HUMAN CLONING
Outline
1. Animal Cloning
2. AOPED Chart of Human Cloning
3. Human Cloning: Has it Been
Done?
4. Ethics of Human Cloning
5. International Reaction
1. ANIMAL CLONING
Animal Cloning
On 5 July 1996, the first animal
cloned from an adult mammal was
born. She was a sheep called
“Dolly”.
Dolly was born to three mothers:
one provided the egg, another the
DNA and a third carried the cloned
embryo to term.
Animal Cloning
Dolly was created using the
technique of somatic cell nuclear
transfer, where the cell nucleus
from an adult cell is transferred into
an unfertilised oocyte (developing
egg cell) that has had its nucleus
removed.
Animal Cloning
The hybrid cell is then stimulated to
divide by an electric shock, and
when it develops into a blastocyst it
is implanted in a surrogate mother.
Doubts about Cloning
• Dolly died after six years due to
lung cancer and she had arthritis.
• People speculated that cloned
organisms are born “old”. Some
say that Dolly’s telomeres were
shorter than normal.
• Roslin Institute says, however,
that Dolly died because of a viral
infection.
Is it Ethical?
• In principle, cloning animals is
ethical if the purpose is ethical,
e.g., basic biological research or
for producing better food or work
animals for man.
• In any case, God’s creation
should not be destroyed by
respected.
ViaGen Pets
CELL, VOLUME 172, ISSUE 4, P881-887.E7, FEBRUARY 08, 2018
HUMAN CLONING
2. HUMAN CLONING
Human Cloning
Definition
Human cloning refers to the asexual
or agametic reproduction of the
entire human organism in order to
produce one or more “copies”
which, from a genetic perspective,
are substantially identical to the
single original.
Human Cloning
• Since the success of cloning
Dolly, there has been talk of using
the technique on human beings.
• Human cloning could be useful
for:
a) Reproductive purposes
b) Therapeutic purposes
c) Anti-aging purposes
Human Cloning
a) Reproductive: So that childless
couples can have children with
at least some of their genes.
b) Therapeutic: a source of
genetically identical tissue to
cure disease.
c) Prolongation of Life: So that the
individual can live longer with
rejuvenated tissue from a clone.
a) Reproductive Purposes
Proponents claim that human
reproductive cloning also would produce
benefits. Severino Antinori and
Panayiotis Zavos hope to create a fertility
treatment that allows parents who are
both infertile to have children with at least
some of their DNA in their offspring.
b) Therapeutic Purposes
b) Therapeutic Purposes
New York University bioethicist
Jacob M. Appel has argued that
"children cloned for therapeutic
purposes" such as "to donate
bone marrow to a sibling with
leukemia" might someday be
viewed as heroes.
c) Prolonging Human Life
In Aubrey de Grey's proposed
SENS (Strategies for Engineered
Negligible Senescence), one of the
considered options to repair the cell
depletion related to cellular
senescence is to grow replacement
tissues from stem cells harvested
from a cloned embryo.
Human Cloning
• If the SENS can be considered
therapeutic, then there would
actually be only two purposes for
human cloning:
1. Reproductive purposes
2. Therapeutic purposes
3. HAS IT BEEN DONE?
Has it been done?
Has it been done?
• Dr. Hwang Woo Suk, a South
Korean researcher claimed in
June 2005 to have cloned cells
from 11 patients with an efficient
new technique using very few
human eggs.
• The New York Times, 7 July 2010
Has it been done?
• Dr. Hwang fabricated evidence for
all of that research, according to a
report released by a Seoul
National University panel
investigating his work.
• The New York Times, 7 July 2010
Zavos and Antinori
In 2009, Severino Antinori and Panayiotis
Zavos claimed that they have
successfully cloned 14 human embryos
and implanted 11 of them.
They have no scientific paper proving
that they have actually done so. They no
longer work together after an argument.
Has it been done?
• Last May 15, 2013, a group of
researchers in Portland, Oregon
reported a successful cloning of a
human cell line.
• A few days afterwards, however,
people noted duplications in the
images used in the article
published in the magazine Cell.
Has it been done?
• A review of the article is being
done. But the experiment has to
be repeated by other scientists
first before it can be finally
declared successful.
Boyalife, China
• Last 2015, AFP interviewed
scientists from the Boyalife Group
in the northern city of Tianjin,
which is building a huge plant for
cloning livestock.
• The researchers believe that they
will be producing one million
cloned cows a year by 2020.
Boyalife, China
• Aside from cows, they hope to
offer the commercial cloning of
dogs.
• In their opinion, once public
opinion gets rid of the taboo,
eventually they will be allowed to
clone human beings.
Has it been done?
• We have to distinguish between:
1) Cloning an organism and
bringing it to term until it is born;
and
2) Cloning a cell line.
Has it been done?
