Human cloning
Two common methods of therapeutic cloning that are being researched are somatic-cell nuclear transfer and (more recently) pluripotent stem cell induction.
Although the possibility of cloning humans had been the subject of speculation for much of the 20th century, scientists and policymakers began to take the prospect seriously in 1969.
They would be made from people who were held to have excelled in a socially acceptable accomplishment...Nobel Prize-winning geneticist Joshua Lederberg advocated cloning and genetic engineering in an article in The American Naturalist in 1966 and again, the following year, in The Washington Post.
[3] He sparked a debate with conservative bioethicist Leon Kass, who wrote at the time that "the programmed reproduction of man will, in fact, dehumanize him."
Another Nobel Laureate, James D. Watson, publicized the potential and the perils of cloning in his Atlantic Monthly essay, "Moving Toward the Clonal Man", in 1971.
[6] In 2004 and 2005, Hwang Woo-suk, a professor at Seoul National University, published two separate articles in the journal Science claiming to have successfully harvested pluripotent, embryonic stem cells from a cloned human blastocyst using SCNT techniques.
[8] In January 2008, Dr. Andrew French and Samuel Wood of the biotechnology company Stemagen announced that they successfully created the first five mature human embryos using SCNT.
Members of the lab said that their next set of experiments would aim to generate embryonic stem cell lines; these are the "holy grail" that would be useful for therapeutic or reproductive cloning.
[11][12][13] In 2013, a group of scientists led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov published the first report of embryonic stem cells created using SCNT.
Pluripotency refers to a stem cell that has the potential to differentiate into any of the three germ layers: endoderm (interior stomach lining, gastrointestinal tract, the lungs), mesoderm (muscle, bone, blood, urogenital), or ectoderm (epidermal tissues and nervous tissue).
However, in 2008 scientists discovered a technique that could remove the presence of these oncogenes after pluripotency induction, thereby increasing the potential use of iPSC in humans.
New studies are working to improve the process of iPSC in terms of both speed and efficiency with the discovery of new reprogramming factors in oocytes.
[citation needed] Another advantage SCNT could have over iPSCs is its potential to treat mitochondrial disease, as it uses a donor oocyte.
Studying signal transduction along with genetic manipulation within the early human embryo has the potential to provide answers to many developmental diseases and defects.
Research is underway to potentially use stem cell therapy to treat heart disease, diabetes, and spinal cord injuries.
[33] Advocates support development of therapeutic cloning in order to generate tissues and whole organs to treat patients who otherwise cannot obtain transplants,[34] to avoid the need for immunosuppressive drugs,[35] and to stave off the effects of aging.
[37] Opposition to therapeutic cloning mainly centers around the status of embryonic stem cells, which has connections with the abortion debate.
[57][58][59][60] In the Eleventh Amendment to the Criminal Law, which came into effect on March 1, 2021, an additional provision was added to Article 336, which stipulates that "implanting gene-edited or cloned human embryos into human or animal bodies, or implanting gene-edited, cloned Implantation of cloned animal embryos into human bodies, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and a fine; if the circumstances are especially serious, the sentence shall be fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years and a fine.
"[62] Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey India has already succeeded in mammalian cloning.
[93] In 1998, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2009, the United States Congress voted whether to ban all human cloning, both reproductive and therapeutic (Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act).
The series Orphan Black follows human clones' stories and experiences as they deal with issues and react to being the property of a chain of scientific institutions.
[118][119] In the 2005 novel Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro crafts a subtle exploration into the ethical complications of cloning humans for medical advancement and longevity.
