Human Cloning

World Issues 120

Mr. Denton

Whose Life is it?On June 23, 2018 Jean Trueblood celebrated her seventeenthbirthday. Her summer activities include preparing for her freshmanyear at Central State University. Due to the influence of severalinspiring high school science teachers, she is seriously consideringbiology as her major in college. She is fascinated by what she haslearned so far about the amazing scientific and medical advancesmade possible by powerful new biotechnologies. For her final paperin her advanced "Current Issues in Biology" course she chose towrite about the ethical implications of cloning, not knowing that thistopic was about to have a direct impact on her own life.

Just one week after her birthday Jean's plans for a carefree summerwere shattered by a letter received by her parents. The letter wasfrom Dr. Cynthia Hayes who had won the Nobel Prize forgroundbreaking research on the cloning of mammals. Dr. Hayes'successful research on the cloning of chimpanzees had been fundedby a grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

As Jean's parents knew, Dr. Hayes had secretly used some of the

funds to apply her new technique to the cloning of a human being.That human being was Dr. Hayes, herself. She was motivated bythe fact that she had developed a chronic infection in both of herkidneys that might eventually require a kidney transplant. She knewthat she had some rare blood and cell characteristics that wouldmake it hard for her to find a matching kidney donor. With the aidof a close friend who was medical technician in Central StateMedical Center's Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Dr.Hayes was able to obtain 10 human eggs removed from the ovaryof a research volunteer. Then, using her new method, she was ableto get four of these eggs to begin to grow into clones of herself byremoving the original eggs' nuclei and inserting nuclei from her owncells. All of the successful clones were then frozen in liquid nitrogenin the early blastula stage.

With the aid of another friend who worked for a clinic forwomen seeking assistance in becoming pregnant, Dr.Hayes was able to locate a woman who was seeking anembryo implant after she had failed to become pregnantby any other means. That woman was Jean's mother,Valerie Trueblood.

Dr. Hayes offered Jean's parents a very financiallyattractive deal. They could save the usual $60,000 costof an embryo implant if they agreed to accept one of Dr.Hayes' cloned embryos and signed an agreement. Theterms of the agreement caused the Trueblood’s tohesitate. It required the clone of Dr. Hayes that wouldbe born to Valerie Trueblood to agree to donate one ofher kidneys to Dr. Hayes should she require a transplantany time during her life.

To persuade the Truebloods to accept this unusual and troublingrequirement, Dr. Hayes agreed to create a $100,000 trust fund thatthe Truebloods could use toward the expenses of raising andeducating her clone. After Dr. Hayes assured them that there wasless than a 50% chance that she would ever need a kidneytransplant, the Trueboods signed the agreement. A little less thannine months later Jean was born.

The letter the Truebloods received from Dr. Hayes informed themthat she was now in desperate need of a kidney transplant and thatthey should have Jean immediately "volunteer" for the tests thatwould determine that her kidney exactly matched Dr. Hayes'unusual tissue-typing requirements. All of this came as quite ashock to Jean who had never been informed by her parents abouther biological origins or the existence of the contract they hadsigned.

Whose Life is it?

Questions:

1. Dr. Hayes did not reveal her decision to clone herself in addition to the chimpanzees because she knew that the National Institutes of Health would not approve. Why might the government agency object to cloning humans, although it approved of cloning monkeys? Do you approve of the cloning of (a) plants, (b) mice (c) monkeys (d) humans? Why or why not?

2. Do you think that Dr Hayes' was justified in secretly cloning herself because of her kidney condition?

3. Do you think that the Trueblood’s decision to accept Dr.Hayes' terms for the embryo implant was ethically justified?

4. Should the Truebloods have told Jean about her biological heritage and about the terms of the agreement they signed? If so, at what age should she have learned these facts?

5. Is Jean obligated to honour the terms of the agreement?

6. Should the fact that Jean's upbringing and education have been partly paid for by Dr. Hayes have any influence on the decision?

7. If one identical twin needs a kidney transplant due to a condition not related to heredity, should the other twin feel obligated to donate one of his/her kidneys for a transplant operation? Would the situation be different if one of the twins needed a liver transplant?

Human Cloning

1997 – Scottish scientists led by Ian Wilmutcreated a cloned sheep named Dolly.

2003 – Clonaid, a company linked the Raelians,a Quebec-based religious group – claims to haveproduced the world's first human clone.

– Eve, a baby girl born Dec. 26, supposedly is a geneticclone of her 31-year-old American mother.

Cloning Dangerous?

Critics say cloning is still a dangerous technology that can cause serious defects in the clones.