• The biggest organism that has
been cloned to term after Dolly,
the sheep, are the two monkeys
cloned this year (2018) in China.
• There are still experimental,
legal and cultural barriers to the
cloning of human beings, but the
technology is slowly coming
close.
Has it been done?
• But cloning an entire human
being, it seems, has not yet been
done.
• At this point in time, we don’t
know if the technical barriers will
forever be an obstacle or only
ethical considerations are now
preventing its being done.
ETHICS OF HUMAN CLONING
Reference: Dignitatis Personae, nos. 28-30
4. ETHICS OF HUMAN
CLONING
Moral Object
• The moral object of human
cloning is the same as its
definition: the technological
production of a living copy of a
human being for reproductive or
therapeutic purposes.
• Whatever the purpose, however, it
seems that human cloning is
unethical.
ETHICS OF
REPRODUCTIVE
CLONING
Reproductive Cloning
In theory, reproductive cloning would be
advantageous because (for example):
1. We can control over human evolution and
select human beings with superior
qualities;
2. We can pre-select the sex of a child to be
born;
3. We can produce of copy of a child as
“therapeutic insurance”;
4. Couples for whom IVF does not work can
have children in this way.
Reproductive Cloning
What is wrong with these advantages?
1. We can control over human evolution and
select human beings with superior
qualities;
2. We can pre-select the sex of a child to be
born;
3. We can produce of copy of a child as
“therapeutic insurance”;
4. Couples for whom IVF does not work can
have children in this way.
Reproductive Cloning
The first three creates “slaves”.
1. We can control over human evolution and
select human beings with superior
qualities;
2. We can pre-select the sex of a child to be
born;
3. We can produce of copy of a child as
“therapeutic insurance”;
4. Couples for whom IVF does not work can
have children in this way.
Reproductive Cloning
The first three creates “slaves”.
1. We can control over human evolution and
select human beings with superior
qualities;
2. We can pre-select the sex of a child to be
born;
3. We can produce of copy of a child as
“therapeutic insurance”;
4. Couples for whom IVF does not work can
have children in this way.
Reproductive Cloning
• If cloning were to be done for
reproduction, it is inevitable that
the “copy” would be seen as
inferior or subordinate to the
original,
• The clone then becomes a
property of the original.
Reproductive Cloning
• This is a grave offense to the
dignity of that person because it
destroys the fundamental equality
of all human beings.
• Human beings also have the right
to be unique.
• Genetics shows us that this
uniqueness is required by our
human nature.
Reproductive Cloning
What about cloning to have children?
1. We can control over human evolution and
select human beings with superior
qualities;
2. We can pre-select the sex of a child to be
born;
3. We can produce of copy of a child as
“therapeutic insurance”;
4. Couples for whom IVF does not work can
have children in this way.
Reproductive Cloning
What about cloning to have children?
1. We can control over human evolution and
select human beings with superior
qualities;
2. We can pre-select the sex of a child to be
born;
3. We can produce of copy of a child as
“therapeutic insurance”;
4. Couples for whom IVF does not work can
have children in this way.
Reproductive Cloning
• Human cloning is intrinsically immoral
because it gives rise to a new human
being without a connection to the act of
reciprocal self-giving between the
spouses and, more radically, without
any link to sexuality.
• This destroys the unitive aspect of the
sexual act.
ETHICS OF
THERAPEUTIC CLONING
Therapeutic Cloning
• Therapeutic cloning, on the other
hand, has been proposed as a
way of producing embryonic stem
cells with a predetermined genetic
patrimony in order to overcome
the problem of immune system
rejection; this is therefore linked to
the issue of the use of stem cells.
Therapeutic Cloning
• Therapeutic cloning, on the other
hand, has been proposed as a
way of producing embryonic stem
cells with a predetermined genetic
patrimony in order to overcome
the problem of immune system
rejection; this is therefore linked to
the issue of the use of stem cells.
Therapeutic Cloning
Therapeutic Cloning
• Therapeutic cloning is even more
immoral: it creates embryos with
the intention of destroying them.
• Even with the intention of helping
the sick, is completely
incompatible with human dignity,
because it makes the existence of
a human being at the embryonic
stage nothing more than a means
to be used and destroyed.
Cloning cells & DNA
• “From an ethical point of view, the
simple replication of normal cells
or of a portion of DNA presents no
particular ethical problem.”
(Compendium of the Social
Doctrine of the Church, n. 236)
INTERNATIONAL
REACTION
International Reaction
• Attempts at cloning have given
rise to genuine concern
throughout the entire
world. Various national and
international organizations have
expressed negative judgments on
human cloning and it has been
prohibited in the great majority of
nations.
International Reaction
• This shows the common and
universal moral sentiment about
cloning.
• This shows that the immorality of
cloning is based on human natural
law and the universal basic
human rights.
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