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A dialogue about human cloning
Human cloning today
Human cloning today
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Recommended: A dialogue about human cloning
The first Human Cloned Embryo
Article written by: Jose B. Cibelli, Robert P. Lanza and Michael D West, with Carol Ezzell
(summary)
Parthenogenesis is a process of generating human embryos from only eggs put therapeutic cloning within reach
On October 13, 2001 the scientist of Advance Cell Technology come to see that their laboratory cells were dividing, the first human embryos were cloning.
The scientists were hoping for the cells to divide into 100 or so cells called blastocysts. They wanted to take these blastocysts and have them grow to replace nerve, muscle and other tissues. But only one of them came to the Six-cell stage and by then it stopped dividing. They had done a similar procedure they had eggs grow without sperm to fertilize, to develop parthenogenetically into blastocysts they think that using these to procedures together they could achieve human cloning.
In 2001 scientist attempted to create a cloned human embryo, they had consulted all the necessary sources before getting the “ok” to begin “creating”. Then they had to find a female subject to donate eggs. To start the process of cloning they need to use a very fine needle and get the genetic information from a mature egg. Then they inject it into the nucleus of a donor cell. The female donors were asked to take psychological and physical tests to screen for diseases and what not.
Cloning was first attempted last July, because it depended on the menstrual cycles of the subjects, the subjects also had to take hormones so that they would ovulate 10 or so eggs at once.
They seemed to have had a touch of success when the nucleus of a fibroblast had appeared to divide but it never completed. It took 71 eggs from seven volunteers before they could create their first cloned embryo. Out of the eight eggs with cumulus cells, two of them divided to form early embryos of four cells and another went to at least six cells before it stopped growing.
In “Jennifer and Rachel,” Lee M. Silver argues that reproductive cloning is permissible to those who encourage it, as opposed to those who reject it and don’t want to run the risk of how they’ll look in the eyes of society. Jennifer, an independent, career driven woman, believes that the best way to have a baby of her own at her age is by cloning. Silver’s description of the cloning procedure is done by retrieving cells from the willing adult; preparing the cells for merging into unfertilized eggs, and then the embryos that develop successfully will be introduced to the uterus of the willing adult. Jennifer partakes in the cloning procedure and it was successful. Nine months later, on March 15, 2050, Rachel was born.
1989 came with a boom as it molded the course of history – The Galileo Spacecraft launched by NASA flew up, the Berlin Wall tumbled down, and the massacre of Tiananmen Square left the city of Beijing in turmoil. Interestingly, a lesser known event swung the world of science in a complete 180. Scientists used embryonic stem cells to fabricate the first mice ever to lack assigned genes (Making). Just over a decade later, and following numerous embryonic stem cell discoveries, former U.S. president George W. Bush, authorized the use of federal funds for limited human embryonic stem cell research (Human). So, aiming for progress, mankind launched this new and exciting expedition. Nonetheless, in a culture that so readily promotes whatever promises a brighter future without weighing the means, we need to recognize the immorality of HESC testing. By exploiting these tiny humans in their foremost stages of development, the scientists behind this commit a heinous crime –
Previously there was widespread belief that cells from adult mammals cannot be persuaded to regenerate a whole organism. Now that Wilmut has proven once and for all that this is otherwise, many cloning experiments that were once fantasy could now be accomplished. For example, an organism of interest can be cloned from any living cells from it if it no longer can reproduce normally (perhaps due to defects in gametes formation) or if only cultured cells of the organism of interest remains (it has already died but complete cell death has not occurred).
A somatic cell nuclear transfer, which is also commonly referred to as a SCNT, is the process in which the result is considered a clone. This process includes multiple steps, one in which being the transfer of a somatic cell’s nucleus into an enucleated egg cell. This results in an embryo, which has a variety of uses. If the embryo is used for it’s stem cells, then the outcome will be a genetically identical organ instead of a full clone. This type of cloning could have many practical applications in the future. If the embryo is instead inserted into a uterus, the embryo will grow into a full clone. This type of cloning is called reproductive cloning and both types of cloning have sparked controversy among many due to a variety of ethical
In 1998, James Thomson and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin successfully isolated and grew human embryonic stem cells. At John Hopkins University, John Gearhart successfully isolated human germ cells.
