Human Cloning

Human Cloning

By Anita Thomas

Dolly is born! On Sunday, February 23, 1997, the media exploded with the news that Scottish scientist Ian Wilmut and his team had successfully cloned an adult sheep. They took the DNA from a donor cell and created ‘Dolly’, an exact replica of the donor sheep. She has been the first fully-grown mammal to be cloned. Although other scientists initially challenged Wilmut on his procedure, further tests have confirmed Dolly’s authenticity.

Panic! Following Dolly’s birth, Western society entered a state of panic regarding the possibility, the implications, and the ethics of cloning humans. Although human cloning is not yet possible, it is definitely plausible. Society acknowledges that we need to contend to ethical issues prior to any time, effort, and money being spent on human cloning research. For example, shortly after Dolly’s birth: US President Clinton ordered no federal money to be spent on human cloning projects; 64,000 US scientists signed an agreement that they would not partake in any such projects for at least 5 years; and 19 European nations signed a ban on human cloning.

How did they do it? The ‘Dolly’ method of cloning, which could potentially be tried on humans, is as follows.

Take a somatic cell from a donor (could be male or female).
Transfer the cell’s nucleus (which contains most of the DNA) into an enucleated egg.
Implant the egg into a surrogate mother.
The resulting baby is genetically identical to original donor.

(Remember that mitochondria within a cell’s cytoplasm also contain genetic material. Wilmut did not specify if the implanted egg had a mixture of both the donor and the egg’s cytoplasm, or just that of the donor. This is one reason why scientists questioned if Dolly was an exact replica of her donor.)

What if? Currently, this type of experimentation on humans is unrealistic and unethical. It is unrealistic because our somatic cells are specialized, meaning that some genes have been turned ‘off’. We do not know how, or if it is even possible, to turn them back ‘on’. It is unethical because Wilmut et. al. had more than 277 failures before Dolly was created. Many of these failures would have been spontaneous abortions, which is something that scientists could not expect any human subjects to undergo.

A professor and her students from a University of Virginia science and technology class compiled a list of medical and social implications of human cloning research, knowledge, and application. Here are some of them.

Medical
Human cloning could:

provide an endless supply of donor organs.
eliminate donor organ rejection since cloned organs would be a genetic match to the host.
increase our understanding of cancer.
be used to regenerate damaged nerve and muscle tissues. This could lead to treatment of muscular diseases, or curing paralysis

Social
Through human cloning, people could:

choose to raise an identical child if their original child dies. Any deceased person (perhaps famous?) could be cloned and reborn.
choose their child and his/her traits from an embryo catalog. If this was illegal, a black market could result, appealing to infertile parents.

Questions for Consideration

1. Why did the ‘media explode’ upon the birth of Dolly? Do you think this reaction was valid? What does this story tell us about the nature of science and its impact on society?

2. What do you think are the responsibilities of science professionals in educating society about the realities of scientific work and discoveries?

3. State and explain the reasons of your opinion about whether or not human cloning research should be legal.

4. Forecast the future of our society of we could pick our children from a catalog, resulting in a world full of intelligent, strong, attractive, disease-free people.

5. Expand on the ideas presented by the students from the University of Virginia.

6. What might be the viewpoint of the following people on the issue of human cloning research and application?

a scientist involved in the human genome project?
an infertile couple, or a couple with a high probability of passing a genetic condition onto their offspring?
a person at the bottom of the heart-donor waiting list?
a religious leader?

Teacher’s Notes

This science vignette is designed to accompany Unit 3 of the Biology 30 program of studies: ‘Cells, Chromosomes, and DNA’. It deals with the STS connections of Major Concept#3: Classical genetics can be explained at a molecular level. The issue of potential human cloning research, discoveries, and application is a relevant example of the interrelationships among science, technology and society.

This vignette can be used as a ‘hook’ at the beginning of Unit 3 to have the students imagine a world where cloning is possible. ‘Dolly’ is an exciting, recent, life-sized example of genetic engineering, thus exciting the students to learn more about the molecular level of genetics. This vignette could also be used later in the unit when the students have acquired greater knowledge about the actual process cloning would demand. At this time, the discussion may have more molecular genetic content than ethical content. Enjoy!

Leading the Discussion

1. Why did the ‘media explode’ upon the birth of Dolly? Do you think this reaction was valid? What does this story tell us about the nature of science and its impact on society?

The hot issue of cloning humans being almost possible was a perfect opportunity for the media to generate excitement in order to sell its product. Valid reaction? Yes, this is an issue we need to deal with. No, over-reacting since no need to worry yet very far in the future. We need to trust that our scientific community will be ethical.

Nature of science sometimes glamourized by society.

2. What do you think are the responsibilities of science professionals in educating society about the realities of scientific work and discoveries?

Science professionals should have the responsibility of educating society (via the media) about discoveries. We have a right to know what is going on behind closed doors without the media’s explosions.

3. State and explain the reasons of your opinion about whether or not human cloning research should be legal.

Should not be legal because potentially very dangerous we are not ready for these types of discoveries! ‘Human nature’ could be our demise.

Should be legal due to many medical benefits. Our government and legal system can outline and enforce the boundaries.

4. Forecast the future of our society of we could pick our children from a catalog, resulting in a world full of intelligent, strong, attractive, disease-free people.

Our greed could cause a very bad situation. Reduced genetic variation could lead to extinction!

5. Expand on the ideas presented by the students from the University of Virginia.

Let the students think of other medical benefits, and social hazards.

6. What might be the viewpoint of the following people on the issue of human cloning research and application?

a scientist involved in the human genome project? For. This is very exciting!
an infertile couple, or a couple with a high probability of passing a genetic condition onto their offspring? For. They want a happy, healthy, beautiful baby!
a person at the bottom of the heart-donor waiting list? For. He/she needs a heart pronto!
a religious leader? Against. We have no right to play ‘God’.

References

Scientific American. (1997). A Clone in Sheep’s Clothing. [WWW document]. URL: http://www.sciam.com/explorations/030397clone/030397beards.html (2000/01/09).

University of Virginia. (1998) Human Cloning: Practical Uses. [WWW document]. URL: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~jones/tmp352/projects98/group1/practical.html (2000/01/09).

University of Virginia. (1998). Human Cloning: The Process. [WWW document]. URL: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~jones/tmp352/projects98/group1/how.htm (2000/0109).

Zinnen, T. (1999). Edgey about BioTechknowlegey: A Case Study of Cloning. Access Excellence @ the National Health Museum . [WWW document]. URL: http://www.accessexcellence.org/AB/IE/casestudy.html (2000/01/09).