growth and transplant of new nerve cells would help with Parkinson’s, the growth cells to produce more insulin for diabetics, and new heart muscle for those suffering from heart disease.” –MCB181 Honors Biology Group 1. Taking the risk of this cloning procedure cannot only extend a person’s lifetime but can also save their life from having to worry about reoccurring organ problems. The medical application of this achievement, benefiting an immense amount of people, is the therapeutic use of cloning. “It has already been shown that stem cells can be used to generate tissues and cells for specific areas of the human body. This can potentially allow for customized transplantation therapies and the repairing of damaged or diseased tissues in the body by replacing them with suitable cloned cells.” MCB181 Honors Biology Group 1. This procedure can allow transplantation therapies and repair damaged or diseased tissues in the body by replacing them with suitable cloned cells. Repairing and helping the cells in the hum...