Human cloning (moral, reject, moral, Zen, diseases)

[Green Gaia]

The three different types of cloning are:

Embryo cloning: This is a medical technique which produces monozygotic (identical) twins or triplets. It duplicates the process that nature uses to produce twins or triplets. One or more cells are removed from a fertilized embryo and encouraged to develop into one or more duplicate embryos. Twins or triplets are thus formed, with identical DNA. This has been done for many years on various species of animals; only very limited experimentation has been done on humans.

Adult DNA cloning (a.k.a. reproductive cloning) This technique which is intended to produce a duplicate of an existing animal. It has been used to clone a sheep and other mammals. The DNA from an ovum is removed and replaced with the DNA from a cell removed from an adult animal. Then, the fertilized ovum, now called a pre-embryo, is implanted in a womb and allowed to develop into a new animal. As of 2002-JAN, It had not been tried on humans. It is specifically forbidden by law in many countries. There are rumors that Dr. Severino Aninori has successfully initiated a pregnancy through reproductive cloning. It has the potential of producing a twin of an existing person. Based on previous animal studies, it also has the potential of producing severe genetic defects. For the latter reason alone, many medical ethicists consider it to be a profoundly immoral procedure when done on humans.

Therapeutic cloning (a.k.a. biomedical cloning): This is a procedure whose initial stages are identical to adult DNA cloning. However, the stem cells are removed from the pre-embryo with the intent of producing tissue or a whole organ for transplant back into the person who supplied the DNA. The pre-embryo dies in the process. The goal of therapeutic cloning is to produce a healthy copy of a sick person's tissue or organ for transplant. This technique would be vastly superior to relying on organ transplants from other people. The supply would be unlimited, so there would be no waiting lists. The tissue or organ would have the sick person's original DNA; the patient would not have to take immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of their life, as is now required after transplants. There would not be any danger of organ rejection.






Should cloning be allowed and if so under what circumstances? What about stem cell research?

[Colin_Admin]

I do like the idea of stem cell research. It will help in the cure of diseases and without hurting animals or humans.

[Sam Bloom]

Sounds good. I read somewhere, that the Japanese are starting to do some human cloning, or something to that effect.

Think that this is a great technology, especially with the stem cell research, and the ability to grow new organs.

If they can perfect it, the cloning of humans could be good, in that great minds, and people with select special talents could be cloned, if what they did was truly useful to mankind.

Although, the scary side is, it would be used to clone bad folks also, such as cruel dictators, etc.

But both kinds will be common one day.

[Mr Spinkles]

Creating organs and tissue is one thing...but cloning human beings? That seems unethical. To what end would we clone human beings? Plus that might lead to genetically engineering unborn children...

[Sunstone]

Someone is going to do it (clone humans). In some country, somewhere. Sooner or later. The rewards are that it is a way to take the lead in biotechnology. And whichever country takes the lead in biotech is going to have the same huge economic boom as we saw during the '90s and '80s in computer tech.

[Ceridwen018]

Lets think about the future here. Is everyone going to have their own clone, who just kind of hobbles after them missing a couple fingers, patches of hair, maybe an eye...just our own personal clone to take tissue and appendages from whenever we need them?

I agree with Spinkles. Stem Cell Research is fabulous, but the actual cloning of a human opens up a whole new can of worms. How can two people share the same identity in this day and age? Would clones be second class citizens? They shouldn't be because they're human, but we all know that something like that would become an issue.