Human Cloning And Stem-Cell Research

Human Cloning and Stem-Cell Research:
In the past several years, cloning has been a rising concern on the minds of the medical and bioethics community. In February of 1997, the world learned of the first successful cloning of a mammal, a sheep named Dolly. Since then, the idea of cloning as a result of cloning to produce children or as a result of cloning for biomedical research has become an all too real possibility. The issue has become so prevalent that in 2001, President George W. Bush created the Council on Bioethics specifically to inform him on any issues or advancements made in the field of cloning and stem cell research.
One eventual outcome of human cloning could be the ability of parents to, essentially, build their child by determining its genetic make-up. Instead of leaving children’s characteristics up to chance, parents could choose their children’s hair color, eye color, and skin color, effectively moving the institution of sexual reproduction from procreation to architecture. While this may sound frightening, genetic research has far more advantages than downfalls. With recent advancements in the mapping of the human genome, it will soon be possible to identify particular

Support for stem cell research has also come from less expected sources. Even Catholic clergymen have expressed views supporting stem cell research. While the official view of many churches is that an embryo should be counted as a complete person, a member of the clergy, and former researcher, Sir John Polkinghorne, supports stem cell research. “I take a more developmental view of a human being, we grow into being human,” Polkinghorne says, “you don’t intervene on human beings except for their benefit.” He goes on to support a fourteen day rule, allowing researches to use the embryos in the first fourteen days of their existence, before the embryo begins to take structure.(Cross). Furthermore, the American Medical Association released its endorsement of cloning for research purposes on June 17, 2003, saying that “it makes a stance for science.” Submitted by the AMA’s Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, it is hoped to soon become AMA policy. The policy has been receiving support from many doctors and medical groups, one of which was the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.(AMA)

Early on in the development of stem cell research the American Association for the Advancement of Science, (AAAS) along with the Institute for Civil Society published a report of their findings and recommendations pertaining to stem cell research. Their report states, “Human stem cell research holds enormous potential for contributing to our understanding of fundamental human biology. Although it is not possible to predict the outcomes from basic research, such studies will offer the real possibility for treatments and ultimately for cures for many diseases for which adequate therapies do not exist.” (AAAS)

The council went on to say there must be a deliberate creation of cloned embryos for use in biomedical research. Any embryo that is cloned should only be for the purpose of research. The council stressed that these embryos are not being “created for destruction,” as many opponents of the plan would offer, but instead for the advancement of the well-being of human life. Some of the committee members went so far as to say that the proposal for cloning for biomedical research showed absolutely no immediate moral dilemmas and should be looked forward to and accepted with open arms. The council ended their report by offering their majority recommendation, which suggested to the president that the government only restrict cloning to produce children and take a much deeper look at the possibility and advantages of cloning for research purposes.(Council)

Since first isolation of these human embryonic stem cells as a blastocyst, which is a very young embryo, the field of regenerative medicine has been advanced by leaps and bounds. “Stem cells” is a term to describe undifferentiated cells that can give rise to various types of human tissue. There are several stages of differentiation in stem cells that are important to researchers in finding potential cures. Totipotent stem cells have the potential to grow into any organ in the body or become any type of cell. Pluripotent stem cells can develop into any tissue type, but are already too far along in their development to become a fully formed organism on their own. Multipotent stem cells have already differentiated into a specific type of cell, i.e. liver, skin, bone fat, etc. Stem cells harvested from embryos in the blastocyte stage have the most cells at the totipotent stage. Stem cells harvested from the gonadal ridge of an aborted fetus are at the pluripotent stage. There is less data available on these cell lines because there have long been restrictions on using fetuses for research. Adult stem cells exist in all humans but are at the multipotent stage and offer the least for researchers. However, many state an