Cloning and Stem Cell Research
Michael Low
Shayna Granger
Bennett Holmes
Garyck Lafosse
Susen Baez
Emily Hu
Adrian Laus
What are Stem Cells?
• Stem cell: One of the human body's master cells, with
the ability to grow into any one of the body's more
than 200 cell types. Stem cells are unspecialized
(undifferentiated) cells that are characteristically of the
same family type (lineage). They retain the ability to
divide throughout life and give rise to cells that can
become highly specialized and take the place of cells
that die or are lost. Stem cells contribute to the body's
ability to renew and repair its tissues. Unlike mature
cells, which are permanently committed to their fate,
stem cells can both renew themselves and create new
cells of whatever tissue they belong to (and other
tissues).
What are Stem Cells?
• The history of stem cell research had a benign,
embryonic beginning in the mid 1800's with
the discovery that some cells could generate
other cells.
• Stem cells are biological cells found in all
multicellular organisms, that can divide
(through mitosis) and differentiate into
diverse specialized cell types and can selfrenew to produce more stem cells.
What are Stem Cells?
• There are three accessible sources of autologous adult
stem cells in humans:
1. Bone marrow, which requires extraction by
harvesting, that is, drilling into bone (typically the
femur or iliac crest),
2. Adipose tissue (lipid cells), which requires extraction
by liposuction, and
3. Blood, which requires extraction through pheresis,
wherein blood is drawn from the donor (similar to a
blood donation), passed through a machine that
extracts the stem cells and returns other portions of
the blood to the donor.
What are Stem Cells?
• Developments in biotechnology in the 1980s and 1990s
saw the introduction of techniques for targeting and
altering genetic material and methods for growing
human cells in the laboratory. These advances really
opened the doors for human stem cell research.
• Then in 1998 James Thomson, a scientist at the
University of Wisconsin in Madison, successfully
removed cells from spare embryos at fertility clinics
and grew them in the laboratory. He launched stem cell
research into the limelight, establishing the world’s first
human embryonic stem cell line which still exists today.
What are Stem Cells used for?
• Since this discovery, a plethora of evidence
has emerged to suggest that these embryonic
stem cells are capable of becoming almost any
of the specialized cells in the body and
therefore have the potential to generate
replacement cells for a broad array of tissues
and organs such as the heart, liver, pancreas
and nervous system.
What are Stem Cells used for?
• Adult stem cells are already being used in
treatments for over one hundred conditions
including leukemia, Hunter’s syndrome and
heart disease.
• Stem cell technology could be used to
produce replaceable tissues or organs and to
repair defective tissues/organs damaged or
destroyed by many of our most devastating
diseases and disabilities.
Stem Cells
• The first successful cloning of a mammal, Dolly
the sheep, was in 1997. Following the cloning of
Dolly, many other animals, including cows and
mice, have been successfully cloned.
• 1901 - Hans Spemann split a 2-cell salamander
embryo into two parts, which developed into two
complete organisms. This result showed that
early embryo cells retain all the genetic
information necessary to develop into a new
organism.
Stem Cells
• 1964 - F. E. Steward of Cornell University
successfully grew a complete carrot plant from a
fully differentiated carrot root cell. This surprising
result proved that cloning from differentiated
cells was possible.
• 1990 - The Human Genome Project began. This
international collaborative effort attempted to
sequence the entire genetic makeup of humans,
consisting of more than 3 billion nucleotides.
What is Cloning?
• Cloning: A procedure for producing multiple
copies of genetically identical organisms or cells
or of individual genes. Organisms may be cloned
by transplanting blastocysts from one embryo
into an empty zona pellucida, or nuclei from the
cells of one individual into enucleated oocytes.
Cells may be cloned by growing them in culture
under conditions that promote cell reproduction.
Genes may be cloned by isolating them from the
genome of one organism and incorporating them
into the genome of an asexually reproducing
organism, such as a bacterium or a yeast.
Dolly the Sheep
• Animal cloning from an adult cell is obviously
much more complex and difficult than
growing a plant from a cutting. So when
scientists working at the Roslin Institute in
Scotland produced Dolly, the only lamb born
from 277 attempts, it was a major news story
around the world.
