Stem Cell Research: Status and Ethics

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Welcome
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Human clonning Status and Ethics
Hariom Yadav1, Shalini Jain1 and Mukesh
Yadav2 1Animal Biochemistry Division, National
Dairy Research Institute, Karnal-132001, Haryana,
INDIA 2SOS in Chemistry, Jiwaji University,
Gwalior-474011, M.P., INDIA Corresponding
author Email yadavhariom_at_gmail.com
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Early Successes Human Cloning

• 2001 First cloned human embryos (only to six
  cell stage) created by Advanced Cell Technology
  (USA)
• 2004 Claim of first human cloned blastocyst
  created and a cell line established (Korea)
  later proved to be fraudulent

Hwang, W.S., et al. 2004. Evidence of a
Pluripotent Human Embryonic Stem Cell Line
Derived from a Cloned Blastocyst. Science 303
1669-1674.
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Principle of Human cloning
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Types of cloning

• Recombinant DNA technology
• DNA/ molecular/ gene cloning
• Reproductive cloning
• Adult DNA cloning
• Therapeutic cloning
• Embryo/ Biomedical cloning

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Recombinant DNA Technology for Human
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Reproductive cloning uses the cloning procedure
to produce a clonal embryo which is implanted in
a woman's womb with intent to create a fully
formed living child--a clone. Therapeutic
cloning uses the cloning procedure to produce a
clonal embryo, but instead of being implanted in
a womb and brought to term it is used to generate
stem cells.
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Applications
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What are the risks of cloning?

• Reproductive cloning is expensive and highly
  inefficient
• Cloned animals tend to have more compromised
  immune function and higher rates of infection,
  tumor growth, and other disorders
• Genomes of cloned mice are compromised, 4 of
  genes function abnormally
• The abnormalities do not arise from mutations
  in the genes but from changes in the normal
  activation or expression of certain genes.
• A process called "imprinting" chemically marks
  the DNA from the mother and father so that only
  one copy of a gene (either the maternal or
  paternal gene) is turned on. Defects in the
  genetic imprint of DNA from a single donor cell
  may lead to some of the developmental
  abnormalities of cloned embryos.

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Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis and Selection
(PDS)
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Why Cloning Humans is Ethically Unacceptable

• Controlling Someone Else's Genetic Makeup
• Child can reject any aspect of its upbringing,
  but it could never reject the genes that were
  chosen for it
• Such control by one human over another is
  incompatible with the ethical notion of human
  freedom, in the sense of that each individual's
  genetic identity should be inherently
  unpredictable and unplanned.

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Instrumentality

• Cloning raises a number of concerns arising from
  its consequences, of which instrumentality and
  risk are of especial importance.

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Infertility - an Exception to Instrumentality

• An exception to this objection would be the idea
  of producing a child from an infertile couple by
  cloning one of them.
• But this raises other problems. Instead of being
  the unique genetic product of both parents, the
  child is a copy of one of them.
• It would not be the biological child of both
  parents in the normal sense.

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Psychological Effects - Identity and Relationship

• Would the clone feel that he or she was just a
  copy of someone else who's already existed and
  not really themselves?
• Am I really someone else but put into a different
  womb?
• What will be my relationship to the one I was
  cloned from?
• No one can predict with any degree of assurance
  what the response would be.

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Physical Risk

• To repeat the same thing on humans would be
  giving both the mother and the potential foetus
  an unacceptably high risk of damage.
• How many abnormal babies would have to be
  produced to get one right?
• Roslin researchers have said that there is no
  experiment that could be done to prove the safety
  of human clonig without casuing serious risk to
  humans in the process.

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Social Risk

• Human cloning would bring grave risks of abuses
  to human dignity and exploitation by unscrupulous
  people.

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The current law on human cloning

• United Nations
• On December 12, 2001 the United Nations General
  Assembly began elaborating an international
  convention against the reproductive cloning of
  human beings. Lawrence Goldstein, professor of
  cellular and molecular medicine at the University
  of California at San Diego, claims that the
  United States, unable to pass a national law,
  forced Costa Rica to start this debate in the UN
  over the international cloning ban. In February
  2005 a vaguely worded and non-binding United
  Nations Declaration on Human Cloning was finally
  adopted.

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Australia

• Australia had prohibited human cloning, though as
  of December 2006, a bill legalising therapeutic
  cloning and the creation of human embryos for
  stem cell research passed the House of
  Representatives. Within certain regulatory
  limits, therapeutic cloning is now legal in
  Australia.

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European Union

• The European Convention on Human Rights and
  Biomedicine prohibits human cloning in one of its
  additional protocols, but this protocol has been
  ratified only by Greece, Spain and Portugal. The
  Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European
  Union explicitly prohibits reproductive human
  cloning, though the Charter currently carries no
  legal standing. The proposed European
  Constitution would, if ratified, make the charter
  legally binding for the institutions of the
  European Union.

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United States

• President George W. Bush is opposed to human
  cloning in any form. Some American states ban
  both forms of cloning, while some others outlaw
  only reproductive cloning.
• Current regulations prohibit federal funding for
  research into human cloning, which effectively
  prevents such research from occurring in public
  institutions and private institution such as
  universities which receive federal funding.

