Here is the informative Essay Article, where I talked about the Therapeutic cloning,
without taking any position
Therapeutic Cloning in our Medical System
Now, people with organ failure do not have to wait to match with someone to get an organ. Through, the process of therapeutic cloning, there is the possibility to can create an identical healthy organ that a patient may need. Therapeutic cloning will advance our medical system in the future while opening a path for curing diseases such as genetic disorder, and type 2 diabetes.
A clone is any cell or individual which is identical to another. It is the process of producing genetically identical individual organisms naturally and artificially. The natural process occurs through asexual reproduction, some plants and single-celled organisms produce genetically offspring. The scientist can artificially clone organisms in three different ways. These include Gene cloning, Reproductive cloning, and Therapeutic cloning. Gene cloning, also known as DNA cloning, produces copies of genes and segments of DNA. Reproductive cloning is “the use of cloning to grow a living organism, who shares the DNA of the originator” (Savulesu 2005. P.1). It can create clones of humans and animals. Therapeutic cloning is sometimes referred to as “Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer” (SCNT). It produces embryonic stem cells for experiments aimed at creating tissues to replace injured or diseased tissues. In this regard, therapeutic cloning offers significant potential in creating new medicine and in the cure of genetic disorders.
Therapeutic cloning involves the process of cloning to create a stem cell. It uses SCNT process to remove the nucleus of an egg cell, replacing it with the material from the nucleus of a “somatic cell” (such as skin cell) and stimulating this cell to begin dividing. This egg cell is never fertilized by sperm, its genetic material is identical to the genetic material collected from the skin cells. Once the cells start to divide, stem cells can be collected within 5-6 days later, which can be used to produce identical organs. This process is shown in the picture below.
Figure 1: Therapeutic Cloning process to produce stem cells to create organs.
According to the article, “Breakthrough in Human Cloning Offers New Transplant Hope”, Knapton (2014) states, “…researcher was able for the first time to turn adult human skin cells into stem cells, which can grow into any types of tissue in the body. The breakthrough could lead to new tissue-transplant operations for a range of debilitating disorders, such as Parkinson’s diseases, multiple sclerosis, heart diseases, and spinal cords injuries.” The researcher is advancing with their research using skin cells to create stem cells, which will open the door for many diseases that can be cured. As it was mention by the co-author of the research, who published the journal Cell, Stem Cell. Robert Lanza said, “The proportion of diseases you can treat with lab-made tissues increases with age (Knapton, 2014).” In Vitro fertilization (a medical process where an egg fertilized by sperm in a test tube or outside of the body), it is a blastocyst (split embryo into 2) which is implemented into the womb, but with this technique, the cells would be harvested to be used to create other organs or tissues.
In addition, advancement in biotechnologies and stem cell research, many scientific difficulties can be overcome using Therapeutic Cloning, especially diseases that are curable. As researcher Kfoury (2007) demonstrates that “D’Amour et al designed in 2006 a five-step protocol enabling human embryonic stem cells to differentiate into endocrine cells producing most pancreatic hormones, including glucagon and insulin, with implications for use in the cell replacement therapy for the treatment of diabetes mellitus.” (p.3). This method was designed to duplicate pancreatic organogenesis in VIVO and a hope of generating organs using Therapeutic cloning. Disorders such as Muscular Dystrophy is an inheritable X-linked condition characterized by reduced intramuscular dystrophin levels, causing cellular necrosis and weakening. Being a single-gene disorder, it can be treated by Therapeutic cloning in combination with gene therapy to restore normal dystrophin production (Kfoury, 2007). Therefore, Therapeutic cloning process is shown to be more permanent as a cell replacement therapy, which will be beneficial in our medical system to remedy different diseases.
However, they are ethical issues regarding using the Therapeutic cloning because of the embryonic stem cells, taken from aborted fetuses. Basically, creation and destruction of embryos. It is a major roadblock in this field, which many are stating “an affront to human dignity” (Savulescu, 2005. p.1). But there are arguing such as McMahan said, “the idea that the potential to become a person confers a special moral status is plausible”. He further argues that, contrary to the late embryo as an “insentient cluster of cells” (Kafury, 2007 p.13). For therapeutic cloning, they are using early-stage embryo. Also, they are not destroying embryo instead of transforming them into a stem cell to produce different parts of cells for our body. Many are saying, “SCNT is currently an inefficient and unsafe procedure” (Savulesu, 2005. P.1). In addition to the risks through surgical removal of the oocytes (a cell in the ovary that may undergo meiotic division to form an ovum) and hormone treatment kiwigambling.co.nz. Furthermore, due to low SCNT efficiency, “it is estimated that 280 human oocytes would be needed in order to derive one observe patient-specific ntESC line” (Kafury, 2007. P.6) Without these oocytes it would be impossible to do more research on this area. As well as, there is a funding problem, which is limiting and blocking researcher from doing more Therapeutic cloning research.
To sum up, Therapeutic cloning will advance our medical system and help our human lives in many ways. It is an opening door for many diseases that can be a cure. Everyone wants to live healthily. There are countless diseases but there is no cure, if therapeutic cloning can be solutions for those, then why not? But, it is everyone right to choose whether they want it or not? Therapeutic Cloning contains the great potential to restore damaged human tissues, diabetes mellitus, and genetic disorder etc. As well as, to create identical or clone organs for people with organs failure and to give them hope to live longer.
References
Knapton, S. (2014). Breakthrough in human cloning offers new transplant hope. Science Correspondent.
Savulexcu, J. (2005). The ethics of cloning. The Medical Publishing Company.
Kfoury, C (B.Sc. 2007). Therapeutic Cloning: Promises and Issues. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2323472/
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