Dolly the Sheep
• To produce Dolly, the scientists used the nucleus of an udder cell
from a six-year-old Finn Dorset white sheep. The nucleus contains
nearly all the cell's genes. They had to find a way to 'reprogram' the
udder cells - to keep them alive but stop them growing – which they
achieved by altering the growth medium (the ‘soup’ in which the
cells were kept alive). Then they injected the cell into an unfertilized
egg cell which had had its nucleus removed, and made the cells
fuse by using electrical pulses. The unfertilized egg cell came from a
Scottish Blackface ewe. When the research team had managed to
fuse the nucleus from the adult white sheep cell with the egg cell
from the black-faced sheep, they needed to make sure that the
resulting cell would develop into an embryo. They cultured it for six
or seven days to see if it divided and developed normally, before
implanting it into a surrogate mother, another Scottish Blackface
ewe. Dolly had a white face.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture
or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
or punishment.
• Cloning may not be torture or cruel, but it can
be inhuman in a way. How many people want
another version of them walking around and
even though cloning is not completely there
yet, it is not that far behind.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Article 18: Everyone has the right to freedom
of thought, conscience and religion; this right
includes freedom to change his religion or
belief, and freedom, either alone or in
community with others and in public or
private, to manifest his religion or belief in
teaching, practice, worship and observance.
• Scientist have the right to believe that cloning
is right and that it can be a good thing.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression; this right includes
freedom to hold opinions without interference
and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of
frontiers.
• Like in article 18, this one expresses that anyone
has the right to express how they feel about Stem
cell research and cloning through any means.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Article 25: Everyone has the right to a standard of
living adequate for the health and well-being of
himself and of his family, including food, clothing,
and housing and medical care and necessary
social services, and the right to security in the
event of unemployment, sickness, disability,
widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in
circumstances beyond his control.
• If using stem cells to recreate a vital organ that is
needed to save a person’s life, then they have the
right to choose that option.
Church’s View (Cloning)
• The possible cloning of human beings has been roundly
decried by Catholic theologians, ethicists and the hierarchy
as immoral. Consider the Vatican’s 1987 Instruction on
Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of
Procreation.
• human life begins with the fertilization of the egg by the
sperm.
- From that point forward the embryo should be respected
as a person. Accordingly, not only are interventions that
result in the destruction of human embryos morally
inappropriate, but so too are experiments that impose
"grave and disproportionate risks upon embryos obtained
in vitro" (in a "test tube").
Church’s View (Cloning)
• Cloning seems not to fit with our call to reverence
human life, particularly in its most vulnerable
stages.
• Cloning or other experimental procedures carried
out on human embryos involve their necessary or
even deliberate destruction. The Instruction
explains: "By acting in this way the researcher
usurps the place of God; and, even though he
may be unaware of this, he sets himself up as the
master of the destiny of others...."
Church’s View (Cloning)
• Part of what is wrong with human cloning is that
it does not fit with our charge to be stewards of
creation, but rather seems to involve an
inappropriate form of manipulation and
domination.
• Another concern of the 1987 Vatican Instruction
with human cloning is that it takes reproduction
out of the context of human sexuality. A human
being may be brought into this world totally
independently of the sexual intimacy of a loving,
committed couple.
Church’s View (Cloning)
• Cloning human beings independently of any kind
of interpersonal relationship is not the kind of cocreativity Catholic tradition teaches as God’s will.
• The cloning of plants and animals for the
purposes of greater productivity may well fit with
our charge to be stewards of the earth and
instruments of God’s creation. But it would
ultimately benefit none of the inhabitants of the
earth if cloning were to take place at the expense
of plant and animal diversity.
Church’s View (Stem Cell)
• The current debate over federal funding for stem-cell
research involves in vitro fertilization (in a petri dish) to
create embryos from which stem cells can be
extracted. This debate includes research on "leftover"
embryos, those created in a petri dish but not used for
implantation in a woman's uterus.
• The Catholic Church's objection is to creating life this
way—whether the embryo is successfully implanted or
used only for research. In either case, a human life is
created but deliberately prevented from reaching its
full potential.
Church’s View (Stem Cell)
• In his 1995 encyclical The Gospel of Life, Pope
John Paul II wrote: "Human embryos obtained
in vitro are human beings and are subjects
with rights; their dignity and right to life must
be respected from the first moment of their
existence. It is immoral to produce human
embryos destined to be exploited as
disposable 'biological material'"
Church’s View (Stem Cell)
• On June 29, 2001, Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza,
president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops, wrote on behalf of the nation's Catholic
bishops to President George W. Bush, urging him
not to authorize federal funding for embryonic
stem-cell research. "Government must not treat
any living human being as research material, as a
mere means for benefit to others," wrote Bishop
Fiorenza. Pope John Paul II made the same
request during a private meeting with President
Bush on July 23, 2001.
