Human Cloning? Science meets Morality
by Jeff
US scientist clones himself from skin cells
“Samuel Wood, a researcher at Stemagen Corporation in La Jolla, California, plucked cells from his skin and injected them into donated eggs that had been treated to remove their own genetic material. The eggs developed into very early stage embryos that were genetically identical to the scientist’s own DNA.”
The closely held company hopes to make embryos that are clones, or genetic twins, of patients, then harvest stem cells from those embryos and grow them into replacement tissues.
Company claims cloned humans and made stem cells.
This doesn’t bother me and I don’t really see it as a moral issue. What will be a moral issue is when we can clone human organs for use in life-threatening situations, and they’ve been genetically modified (or, instead, we genetically modify an embryo we know will develop a certain disease later in life). These would be amazing scientific advances, but the moral issue comes into play when companies who do the genetic modifications claim that they “own” the genes a person thus has, and claims them to be intellectual property of the company.
This has already started… many genes are “owned”, aka patented, by companies. How long until a company starts charging for better blood flow in a regrown heart? In genetically modified foods, like grain, farmers are already going out of business and being sued by companies who produce genetically modified grain that, by the miracle of wind, spreads and begins to grow in a farmer’s field who didn’t pay for the grain and simply didn’t want it. Then the company sues… I wouldn’t be surprised to see this manifest itself similarly in future medical endeavors.
Cloning itself I do not think has many moral implications, especially if you do not ascribe metaphysical chains to humans, like the concept of a “soul” or “Creator.” How companies will attempt to take advantage definitely does, however.
posted at 12:07 pm on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 by Zach
Like I said, this makes me nervous. haha. Good comment.
posted at 9:53 pm on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 by Jeff Thigpen