The Future of Human Cloning
Human cloning is a popular topic for science fiction writers, but the issues raised by this topic are becoming more and more relevant in reality. This article discusses the history of cloning, the process of cloning human embryos, and the possibility of using stem cells from cloned embryos to discover medical cures.
The novel Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro takes place in a fictional world where human beings are cloned in order to donate their vital internal organs so that other people can survive diseases like cancer, that were once incurable. This story line closely resembles other well-known science fiction plots where human beings are used for medical and scientific progress. These may seem like nightmare scenarios that are only good for academic discussions far removed from reality, but as technology advances society needs to be prepared for the possibility that these issues will become relevant.
The History of Cloning
Although sheep cloned in the mid-1990s were the most widely publicized of artificial clones, animal cloning has been a reality since at least the 1960s, when fish were successfully cloned in China. Since then, several animal species have been successfully cloned by artificial means, including mice, dogs, cats, cattle, and camels. In 2001, a guar was cloned, making it the first endangered species to be subject to the cloning process. As technology advances and more researchers dedicate their talents to the study of cloning, more complicated cloning projects may be undertaken, which means that human cloning may not be far off.
Is Cloning Safe?
So far, relatively little is known about the safety and effectiveness of the cloning process. Usually, clones are created by inserting genetic material from an adult cell into an unfertilized egg. Another method involves artificially creating twins from a single embryo by splitting the embryo into two at a very early stage in its development. Even if these methods are successful, it is not clear how the resulting clones differ from organisms created through normal reproduction. Several of the successful clones to date have died very soon after birth, and many other questions about cloning still remain. For these and other reasons, human cloning is widely believed to be unethical and some scientific organizations have suggested that human cloning not be pursued until more is known about the cloning process.
Artificial Human Cloning
Despite the widespread belief that human cloning is unethical, several human embryos have already been created. One, created in 1998, consisted of genetic material from an adult human implanted into an egg from a cow. This embryo was destroyed after only a few days due to ethical and scientific concerns, as were 5 human embryos cloned in 2008. It is not clear whether these cloned embryos would have grown normally into humans, but in both cases the creation of fully-grown clones was not the goal. One of the potential applications for human cloning is to create embryonic stem cells, which cannot be synthesized. Stem cells are cells created in the early stages of embryonic development that could develop into the cells of internal organs or other cell groupings important for life. The ability to produce stem cells could mean great advances for medical science, even leading to cures for diseases that are currently incurable.
Embryonic Stem Cell Cloning
The possibility of using the cloning process as a source of stem cells means that the scenario depicted by Ishiguro in Never Let Me Go will probably not come to pass. Cloning humans in order to harvest their organs is, for most people, obviously unethical. However, creating human embryos and harvesting their stem cells may well become a reality. According to American Cell Technologies, the group that created 5 embryos in 2008, normal human embryos are not implanted into a woman's uterus until 14 days after they are created. This fact is used to argue that, at least until the 14 day mark has been passed, it is not unethical to destroy cloned embryos. Rather than raising clones for their organs, then, the future may involve raising embryos for their stem cells.
The Future of Stem Cell Research
In the past, research into creating stem cells for medical purposes has received much attention in the political and scientific communities. A significant number of people think that this line of research is always unethical, and that creating human embryos in order to clone stem cells should never be allowed. However, if the creation of stem cells through cloning leads to cures for cancer, heart disease, genetic abnormalities, and other diseases that plague society, people may come to accept this type of cloning. In Ishiguro's novel, the general population prefers not to think about the clones, accepting the medical advances without paying attention to the uncomfortable reality that is the cost of those advances. Perhaps this scenario isn't so far off the mark. At the current state of scientific knowledge, therefore, it is becoming increasingly important for society to face these issues and discuss them so that we know how to proceed when the time comes.
The History of Cloning
Although sheep cloned in the mid-1990s were the most widely publicized of artificial clones, animal cloning has been a reality since at least the 1960s, when fish were successfully cloned in China. Since then, several animal species have been successfully cloned by artificial means, including mice, dogs, cats, cattle, and camels. In 2001, a guar was cloned, making it the first endangered species to be subject to the cloning process. As technology advances and more researchers dedicate their talents to the study of cloning, more complicated cloning projects may be undertaken, which means that human cloning may not be far off.
Is Cloning Safe?
So far, relatively little is known about the safety and effectiveness of the cloning process. Usually, clones are created by inserting genetic material from an adult cell into an unfertilized egg. Another method involves artificially creating twins from a single embryo by splitting the embryo into two at a very early stage in its development. Even if these methods are successful, it is not clear how the resulting clones differ from organisms created through normal reproduction. Several of the successful clones to date have died very soon after birth, and many other questions about cloning still remain. For these and other reasons, human cloning is widely believed to be unethical and some scientific organizations have suggested that human cloning not be pursued until more is known about the cloning process.
Artificial Human Cloning
Despite the widespread belief that human cloning is unethical, several human embryos have already been created. One, created in 1998, consisted of genetic material from an adult human implanted into an egg from a cow. This embryo was destroyed after only a few days due to ethical and scientific concerns, as were 5 human embryos cloned in 2008. It is not clear whether these cloned embryos would have grown normally into humans, but in both cases the creation of fully-grown clones was not the goal. One of the potential applications for human cloning is to create embryonic stem cells, which cannot be synthesized. Stem cells are cells created in the early stages of embryonic development that could develop into the cells of internal organs or other cell groupings important for life. The ability to produce stem cells could mean great advances for medical science, even leading to cures for diseases that are currently incurable.
Embryonic Stem Cell Cloning
The possibility of using the cloning process as a source of stem cells means that the scenario depicted by Ishiguro in Never Let Me Go will probably not come to pass. Cloning humans in order to harvest their organs is, for most people, obviously unethical. However, creating human embryos and harvesting their stem cells may well become a reality. According to American Cell Technologies, the group that created 5 embryos in 2008, normal human embryos are not implanted into a woman's uterus until 14 days after they are created. This fact is used to argue that, at least until the 14 day mark has been passed, it is not unethical to destroy cloned embryos. Rather than raising clones for their organs, then, the future may involve raising embryos for their stem cells.
The Future of Stem Cell Research
In the past, research into creating stem cells for medical purposes has received much attention in the political and scientific communities. A significant number of people think that this line of research is always unethical, and that creating human embryos in order to clone stem cells should never be allowed. However, if the creation of stem cells through cloning leads to cures for cancer, heart disease, genetic abnormalities, and other diseases that plague society, people may come to accept this type of cloning. In Ishiguro's novel, the general population prefers not to think about the clones, accepting the medical advances without paying attention to the uncomfortable reality that is the cost of those advances. Perhaps this scenario isn't so far off the mark. At the current state of scientific knowledge, therefore, it is becoming increasingly important for society to face these issues and discuss them so that we know how to proceed when the time comes.
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