South Korean scientists have brought cloned human cells to embryo stadium and extracted stem cells from it. Whatever one’s opinion about this particular event is, it certainly is one more step towards a society where human cloning, whether for reproductive or therapeutical purposes, is real.
This was bound to happen sooner or later, but the world’s legislations seem have been anxious about facing this problem. Some countries already enacted laws that ban cloning humans, others have installed committees on the subject, but in general the legal situation is anything but clear. The UN considered the subject, but the decision on it has been postponed until 2005.
Personally, I think a clear legal regulation on it is overdue now, and the nations of the world should come together to find an acceptable solution. National soverignty is of high value, but this issue touches fundamental ethical issues of mankind as a whole, so a more or less consistent decision should be made instead of having a situation in which half of the world is pro-cloning and the other half anti. Simply do nothing and let the genetic engineers do what they want without any sufficient legal frame is even worse.
In short, I think the national legislators should rank this high on their priority list and come to a solution, and the debate on it should not only take place on the national level, but worldwide.
Although it probably won’t be the case, I think human cloning should be regulated just like any new scientific or medical procedure involving humans. In other words, no, I don’t think the legislature needs to pass a law.
I have absolutely no problem with scientists doing any types of experimentation they want on a blastocyst. If laws are needed, make sure they address experimtation on more fullly developed fetuses only. A blatocyst is just a clump of cells. This is breakthrough science that could revolutionize certain types of medical treatment. Relgion should not rule over science.
As for the world’s nations coming together on this, I think the first human clone will be well into adulthood before a workable solution can be agreed upon by every nation on earth capable of supporting this type of research.
Is the problem with cloning or with the use of blastocysts? I’m pretty cool with giving cloned lifeforms, be they human or otherwise, the exact same legal status as their “natural” counterparts.
But if the issue is really that of whether its moral use any type of fetal tissue whatsoever, then I guess I’ll just reread all the abortion threads that have been posted over the years and sit this out.
There are loads of good reasons to regulate human cloning at this juncture that have nothing to do with religious concerns. It’s purely medical ethics at this point: Cloned mammals derived from adult cells often have a host of abnormalities. To use this method for reproduction would, at the very least, be unacceptably dangerous to the cloned offspring and highly unethical. Years, maybe decades, of research in other primates will be needed before this can be greenlighted as a medical reproductive procedure/therapy.
Having said that, the possibilities for basic research, as well as potential therapeutic cloning, just became about 1000% more interesting if this claim holds up to scrutiny, as I expect it will. How religious conservatives will regard the generation of human embryos from adult somites I don’t know, but I assume this will be seen as a sinful abomination in the same league as abortion (perhaps even more egregious due to the fact that man is now “creating” new human life using methods that don’t involve married people having intercourse).
I don’t agree with the human stem-cell research restrictions already in place, so I naturally wouldn’t support further legislation to restrict this method. I fully expect the Bush administration to place the requisite interdictions in place to prevent American researchers from using the methods of the Koreans to generate human embryonal stem cells.
That’s exactly what I think. I wouldn’t describe me as particularly religious, but the thought of scientists merrily producing and immediately afterwards destroying embryos makes me feel uncomfortable. Probably this is yet another issue regarded differently in America and Europe; I’ve heard and read leftist European politicians and thinkers you really wouldn’t count to the conservative ultra-religious right argue against cloning, based on the assumption (not too far-fetched IMO) that blastocysts are more than merely “a clump of cells” (Aren’t humans generally just “clumps of cells”?)
This is again the old “when do the cells begin being human” debate that’s been the focus of the innumerable abortion threads on the boards. I tend not to deny an embryo the status of being “human.”
Having a clone around would be great for anyone involved in criminal activity, because DNA evidence will no longer stand up in court as you could never prove whehter the clone or the original comitted a crime on DNA alone, you would have to be caught red-handed.