Human cloning research has once been the subject of terrifying science-fiction films and novels, science experiments gone wrong, accomplished only by the evil scientists twirling their moustaches. However, ideas presented on page and screen are rarely accurate. The possibility of cloning an exact copy of another human with one already fully developed is almost impossible, but through meticulous research, scientists have discovered the numerous benefits of cloning humans, either with individual cells or an embryo.
"In November, researchers announced that they had made the first human embryo clones, giving immediacy to warnings by religious conservatives and others that science is no longer serving the nation's moral will. At the same time, the United States was fighting a war to free a faraway nation from the grip of religious conservatives who were denounced for imposing their moral code on others."(Washington)
Parthenogenesis is a type of asexual reproduction, which means an offspring comes from only one parent, where females produce offspring that are
Spearmann thought of cloning as a way to study cell differentiation. Briggs and King used the technique of nuclear transfer on amphibians and it was successful (Campbell). “Subsequently John Gurdon demonstrated the potential to reprogram differentiated cells by producing adult Xenopus using epithelial cells from developing tadpole intestine as nuclear donors,” says Alberio Campbell. Unfortunately, later studies show that this method of cloning tadpoles didn’t allow them to develop to the adult stage of life (Campbell). “The use of enucleated metaphase II oocytes as recipient cytoplasts proved more successful and in 1986 resulted in the production of live lambs using blastomeres from 8 to 16-cell stage embryos as nuclear donors,” says Campbell. This success in sheep was also used on other mammals such as cattle and swine. There were limitations to the technology. First, the “frequency development was very low”...
“The bill would ban human cloning, and any attempts at human cloning, for both reproductive purposes and medical research. Also forbidden is the importing of cloned embryos or products made from them”; these are the views of a US representative, Ken Calvert. Humans have been cloning plants and small animals like invertebrates since centuries but the idea of human cloning is controversial and a topic of discourse. Human Cloning refers to the asexual production of a human being from an ancestor to which it would be genetically identical. Scientists started their research on cloning animals in 18th century. August Weismann, In 1880s, proposed that the genetic information of a cell would diminish with every cell division. Hans Spemann challenged his idea and in his book entitled “Embryonic Development and Induction” talked about a fantastical cloning experiment which later became a basis for animal cloning. He called it a “nuclear transfer experiment” and suggested that cloning could be carried out by transferring nucleus from a cell into an enucleated – a cell whose nucleus has been removed – egg. John Gurdon, at Oxford University, put forward his idea and cloned South African frogs from an intact nucleus of a Xenopus tadpole. After Gurdon, an English embryologist, Dr. Ian Wilmut started research on cloning of mammals and cloned a sheep named “Dolly” which became an important scientific and technological breakthrough. With the birth of Dolly, the world realized that animal cloning was no longer a dream or an element of a science fiction movie and the debate about human cloning captured much attention.
Human cloning is an artificial reproduction process in which the offspring is created identically to its original down to their genetic level. This is accomplished by destroying a fertilized egg’s genetic component and inserting it with the replicated DNA sequence which the egg may accept and multiply. Once accepted, the fertilized egg will multiply to an embryo. During the early stage of development, an embryo is mostly made of stem cells. Stem cells attract scientist due to the fact that a stem cell can be grown into most organs and parts of the human body. The primary goal for human cloning is to use these stem cells to grow organs and chemicals in a lab to aid the original person’s life in medical condition. In defense of the Catholic Church
In recent years, the development of cloning technology in non-human species has led to new ways of producing medicine and improving our understanding of development and genetics. But what exactly is human reproductive cloning and how has this technology been developed? The term “cloning” refers more specifically to a process known as somatic cell nuclear transfer. In this process, the DNA from the cell of ...
Another argument pertains to the reliability of cloning. Cloning experts have claimed it is, in fact, an effective procedure. Scientists have admitted it is risky, but also have argued that with time, and more experimentation, cloning will become extremely reliable and effective. However, facts are not as supportive towards this claim as scientists may want. Currently only 3 out of 71 cloning eggs have lived, and only 1 out of 278 fully developed clones have survived from those eggs.
... middle of paper ... ... 9 October 2001. http://cbc.ca/news/indepth/background/cloning.html>.
These include both artificial embryo twinning and somatic cell nuclear transfer. Artificial embryo twinning is a relatively low-tech way to make clones as it tries to imitate the natural process whereby twins are created. Natural twins form very early in development when the embryo splits in two. Twinning happens in the first days after egg and sperm join, while the embryo is made of just a small number of unspecialized cells. Embryo twinning tries attempts to proceed down the same path however instead of a mother; a petri dish is used