Is Cloning Ethical? ALICE

IS CLONING ETHICAL?

By Alice

Ever since 5th July 1996 after Dolly the sheep was the first animal to be successfully cloned, the ethics of cloning has become a widely debated topic.

There are three types of cloning: therapeutic cloning, reproductive cloning and commercial cloning. Therapeutic cloning is when a human egg cell comes from a donor which has the nucleus removed and then discarded. The nucleus is transferred from the donor egg cell, where scientists stimulate the cell to divide. This then develops into an embryo, where stem cells are created. Stem cells from the embryo are taken and used to treat diseases. Reproductive cloning is used to create an animal that is genetically identical to a donor animal, through nucleus transfer. This embryo is then placed into the uterus of the surrogate animal, where the embryo can develop and become an animal. Commercial cloning is used to clone domestic animals. This can cost around £25,000-£40,000 depending on the animal.

Therapeutic cloning is legal in the United Kingdom, United States and Turkey, but is banned in Germany, Austria, France and the Netherlands and other countries. In addition to this, Ireland, Norway and Denmark and Ecuador have limited research of the use of human embryonic stem cells. Despite being banned in many countries, therapeutic cloning has many benefits. It can be used to treat cancer and has the potential to create organs. Currently, people have to wait for a potential organ donor and some organs, such as kidneys, have to have a donor with a matching blood group. If an organ is donated and there is a matching blood group, there is a 10-15% chance that the body will reject the organ.

Another advantage to therapeutic cloning is the possibility to treat genetic diseases. An undifferentiated stem cell can be used to alter DNA if there is a risk of genetic diseases. The DNA in the nucleus would be altered and the cell would be corrected so that the cell would undergo mitosis and reproduce genetically identical copies of the corrected DNA.

Although there are many benefits of therapeutic cloning, these are often accompanied by risks. Embryos do not always divide correctly and can cause mutations to occur. Others do not agree with cloning. Extracting stem cells from an embryo is viewed as murder by some, as they believe life begins at conception; they regard cloning as unnatural and preventing a person from coming into existence.

Reproductive cloning is often more widely discussed in terms of ethics. Dolly the sheep was the first animal to be cloned in the world. Scientists used three ewes in the cloning process: one to provide the egg, another for DNA and the third one was to carry the cloned embryo. Dolly was created through somatic cell nuclear transfer. This is when the nucleus of a cell is transferred to an unfertilised egg that has had its nucleus removed. The cell was stimulated to divide where it developed into a blastocyst. Even though this was not human cloning, it was still a big advance in medicine demonstrating that human cloning would be possible. The reproductive cloning of humans has been banned by approximately seventy countries. Some countries allow some forms of human cloning for scientific use, but it is not widely accepted.

Although illegal, reproductive cloning has the potential to become very useful. People who are infertile and same sex couples would be able to have children from genes of both parents. Lesbian couples could have a child without having to use donor sperm and gay couples could have a child without genes from an egg, but a surrogate would be needed. If reproductive cloning were used for this reason, the brain would not be reproduced. The technology would allow couples to ensure genetic abnormalities were not present. More controversially though, they could choose characteristics of their child such as eye colour, hair colour or skin complexion. These characteristics could be different from the parent whose nucleus was used.

Even though reproductive cloning can help prevent infertility, it does not eliminate the prospect of unsuccessful implants or genetic abnormalities. Natural diversity of DNA can be reduced, for example appearance, where many parents will choose the features they find most attractive.

Religion can affect people’s views of reproductive cloning. In Hinduism, therapeutic cloning is considered acceptable, but tampering with nature, such as infertility, is not. Muslims have similar views. Islam opposes the cloning of the entire human body and human cloning as this contradicts the diversity of creation. They also believe that the relationship between donor and clone cannot be determined. In Judaism, reproductive cloning is non-controversial amongst liberal Jews, as all life is treated equally, even if formed by cloning. Orthodox Jews, however, disagree. In Christianity, reproductive and therapeutic cloning is opposed where Christians believe it causes, “Grave offense to the dignity of that person as well as the fundamental equality of people.” Some Christians consider that cloning is playing at being God.

Commercial cloning is the cloning of animals for money. This includes cloning pets, livestock, competition animals and endangered and extinct animals. Commercial cloning is done by using genes from an animal. This is done through somatic cell nuclear transfer. Dogs cost around £35,000 to clone and cats cost around £20,000. It is now possible to clone endangered animals. Scientists have been able to successfully clone the endangered blackfooted ferret using preserved cells. However, the genetic defects are known and could cause unbalance to the food chain therefore potentially causing other animals to become endangered. Many attempts are being made to clone endangered animals. Whilst many can see that the merit in cloning endangered animals, others worry about bringing extinct animals back to life. Cloning of pets has less support.

In conclusion, I believe that cloning is ethical. It will help to cure diseases, allow infertile couples to have children and will increase the population of endangered animals. Although there are disadvantages of cloning, such as genetic mutations, less DNA diversity and the fact that it is not always successful: cloning has a better impact on the environment and will be a big advance in dealing with genetic defects.

REFERENCES

www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zs8y4qt/revision/7 https://stemcell.ny.gov/faqs/what-difference-between-reproductive-and-therapeutic-cloning#:~:text=Reproductive%20cloning%20involves%20 creating%20an,it%20can%20implant%20and%20develop www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-patchwork-of-laws/ www.organdonation.nhs.uk/helping-you-to-decide/organ-donation-and-ethnicity/#:~:text=Kidney%20donors%20and%20recipients%20 are,requirement%20to%20match%20tissue%20types https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_cloning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_animal_cloning https://jme.bmj.com/content/31/11/654 www.geneticsandsociety.org/internal-content/reproductive-cloning-arguments-pro-and-con#:~:text=of%20Reproductive%20Cloning-,1.,2. www.viagenpets.com/faq/#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20cost%20of%20dog%20cloning%20and%20cat%20cloning,paid%20in%20two%20 equal%20installments www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/black-footed-ferret-clone-conservation-milestone#:~: text=Scientists%20have%20successfully%20cloned%20an,cloned%20in%20the%20United%20States MALVERN ST JAMES GIRLS’ SCHOOL 9