Church’s View (Stem Cell)
• "While much good may come from the
proposed research, we must not lose sight of
the fact that the means used to reach that
good end must also be moral. The end does
not justify the means. In this case, curing even
thousands of persons does not justify the
destruction of others, even though they are
still in the embryonic state of development."
Personal Opinion
• In our group, we feel that human cloning using stem
cells is wrong and immoral but if it is used to reproduce
things like vital organs in order to save a person’s life
then it is okay.
• Stem cells have an important benefit for the
pharmaceutical field. New drugs can be tested on stem
cells to assess their safety before testing drugs on
animal and human models. For example, a cancer cell
line could be created to test an anti-tumor drug. If the
conditions can be perfectly replicated, testing drugs
could provide very accurate results.
Personal Opinion
• 1. Health risks from mutation of genes
- An abnormal baby would be a nightmare come true. The
technique is extremely risky right now. A particular worry is the
possibility that the genetic material used from the adult will
continue to age so that the genes in a newborn baby clone could be
- say - 30 years old or more on the day of birth. Many attempts at
animal cloning produced disfigured monsters with severe
abnormalities. So that would mean creating cloned embryos,
implanting them and destroying (presumably) those that look
imperfect as they grow in the womb. However some abnormalities
may not appear till after birth. A cloned cow recently died several
weeks after birth with a huge abnormality of blood cell production.
Dolly the Sheep died prematurely of severe lung disease in
February 2003, and also suffered from arthritis at an unexpectedly
early age - probably linked to the cloning process.
Personal Opinion
•
•
•
2. Emotional risks
A child grows up knowing her mother is her sister, her grandmother is her mother.
Her father is her brother-in-law. Every time her mother looks at her, she is seeing
herself growing up. Unbearable emotional pressures on a teenager trying to
establish his or her identity. What happens to a marriage when the "father" sees
his wife's clone grow up into the exact replica (by appearance) of the beautiful 18
year old he fell in love with 35 years ago? A sexual relationship would of course be
with his wife's twin, no incest involved technically.
Or maybe the child knows it is the twin of a dead brother or sister. What kind of
pressures will he or she feel, knowing they were made as a direct replacement for
another? It is a human experiment doomed to failure because the child will NOT
be identical in every way, despite the hopes of the parents. One huge reason will
be that the child will be brought up in a highly abnormal household: one where
grief has been diverted into making a clone instead of adjusting to loss. The family
environment will be totally different than that the other twin experienced. That
itself will place great pressures on the emotional development of the child. You
will not find a child psychiatrist in the world who could possibly say that there will
not be very significant emotional risk to the cloned child as a result of these
pressures.
Personal Opinion
•
•
•
2. Emotional risks
A child grows up knowing her mother is her sister, her grandmother is her mother.
Her father is her brother-in-law. Every time her mother looks at her, she is seeing
herself growing up. Unbearable emotional pressures on a teenager trying to
establish his or her identity. What happens to a marriage when the "father" sees
his wife's clone grow up into the exact replica (by appearance) of the beautiful 18
year old he fell in love with 35 years ago? A sexual relationship would of course be
with his wife's twin, no incest involved technically.
Or maybe the child knows it is the twin of a dead brother or sister. What kind of
pressures will he or she feel, knowing they were made as a direct replacement for
another? It is a human experiment doomed to failure because the child will NOT
be identical in every way, despite the hopes of the parents. One huge reason will
be that the child will be brought up in a highly abnormal household: one where
grief has been diverted into making a clone instead of adjusting to loss. The family
environment will be totally different than that the other twin experienced. That
itself will place great pressures on the emotional development of the child. You
will not find a child psychiatrist in the world who could possibly say that there will
not be very significant emotional risk to the cloned child as a result of these
pressures.
Citations
• http://www.globalchange.com/noclones.htm
• http://www.explorestemcells.co.uk/benefitsofste
mcells.html
• http://www.americancatholic.org/NEWS/StemCe
ll/ask_stemcell.asp
• http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Ma
r1998/Feature2.asp
• http://www.ukscf.org/research/history.html
• https://bsp.med.harvard.edu/?q=node/18