CLONING
AND STEM CELL RESEARCH
Claire Foster ©
2006
Cloning happens when the DNA from one person is placed in an egg which has had its nucleus taken out, and the egg is ‘tricked’ into thinking it is fertilised, and starts to grow.
Stem cells are the early form of cells that develop into all the cells in the body.
Stem
cells exist in the early embryo just after conception, in the fetus, in the
placenta and umbilical cord, and in many, possibly most, tissues of the
body. Because of their ability to reproduce themselves, and to
differentiate into other cell types, stem cells offer the prospect of new kinds
of treatments for diseases that haven’t any cure at the moment. These
include repairing or replacing tissues damaged by fractures, burns and other
injuries, and treating a wide range of very common degenerative diseases, such
as Alzheimer’s disease, cardiac failure, diabetes, and Parkinson’s
disease. These are some of the most common serious disorders, which
affect millions of people in the
Most scientists believe that in order to harvest stem cells and do the necessary research to make treatment of such conditions possible, early embryos have to be used. This is controversial for the same reason that IVF is controversial: it raises the question of the status of the embryo, and whether it should be used as a means to others’ ends.
Cloning Cell transplantation is best done, like organ transplantation, from genetic matches so that the recipient of the transplanted organ does not reject it. One way of ensuring a genetic match in stem cell treatment is to create an embryo which is a clone of the person who needs the treatment. The technique of cloning, practised in animals can be used for the purpose of creating an embryo specifically to harvest stem cells and then to be destroyed before the 14 day deadline (when the law says that embryos that have been experimented on must be destroyed). The cloned embryo in this context consists of an enucleated egg which has been given a nucleus from a cell of the person who needs the treatment, tricked into thinking it is fertilised and producing stem cells for harvesting.
A
law was passed in 2001 specifically criminalising the implantation of such
cloned embryos into a woman. Hence cloning, or cell nuclear transfer as
it is usually called, would only take place (in the