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• 1990 Congress voted to override the moratorium,
  vetoed by President Bush
• 1993 President Clinton lifted the ban

• 1994 the Human Embryo Research Panel favored
  research, but Clinton overrode the panel
• 1995 Congress banned federal funding

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United Kingdom

• The British government introduced legislation in
  order to allow licensed therapeutic but not
  reproductive cloning in a debate in January 2001
  after an amendment to the Human Embryology Act.
• March 2002 and currently therapeutic cloning is
  allowed under license of the Human Fertilisation
  and Embryology Authority. The first known licence
  was granted on August 11, 2004 to researchers at
  the University of Newcastle to allow them to
  investigate treatments for diabetes, Parkinson's
  disease and Alzheimer's disease.

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Right to Life

• The Declaration of Independence of the United
  States guarantees certain unalienable Rights,
  that among those are Life, Liberty and the
  pursuit of Happiness

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Christian Arguments and Response

• We may not do evil so that good will result
  (Romans 38)
• Humans are created in the image of God before
  birth
• The human soul begins before birth

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When Does Ensoulment Occur?

• John the Baptist "For he will be great in the
  sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine or
  liquor and he will be filled with the Holy
  Spirit, while yet in his mother's womb." (Luke
  115)
• Paul But when He who had set me apart, even from
  my mother's womb, and called me through His
  grace (Galatians 115)
• Jeremiah "Before I formed you in the womb I knew
  you, And before you were born I consecrated you
  I have appointed you a prophet to the nations."
  (Jeremiah 15)

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Murder Defined by the Bible

• People are not to be murdered because they are
  created in the image of God. (Genesis 96)
• Murder must be intentional, with premeditation
  (Joshua 203)
• Killing of embryos is intentional, and
  premeditated

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Biblical Arguments Summary

• The Bible indicates that God recognizes human
  beings as persons prior to development in the
  womb
• Bible defines murder as being intentional and
  premeditated
• ESC research destroys embryos that are considered
  as ensouled human beings

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Morality of Human Reproductive Cloning

• Be fruitful and multiply assumed to be
  natural, but IVF and cloning not mentioned in the
  Bible
• Problems with cloned animals most suffer
  premature aging and other genetic problems. Might
  be avoidable with better techniques?
• Biblical basis to condemn human reproductive
  cloning?

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Is adult human DNA cloning moral?

• Some talents seem to be genetically influenced.
  Musical ability seems to run in families. Cloning
  using the DNA from the cell of an adult with the
  desired traits or talents might produce an infant
  with similar potential.

Yes ?
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• A heterosexual couple in which the husband was
  completely sterile could use adult DNA cloning to
  produce a child. An ovum from the woman would be
  coupled with a cell from the man's body. Both
  would contribute to the child the woman would
  provide the "factory" for creating cells the man
  would provide the "genetic information." They
  might find this more satisfactory than using the
  sperm of another man.

Yes ?
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• Two lesbians could elect to have a child by adult
  DNA cloning rather than by artificial
  insemination by a man's sperm. Each would then
  contribute part of her body to the fertilized
  ovum one woman would donate the ovum, which
  contains some genetic material in its
  mitochondria the other woman the nuclear genetic
  material. Both would have parts of their bodies
  involved in the conception. They might find this
  more satisfactory than in-vitro fertilization
  using a man's sperm

Yes ?
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• There is no guarantee that the first cloned
  humans will be normal. The fetus might suffer
  from some disorder that is not detectable by
  ultrasound. They may be born disabled. Disorders
  may materialize later in life. Such problems have
  been seen in other cloned mammals. There is no
  reason to assume that they will not happen in
  humans.

No ?
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• Cells seem to have a defined life span built into
  them. "Dolly" was created from a cell that was
  about six years old this is middle age for a
  ewe. There were some indications that Dolly's
  cells were also middle-aged. She was believed to
  be, in essence, about six years old when she was
  born. She was expected to live only for five
  years, which is shorter than the normal life span
  of 11 years. If this is also true of humans, then
  cloned people would have a reduced life
  expectancy. The cloning technique could take many
  years off their life. These fears proved to be
  unfounded. "Dolly" has grown into a comfortable
  middle age with signs of normal aging for her
  age.

No ?
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• Dolly was conceived using a ewe's egg and a cell
  from another ewe's body. It is noteworthy that no
  semen from a ram was involved. If the technique
  were perfected in humans, and came into general
  usage, then there would be no genetic need for
  men. All of the human males could be allowed to
  die off. The author of this essay is a male and
  does not think kindly of such a future. However,
  some readers might not object to this
  eventuality.

No ?
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• Large scale cloning could deplete genetic
  diversity. It is diversity that drives evolution
  and adaptation. It prevents an entire species
  from disappearing because of susceptibility to a
  disease. It is doubtful that cloning would ever
  be used at a level to make this a significant
  threat.

No ?
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• Some people have expressed concern about the
  effects that cloning would have on relationships.
  For example, a child born from an adult DNA
  cloning from his father would be, in effect, a
  delayed twin of one of his parents. That has
  never happened before and may lead to emotional
  difficulties.

No ?
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There are religious objections to cloning.

• Most pro-life supporters believe that a
  fertilized ovum is a full human person. When its
  nucleus is removed during cloning, that person
  is, in effect, murdered.
• A secondary concern is the whole business of
  collecting surplus embryos and simply storing
  them in a deep-freeze as a commodity.

No ?
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• Some claim that cloned humans may be born without
  souls. They speculate that the soul enters the
  body when a sperm fertilizes an ovum. Since there
  is no sperm involved in cloning, perhaps the
  fetus would develop without a soul. There is no
  way to know whether a soul is present it has no
  weight, it cannot be seen, touched, smelled,
  heard, or detected in any other way. In fact,
  many people believe that souls do not exist.
  Speculation on this topic can never be resolved.

No ?
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Fun of Human Cloning
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Thanks
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