Medical ethics :
Cloning
Scientists in Oregon are now cloning the embryo's of monkeys. This is the first time such cells have been produced in any animal other than a mouse, but the method, could potentially work when cloning humans.
In south korea in 2004 scientists had wanted to do the same thing with humans, although the experiment did not succeed, they proved the cloning of embryo's is not an impossible task.
The monkey stem cells were genetically identical to an adult monkey.Medical researchers hope they could one day use human embryonic stem cells to study diseases and supply replacement cells to treat them. If this could be possible, it will be one of the most successful projects in the medical world as it could save thousands of lives every single year.
An advantage of using cloning to obtain stem cells is that they would genetically match a patient’s cells, making it unnecessary to suppress the immune system if the stem cells are used in treatment. Cloning could also produce stem cells that genetically match patients with complex diseases like Alzheimer’s. That might let scientists study those cells and understand how the diseases progress. This could lead to better knoweldge of these diseases, that could potentially lead to development of mediaction to treat these complex diseases.
For now, scientists only use monkeys. However it is only a matter of time for them to start using humans since their research with monkeys has proved to be successful.
Not only have monkey's embryo cells been cloned. The scientists have recently also cloned heart and nerve cells - the most important factors in a human body as well as in monkeys.
Although most attempts of cloning wats, now scientists have found a method of extracting cells more carefully, making their research more successful. They have not officially cloned any monkeys yet, however it seems to be only a matter of time for it to become a possibility.
source : http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/science/15primate.html?ref=cloning
The New York Times
Science division
Research by Dr Mitalipov, lead researcher of the group at Oregon health and science university
and Randall Prather,professor of reproductive biotechnology at the university of Missouri
Cloning
Scientists in Oregon are now cloning the embryo's of monkeys. This is the first time such cells have been produced in any animal other than a mouse, but the method, could potentially work when cloning humans.
In south korea in 2004 scientists had wanted to do the same thing with humans, although the experiment did not succeed, they proved the cloning of embryo's is not an impossible task.
The monkey stem cells were genetically identical to an adult monkey.Medical researchers hope they could one day use human embryonic stem cells to study diseases and supply replacement cells to treat them. If this could be possible, it will be one of the most successful projects in the medical world as it could save thousands of lives every single year.
An advantage of using cloning to obtain stem cells is that they would genetically match a patient’s cells, making it unnecessary to suppress the immune system if the stem cells are used in treatment. Cloning could also produce stem cells that genetically match patients with complex diseases like Alzheimer’s. That might let scientists study those cells and understand how the diseases progress. This could lead to better knoweldge of these diseases, that could potentially lead to development of mediaction to treat these complex diseases.
For now, scientists only use monkeys. However it is only a matter of time for them to start using humans since their research with monkeys has proved to be successful.
Not only have monkey's embryo cells been cloned. The scientists have recently also cloned heart and nerve cells - the most important factors in a human body as well as in monkeys.
Although most attempts of cloning wats, now scientists have found a method of extracting cells more carefully, making their research more successful. They have not officially cloned any monkeys yet, however it seems to be only a matter of time for it to become a possibility.
source : http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/science/15primate.html?ref=cloning
The New York Times
Science division
Research by Dr Mitalipov, lead researcher of the group at Oregon health and science university
and Randall Prather,professor of reproductive biotechnology at the university of Missouri
nice article review isabelle.
ReplyDeletedo you think this type of research is ethical?
It seems a hot debate when we talk about the cloning of human embryos, but monkey embryos don't seem to raise many concerns. Why do you think this is?
Yes, in my perspective this research is ethical. This is because the research is not for commercial purpose, but done for academic purpose. Cloning of stem cells may lead to inventions medication of terminal diseases.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, the animals which are being cloned are not harmed.
The technique of reproductive cloning is as follows :
In reproductive cloning, researchers remove a mature somatic cell, such as a skin cell from an animal. They then transfer the DNA of the donor animal's somatic cell into an egg cell, that has had its own DNA-containing nucleus removed.
Researchers can add the DNA from the somatic cell to the empty egg in two different ways. In the first method, they remove the DNA-containing nucleus of the somatic cell and inject it into the empty egg.
In the processes, the egg is allowed to develop into an embryo in the test-tube and then is implanted into the womb of an adult female animal. Hence, the adult female gives birth to an animal that has the same genetic make up as the animal that donated the somatic cell. This young animal is referred to as a clone. Reproductive cloning may require the use of a surrogate mother to allow development of the cloned embryo, as was the case for the most successful cloning experiment,Dolly the sheep.
Information about cloning :
National Human Genome Research Institute
Cloning division
Monkey embryo's don't seem to raise concern since scientific research is frequently performed on monkeys.
However, when taking into consideration religion, cloning may seem to have more disadvantages than advantages. In order to not violate any medical rights or ethics, cloning is usually more controlled rather than completly banned. This allows researchers to continue their experiments, but to a certain extent. The animals used are not harmed nor killed.
Also, when talking about another religious aspect of cloning. People believe it is against animal rights to perform cloning of their somatic cell.
This also results into many debates since considering the fact that animal rights are violated, the purpose is in the benefit of humans. This is a very contriversial statement that can be looked at in different perspectives. The aim of these experiments are in the intrest of humans and to increase knoweldge of diseases. However, in order to perform these tests animals have to be used.
In my opinion, it might be slightly un-ethical to clone particular organs of the monkeys, such as hearts, since then numerous monkeys would have to be killed, for in order to succeed the research would have to be done a multiple number of times. So in one way, it is against the animal rights, but I still think it's safer to do research on animals than on humans, esp if it would help with severe diseases like alzheimer
ReplyDeleteobviously the question here is "is a human life worth more than an animal life?"
ReplyDeletethe sanctity of life in its many forms brings with it many issues.
if we go down the path of saying that human life is more valuable then it would seem that the basis on which we justify environmental protection ie biodiversity, loses its strength.