Cloning

Cloning has become a debate over ethics because of a fear of new technology. Throughout history, people have become slow to accept new technology, or a new process of doing something. People do not like adjusting to new ideas and become very reluctant to change. A fear of cloning comes from a thought of a catastrophic accident or long lasting effects of the new technology. The biotechnology companies and researchers must persuade Congress to allow cloning because it would end the critical shortage of donor organs, because infertile couples could receive a child, and because cloning holds many benefits.

Organ transplants grows as one of the reasons to clone. Many patients consider organ transplants a routine process. Many people have to wait years for a correct match of organs to show up and then they would have to take tests to see if they can actually receive the organ. Many transplant candidates die while waiting for an organ that they need. In the article "Research Progress: Pig Cloning for Organs" states "Currently, about 75,000 Americans are on transplant waiting lists. Most people die waiting for an appropriate organ." (Research 1) With the use of cloning many people could live longer, if they have a heart attack scientists could clone the good cells in the heart and clone a new one. Also, scientists and doctors would not have to worry about rejections because the organs would have cloned cells from the patients and canceling out risk of rejection. Scientists have other options of raising the number of available organs with the processes of "neo-organs" and xenotransplantation.

Scientists have researched many ways of producing organs to supply patients with. Some scientists have been studying therapeutic cloning and have demonstrated that cloned tissues could live in the body without the risk of rejection. This finding gives hope to the organ patients and hospitals who worry about the shortage of organs. In the article, "Therapeutic Cloning Gets Boost in Implant Study," Thomas Maugh states "As man as 3,000 Americans die every day from diseases that could possibly be treated by therapeutic cloning, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." (1) Many people will die from a kidney disease but with therapeutic cloning they could receive an artificial kidney. The process strips the egg of its DNA and then new DNA is placed in the egg and grown for six weeks. Scientists then implant the cells into a being and the cells then know what to grow into. Scientists have another options besides "neo-organs" called xenotransplantation, in which they use animal organs in people.

Other than studying the use of "neo-organs", scientists have studied with xenotransplantation. Scientists like the idea of using pigs as candidates for xenotransplantation because their organs have a similar size to humans. At this time scientists have been trying to remove both of the GGTA1 genes. Removing both of the sugar genes would mean that a coat of sugar would not cover the organs; the coat of sugar would cause a serious organ rejection and the patient would get very sick. Paul Recer stated in the article, "Pigs Cloned, in a Boost for Transplants," "Nearly 80,000 American and far more people around the world are on waiting lists for new organs, but there are not nearly enough to go around." (1) Recer then states, "An estimated 16 people die every day in the United States while waiting for a donated organ (Recer 1) With the use of xenotransplantation people will receive organs faster and organs will not have such a high demand. Xenotransplantation has great potential and scientists only worry about the spreading of retroviruses.

Besides supplying patients with organs cloning can help couples to have children. Couples do not choose to have the burden of infertility but they find ways to live with it. They have many choices of receiving a child, but many would like to have a child with their genetics. Cloning has many possible ways of cloning people to give couples their desired child. When IVF came into use many people did not accept it and became very angry. Just like IVF, cloning will go through the same hardship of trying to become accepted by society. When cloning becomes accepted by society, many couples will have the choice of using cloning to receive a child. Currently scientists know of three ways to clone mammals, and these processes can help infertile couples.

With the benefits of having a child through cloning, infertile couples with have more responsibilities than others do. Cloning does not really have a cure for infertility but it does have a solution around infertility. Couples could try intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), in which a sperm cell gets injected into an egg. Couples could also try IVF, but they also have a choice of cloning. With the current processes costs thousands of dollars and cause emotional and physical pain to the couples. Men who can not produce sperm could receive a donor cell and have the sperm re-synthesized with his DNA. The other process, somatic cell nuclear transfer, which takes an adult cells and places it into an egg. The ending results of all the processes end with a healthy child with genes from both parents.

If the processes help infertile couples or to clone animals, scientists only know of three ways to clone mammals. Twinning technique, Roslin technique, and Honolulu technique help scientists clone mammals and the processes help them try to find new and better techniques. The twinning process splits the embryo after a certain amount of divisions. For example, when the embryo splits into eight cells, those cells can become separated and implanted into eight different uteri. The Roslin process basically starves the egg and the starving sets the egg into a state called G0. In the "shutdown" state the egg now accepts any nucleus. Then the nucleus becomes placed in the egg through fusion or transplantation. The Honolulu technique has similarities to the Roslin technique but some differences show in each technique. Thomas Loverro states in "Human Cloning Methods,"

It significantly differs from the Roslin Technique in that it does not use the risky procedure of an electric charge for cell fusion. Instead, the donor cell's nucleus is transferred to an enucleated egg and then allowed to sit for an hour, after which it is treated in a chemical bath containing strontium and cytochalism B to activate the cell for five hours." (1)

The Honolulu technique also uses different cells than the Roslin technique; it uses Sertoli cells, brain cells, and cumulus cells. They use these cells because they usually stay in the G0 or G1 stage without having to starve them.

Cloning also has many other ways to benefit mankind. Besides helping patients