Therapeutic Cloning Bio II-A Lily Mu and Anna Pettersen

Quotes on Therapeutic Cloning "...[medical] methods that fail to respect the dignity and value of the person must always be avoided. I am thinking in particular of attempts at human cloning with a view to obtaining organs for transplants: these techniques, insofar as they involve the manipulation and destruction of human embryos, are not morally acceptable, even when their proposed goal is good in itself." ﾊ Pope John Paul II in an address before International Congress on Transplants on 2000-AUG-29 "Somatic cell nuclear transfer (more commonly called therapeutic cloning) is about saving and improving lives. It is fundamentally different from human reproductive cloning; it produces stem cells, not babies." U.S. Newswire

Cloning in general Cloning is the process of creating genetically identical cells or organisms by using individual animals/plants. There are three main types of cloning: DNA cloning, reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning. Cloned Sheep

What is it? Therapeutic cloning (research cloning) is when stem cells are extracted to grow into a piece of human tissue which is encouraged to grow into a human organ for transplant.

What are its uses? - It is used for medical purposes, such as creating organs to transplant into a patient in need of that organ. If replacement organs are available to the sick and dying people, countless numbers of lives could be saved. Therapeutic cloning is a fast and efficient way to ‘repair’ damaged organs. - Therapeutic cloning can be used to make insulin- secreting cells to cure for diabetes; nerve cells to cure stroke or Parkinson’s disease

How is it done? DNA is extracted from a human’s cell. The DNA is inserted into a woman’s ovum and allowed to develop and produce stem cells. The stem cells are removed from the pre-embryo and are treated to grown inyo whatever organ is needed. Thus, the new organ is transplanted into the patient. Stem cells

Possible Benifits -Cloned organs using therapeutic cloning is better than organs donated by another person: -No rejection of organ because the organ’s DNA would match the patient’s DNA -Patients do not need to wait for an organ donor to donate his/her organs -Brand new organs can work more efficiently than donated organs -Saving more lives, which otherwise would be lost due to the waiting for a transplant

Potential Problems -There are still many deficiencies/ethical disputes in therapeutic cloning: -Since therapeutic cloning is still in its early stages of development stem cells sometimes become mutated, thus rejected by the recipient’s body. -The production of stem cells needs to become more efficient. So far we need 100 eggs to produce one usable stem cell line. -Many pro-life supporters believe that human comes into existence at conception. When the stem cells are extracted the embryo dies, therefore pro-life supporters believe that this is murder.

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