– The low success rates of cloning efforts of about 3 percent have also raised questions about the morality of cloning a human.

How Does Cloning Work?

Somatic cell nuclear transfer– the same procedure that was used to create

Dolly the sheep.

SCNT begins when doctors take the egg from a donor and remove the nucleus of the egg, creating an enucleated egg.

A cell, which contains DNA, is then taken from the person who is being cloned.

The enucleated egg is then fused together withthe cloning subject's cell using electricity. Thiscreates an embryo, which is implanted into asurrogate mother through in vitro fertilization.

If the procedure is successful, then thesurrogate mother will give birth to a baby that isa clone of the cloning subject at the end of anormal gestation period.

The success rate is only about two or three outof 100 embryos. It took 277 attempts to createDolly.

The Ethical Debate over Cloning

"Some will hate it, some will love it, butbiotechnology is inevitably leading to a worldin which plants, animals and human beingsare going to be partly man-made….Supposeparents could add 30 points to their children'sIQ. Wouldn't you want to do it? And if youdon't, your child will be the stupidest child in

the neighborhood."-Lester Thurow, professor of Economics and Management at the

University of Massachusetts

To Clone or Not to Clone

"Just because we can, does it mean we should?"

Does the good outweigh the bad?

How do we regulate cloning procedures?

Cloning Laws Around the World

USA - no federal law banning cloning, but several stateshave passed their own laws to ban the practice. The U.S.Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also said thatanyone in the United States attempting human cloningmust first get its permission.

Japan - human cloning is a crime that is punishable byup to 10 years in prison.

England - has allowed cloning human embryos, but isworking to pass legislation to stop total human cloning.

Cloning in Canada

ban on full cloning

does allow cloning with regards to stem cell research.Cloning laws fall under the act that covers otherreproductive technologies, such as in vitro fertilization,sperm donation and genetic manipulation.

In 1989, the federal government created a royalcommission to look at new reproductive technologies,which resulted in the government placing a voluntarymoratorium on human embryo cloning. But so far,attempts to pass an anti-cloning law have failed.

Not Ready?

While laws are one deterrent to pursuinghuman cloning at this time, somescientists believe the technology is notready to be tested on humans. IanWilmut, one of co-creators of Dolly, haseven said that human cloning projectswould be criminally irresponsible.

The Realities of Current Cloning

Cloning technology is still in its early stages, and

– nearly 98 percent of cloning efforts end in failure.

embryos are either not suitable for implanting or die duringgestation or shortly after birth.

Those clones that survive suffer from fatal orproblematic genetic abnormalities.

– defective hearts, lung problems, diabetes, bloodvessel problems and malfunctioning immune systems.

The Ethical Debate

Opponents of cloning will point out thatwe can euthanize defective clones ofanimals, but what about a human cloneborn with the same problems?

Supporters of cloning argue it is easier topick out defective embryos even beforethey are implanted into the motherremoving the ethical issue.

Therapeutic Cloning

Not all cloning would involve creating an entirely newhuman being. Cloning is seen as a possible way to aidsome people who have severe medical problems.

One potential use of cloning technology would involvecreating a human repair kit. Scientists could clone ourcells and fix mutated genes that cause diseases.

In January 2001, the British government passed rules toallow cloning of human embryos to combat diseasessuch as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Therapeutic cloning is theprocess by which a person'sDNA is used to grow anembryonic clone.

Instead of inserting this embryointo a surrogate mother, itscells are used to grow stemcells.– stem cells can be used as a

human repair kit.

– grow replacement organs, such ashearts, livers and skin.

– grow neurons to cure those whosuffer from Alzheimer's,Parkinson's and other diseases.

Therapeutic Cloning Process

Here's how therapeutic cloning works:

– DNA is extracted from a sick person.

– DNA is then inserted into an enucleated donoregg.

– The egg divides like a typical fertilized eggand forms an embryo.

– Stem cells removed from the embryo.

– Any kind of tissue or organ can be grownfrom these stem cells to treat the sick.

End to Infertility?

aid couples with infertility problems, but who want achild with at least one of the parent's biologicalattributes.

Some scientists say helping these couples is the goal oftheir research and there are hundreds of couples willingto pay approximately $50,000 for the service.

procedure involves injecting cells from infertile male intoegg, which would be inserted into the female's uterus.Their child would look the same as the father.

The Dead Walk Again?

Another use could beto bring deceasedrelatives back to life.

Imagine using a pieceof your great-grandmother's DNA tocreate a clone of her.You could be theparent of your great-grandmother!