Ethical Issues on Animal and
Human cloning
Prof. P.C. Shaw (邵鵬柱教授)
Department of Biochemistry, CUHK
Hong Kong Bioethics Association
November 2009
複
製
人
?
History of cloning
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1952
1953
Northern leopard frogs cloned.
Structure of DNA discovered.
History of cloning
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1978 Louise, the first child
conceived through in vitro fertilization,
was born.
1993 Human embryos were first
cloned (artificial embryo twinning)
July 5, 1996 Dolly was born.
Photo from: www.cnn.com
Dolly – the first mammal
cloned using mature cell
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Dolly the Lamb in
1996
Method: Nuclear
transfer
Organization:
Roslin Institute at
UK and PPL
Therapeutics
Photo from Ming Pao 18th August 2002
Example of cloning
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Cumulina the
Mouse in 1998
Organization:
University of
Hawaii
Photo from Ming Pao 28th December 2002
Example of cloning
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Cattle in 1998
Organization:
Kinki University
at Japan
Photo from Ming Pao 28th December 2002
Example of cloning
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Mille, Christa, Alexis,
Carrel and Dotcom
the Pigs in 2000
Organization: PPL
Therapeutics of UK
Photo from Ming Pao 28th December 2002
Example of cloning
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Carbon Copy
the Cat in 2002
Organization:
Texas A & M
University, USA
Photo from Ming Pao 23th January 2003
Example of cloning
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Generation of
Prometea, 2003
Organization: A
research laboratory
in Italy
Photo from Nature No.6949
Examples of cloning
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Cloning of donkey,
2004, USA
Cloning of dog,
2005, Korea
Cloning of rhesus
monkey, 2007,
Oregon, USA
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20050806/mind/mind3.html
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/july-dec07/stemcells_11-15.html
Two methods of cloning

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Embryo cloning 胚胎複製 - remove a
cell from an embryo for developing into
a separate embryo.
Adult cell cloning 成長細胞複製 replace DNA/nucleus from a cell by
another.
Two methods of cloning

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Embryo cloning 胚胎複製 – do not
know the characteristics of the
offspring.
Adult cell cloning 成長細胞複製 –
characteristics are almost the same as
the nucleus donor.
How to generate Dolly?
Step 1.
Udder (乳腺) cells
were taken from a
donor sheep. Cells
were then cultured
to switch off their
genes and become
dormant.
Photo from www.bootstrike.com, www.nature.com
How to generate Dolly?
Step 2.
Unfertilized egg
cell was taken
from another
sheep. The
nucleus was
removed, leaving
an empty egg.
Photo from www.pbs.org. www.nature.com, www.sciam.com
How to generate Dolly?
Step 3.
The egg cell without
nucleus was fused
with the donor cell
using a pulse of
electricity. A second
pulse started the cell
division.
Photo from www.advancedcell.com. www.nature.com
How to generate Dolly?
Step 4.
After 6 days, the
resulting embryo
was implanted into
another sheep
(surrogate mother
代母).
Photo from www.pbs.org, www.nature.com
How to generate Dolly?
Step 5.
After gestation (妊
娠), the surrogate
mother gave birth
to Dolly which
was identical to
the udder cell
donor.
Photo from www.pbs.org
Advantages of animal cloning

Can produce animal with a desired trait, for
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Protein products, organs
Proliferate endangered animals
Cloning of endangered animal
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Noah the Gaur
(亞洲野牛, an
endangered species)
in 2000
Organization:
Advanced Cell
Technology, USA
Photo from Advanced Cell Technology
(www.advancedcell.com)
Cloning of endangered animal
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Cloning of woolly
Mammoth (長毛象)
Extinct 10,000 years
ago
Is there any intact
cell left?
From Mingpao 8/8/2003
Cloning of transgenic animal
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Cloning of a cow
containing mad
cow disease
resistant gene
In Shangdong,
China
From Mingpao 28/4/2006
Concerns in animal cloning
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Technology complicated
Survival rate of cloned embryos
low
Overweighing of calves at birth
Breeders may want to keep their
animal unique
Breeders may want to create
better offspring
Health of clones
From Ming Pao 27-Mar-2001
• Poor
development
of heart, lung and
immune system
• Might have
genetic disorder
Dolly gave birth to a
female lamb in 1998,
but Dolly later died
of premature aging
in 2003.
Photo from Mingpao
Company for cloning pets
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Genetic Savings & Clone – established in
2000, produced the cloned cat, CC in 2001
Delivered the first commercially cloned cat,
Little Nicky in 2004 for US$50,000
Company closed in 2006
A new company BioArts International was
established for cloning dogs
Commercial pet cloning may not be
a good investment
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Demand not high
Competition from developing countries
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Disregard of the IP issues
Relaxed treatment of animals
The IP holder does not want to defense the IP
rights
Outcome is unpredicted – cloning is not a mature
techniques
Pressure from the society
Cloning Human
Cloning – two kinds
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Reproductive cloning – an embryo
is created and implanted into a
woman’s womb to bring it to term.
Therapeutic cloning – an embryo
is created in order to obtain cells
from it.
Why clone human?

