Therapeutic Cloning Or Identical Twins?

Identical twins? No, clones. Cloning is the production of an identical copy of a cell or organism (Rugnetta). One company involved in the process and experimentation of cloning was Clonaid, a human cloning company whose initial goal was to “achieve eternal youth by cloning themselves and transferring their personalities into their clones” (Farrell and Carson-Dewitt 1). In the year 2003, they claimed to have created the first human clone, a baby girl named Eve (Farrell and Carson-Dewitt 1). Since there was never any proof of the baby girl, Eve, the claim cannot be confirmed, nor can they obtain their eternal youth. Through scenarios such as the creation of Eve, cloning has sparked the interests of humans to this day. When considering the information
DNA cloning is the copying of a single gene or a short segment of DNA in order for it to transfer into another organism. It is typically used in crop production and experimentation to produce a larger yield with healthier crops. Scientists take a small DNA section of a successful crop and insert that into a different crop to continue a specific trait (Farrell and Carson-Dewitt 1). Therapeutic cloning is another type of cloning in which stem cells, a type of cell able to grow into different types of cells of the same organism, are taken from the cloned embryo and used for medical purposes to replace diseased or damaged cells in the human body. Robert P. Lanza, Jose B. Cibelli, and Michael D. West , authors of the article “Human Therapeutic Cloning”, explain the procedure for human therapeutic cloning stating:
A cell from the patient is fused with an enucleated donor oocyte using the nuclear transfer techniques pioneered in murine and livestock species. Embryonic stem cells are isolated from the resulting clone, and then differentiated in vitro into genetically matched cells and tissues for transplantation. For example, cardiomyocytes could be used to
Bill Clinton, United States President during that time, banned the federal funding for human cloning. Shortly after, U.S. states began acting to ban human cloning with the defense of immorality. Fifteen states now hold a ban against human reproductive cloning with that reasoning (Farrell and Carson-Dewitt 1). In 1998, federal legislators came together to discuss the banning of human cloning, but failed to pass any laws. Some federal legislators believe that human cloning, either therapeutic or reproductive, are acceptable with the idea that an embryo is not a human yet. Others believe that an embryo is a human from the start and it is not ethical to experiment on them or use them for body parts (Farrell and Carson-Dewitt