What Does Therapeutic Cloning do?
By: Kaitlyn L.
Background
- Instead of using a sperm cell to create a blastocyst nuclear transer uses an egg that which they have removed the nucleus from and replace with DNA from a body cell from the patient.
- Instead of letting the cells grow in a person they are stimulated to divide and grow in a Petri dish.
- Therapeutic cloning means someone producing embryonic cells genetically identical to a donor, and is usually for treating disease.
- "On March 9, 2009, President Barack Obama signed an executive order to lift restrictions on the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research."
- Sicentist hope to figure out how to use a patient's healthy cells to develop stem cells that can reprogram unhealthy ones.
Examples
- Angelina Jolie showed how science can create a cheap way to reduse the risk of breast cancer with therapeutic cloning.
- Sicentist are getting closer to the goal of creating stem cells that match perfectly to a patient's DNA to treat diseases, and they created patient-specific cell lines out of the cells of two men.
- In 1997 the Nature journal announced Scottish scientists had cloned a sheep named Dolly.
Timelines (examples)
- Timeline: 1952 - Scientists demonstrate they can remove the nucleus from a frog's egg, replace it with the nucleus of an embryonic frog cell, and get the egg to develop into a tadpole.1975 - Scientists get tadpoles after transferring cell nuclei from adult frogs.1986 - Sheep cloned by nuclear transfer from embryonic cells.February 22, 1997 - Scientists reveal Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from cells of an adult animal. She was actually born on July 5, 1996.1998 - More than 50 mice are reported cloned from a single mouse over several generations. Eight calves are cloned from a cow.2000 - Pigs and goats are reported cloned from adult cells.2001 - Advanced Cell Technology of Worcester, Massachusetts, says it produced a six-cell cloned human embryo, in research aimed at harvesting stem cells.2001 - Five bulls are cloned from a champion bull, Full Flush.2002 - Rabbits and a kitten are reported cloned from adult cells.December 27, 2002 - Clonaid claims to produce first human clone, a baby girl, Eve.January 23, 2003 - Clonaid claims to have cloned the first baby boy. The baby was allegedly cloned from tissue taken from the Japanese couple's comatose 2-year-old boy, who was killed in an accident in 2001. Clonaid has never provided physical evidence of the cloning.February 14, 2003 - The Roslin Institute confirms that Dolly, the world's first cloned mammal, was euthanized after being diagnosed with progressive lung disease. She was 6 years old.May 4, 2003 - The first mule is cloned at the University of Idaho, named Idaho Gem.June 9, 2003 - Researchers Gordon Woods and Dirk Vanderwall from the University of Idaho and Ken White from Utah State University claim to have cloned a second mule.August 6, 2003 - Italian scientists at the Laboratory of Reproductive Technology in Cremona, Italy, say they have created the world's first cloned horse, Prometea, from an adult cell taken from the horse who gave birth to her.September 25, 2003 - French scientists at the National Institute of Agricultural Research at Joy en Josas, France, become the first to clone rats.February 12, 2004 - South Korean researchers report they have created human embryos through cloning and extracted embryonic stem cells. Findings by a team of researchers were presented to South Korean scientists and describe in detail the process of how to create human embryos by cloning. The report says the scientists used eggs donated by Korean women. An investigative panel concludes in 2006 that South Korean scientist Woo Suk Hwang's human stem cell cloning research was faked.August 3, 2005 - South Korean researchers announce they have successfully cloned a dog, an Afghan hound named Snuppy.December 8, 2008-April 4, 2009 - Five cloned puppies from Trakr, a German Shepherd Sept 11 Ground Zero rescue dog, are born.May 2009 - Clone of Tailor Fit, a two-time quarter horse world champion, is born, one of several cloned horses born that year.September 29, 2011 - At South Korea's Incheon Airport, seven "super clone" sniffer-dogs are dispatched in the war against contraband luggage. They are all golden Labrador Retrievers that are genetically identical to "Chase", who was the top drug detention canine until he retired in 2007.May 15, 2013 - Oregon Health & Science University researchers report in the journal Cell that they have created embryonic stem cells through cloning. Shoukhrat Mitalipov and the biologists produced human embryos using skin cells, and then used the embryos to produce stem cell lines.April 2014 - For the first time, cloning technologies have been used to generate stem cells that are genetically matched to adult patients. Researchers published this month put the nucleus of an adult skin cell inside an egg, and that reconstructed egg went through the initial stages of embryonic development.
- A tadpole was first cloned in 1952. Sheep, goats, carp, cows, mice, pigs, cats, rabbits, and gaur [a wild ox] have since been cloned by nuclear transfer technology. In 2003, a horse, white-tailed deer and mule were cloned. An Afghan hound dog, named Snuppy, was cloned in South Korea in 2005. The world's first extinct mammal, a subspecies of a mountain goat known as a Pyrenean ibex, was cloned using tissue samples from one found dead in early 2000; the kid, born in January 2009, died 9 minutes after birth due to malformed lungs. In April 2009 the first cloned camel was born in the United Arab Emirates.
Benifits
- Sicentists are moving closre to their goal of creating stem cells to perfectly match a patient's DNA in order to treat diseases.
- It can cut peoples chances of breast cancer by a lot. For examples you can have a 87% chance that can be cut down to about 5%.
- All the risk can be managed and further research can help scientist relieve human suffering.
- As long as scientist take the nessisary procausions they can make great progress.
- A great benifit of cloning is that it may lead to cure many illnesses.
Dangers
- For one person to have this therapy several hundred eggs, and many egg donors are needed. It is not simple or risk-free process for human egg donors.
- Some people belive that this is against God's word and it should not be done.
- Only God has they power over life and death.
- The risk are unclear which means scientists don't know what could happen to the people who choose to do this.
- The benifits are not even guaranteed and there are also ethical problems that could be present.
My Thoughts
- There are some amazing benifits to therapeutic cloning, but there are also dangers that scientist don't know about yet.
- They still need to work out the kinks which means working on people with out knowing all of the dangers.
- When they get all the questions figured out they could cure deadly diseases.
- If you are really sick and need this done on you i would, but i wouldn't do it unless i had to untill they do more research.
- I think in the future it could help a lot of people out, but they can't figure out all the dangers untill they do this on different people.
- there is still a lot to learn about this before people start getting this cloning done to fix small diseases.
- It is great for people who have a deadly disease to be healthy afterwards, but they don't know what could happen after the cloning prosesse.
Bibliography
Carroll, Ann, and Suzanne Kadereit. "Therapeutic Cloning Can Provide Patient-Specific Embryos for Stem Cells." Stem Cells. Jacqueline Langwith. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Nuclear Transfer Embryonic Stem Cells: A Step Towards Therapy." International Society for Stem Cell Research. 2008.Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.
"Cloning Fast Facts." CNN Wire 6 Aug. 2014. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.
"Creating Embryos for Research Is Wrong." Stem Cells. Jacqueline Langwith. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "A Primer on Human Cloning." Christian Life Resources. 2009. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.
Markkula Center. "Ethics of Human Cloning and Stem Cell Research."Ethics of Human Cloning and Stem Cell Research. N.p., 11 Jan. 2002. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.
NCSL, West Group. "Human Cloning Laws." Human Cloning Laws. N.p., Jan. 2008. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.
Reuters. "Scientists Report Advance in 'Therapeutic Cloning'." New York Times 18 Apr. 2014: B2(L). Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.
"Scientific progress has risks, but also immense potential." Sydney Morning Herald[Sydney, Australia] 17 May 2013: 22. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.