Just an ‘unconventional’ means of
reproduction
 In vitro fertilization
 Surrogate mother
 Adoption
Why clone human?
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Study human development
Produce spare parts
Test for genetic defect
Increase chance of pregnancy
Produce two children at the
same time
Why clone human?
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Preserve traits and talents
Extension of life in unusual
circumstances
 One spouse sterile
 Homosexual marriage
Positive points of
therapeutic cloning
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Cloned embryos provide :
 Brain cells for disorders like Parkinson
(柏金遜) and Alzheimer’s disease (老年
痴呆症)
 Pancreatic islet cells for diabetes (糖尿)
Positive points of
therapeutic cloning

Cloned embryos provide :
 Nerve cells for spinal cord damage
(脊椎受損)
 Blood and bone marrow cells for
blood cell disorder (血液疾病)
The use of stem cells to generate clones
Embryonic stem cells
Adult stem cells
http://dels.nas.edu/bls/stemcells/types-of-stem-cells.shtml
1. Creating an embryo through in
vitro fertilization,
2. culturing ES cells derived
from it to provide a sufficient
population for the tricky task
of inserting genes
3. extracting the nucleus of a
successfully altered cell to
construct a cloned embryo
4. The resulting offspring would
have developed from a cell
derived from an embryo
created with an egg and a
sperm, and "improved" in the
laboratory.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.
org/article.php?id=257
Why not perform
reproductive cloning?
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Eugenic (優生) – to maximize certain traits
intentionally
Reduce genetic diversity
Use as substitute for organ
Clone may have reduced life expectancy
Clone may be abnormal
Why not perform
reproductive cloning?
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Lack of self-identity
 Replaceable
 Dominated by the ‘father’ or
‘mother’
Why not perform
reproductive cloning?

Upset traditional family
relationship
 Twin of the cell donor?
 Relationship with its
brother and sister
 Relationship with spouse
of the cell donor
Human Reproductive Technology Bill
香港人類生殖科技條例 (2000)

Not allow the followings:
 Replace nucleus of
an embryo with
nucleus of another
cell
 Clone an embryo
 Trading of embryo
Human cloning in China
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人类辅助生殖技术与人类精子库相关技
术规范、基本标准和伦理原则 (Oct. 1,
2003) – by Ministry of Health
Prohibits surrogate mother
Prohibits reproductive human cloning
Prohibits donation of embryos
Prohibits trading of eggs
雷爾教派倡導複製人研究。
CLONAID™ was founded in
February 1997, by Raël,
the leader of the Raelian
Movement, an
international religious
organization, which claims
that a human
extraterrestrial race, called
the Elohim, used DNA and
genetic engineering, to
scientifically create all life
Adapted from Clonaid.com on Earth.
Recent Development in Human Cloning
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Clonaid claimed to give birth to ‘Eve’ on
26 December 2002
announced a second birth to a Dutch
lesbian woman early in January 2003 and a
third to a Japanese couple who "cloned
their dead son killed in an accident", plus
two others in late January
Recent Development in Human Cloning
Korean Scientists led by Dr. Woo-suk Hwang
produced cloned human embryos (Science, Feb.
12, 2004) – later found to be fabricated
 American scientist Panayiotis Zavos claimed to
have cloned 14 human embryos and transferred
11 of them into the wombs of four women (April,
2009)
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Recent Development in Human Cloning
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August 2004 - UK granted the first licence for
work toward therapeutic cloning.
Nov. 2004 - Californians passed a $3 billion
measure to create an Institute for Regenerative
Medicine based on embryonic stem cell
research.
Please consider ......
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Would the views of animal and human
cloning differ among people with different
religious believes?
Is embryo a living human?
Since the use of stem cells for therapeutic
cloning is still in experimental stage, would
the use of cells from embryo be acceptable?
How about using the embryos left over
after in vitro fertilization?
Please consider ......
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Is reproductive cloning a violation of
natural birth?
How about the cloning of a beloved one
who dies accidentally?
How about cloning for sterile couples?
Under what circumstances do you want to
make a copy of yourself ?
End