HUMAN CLONING
Helena Pereira de Melo
Helena.melo@fd.unl.pt
March 2014
1
RICHARD DAWKINS:
2
RICHARD DAWKINS:
“My feeling is founded on pure curiosity. I know
how I turned out, having been born in the
1940’s, schooled in the 1950’s, come of age in
the 1960’s, and so on. I find it a personally
riveting thought that I could watch a small copy
of myself, 50 years younger, nurtured through
the early decades of the 21st century. Mightn’t it
feel almost like turning back your personal clock
50 years?”.
3
“If,
one of these days, someone
asks a physician to have his
clone born, before or after his
own death, how can we not
fulfill his desire?”
4
Death is overwhelmed by:
• Sexual reproduction –
genetic
information
is
inherited
by
each
generation, but biodiversity is assured;
• Asexual reproduction – the creation of a
new life from a single parent – the same
individual genome is transmitted to
offspring, until the end of times.
5
Is
this
kind
of
immortality
acceptable from a
legal point of view?
7
What is cloning?
Which
are
applications
cloning?
the
of
8
Cloning: producing genetically
identical
individuals
(cells,
tissues, animals, plants…) by a
form of asexual reproduction.
9
10
Ways to produce
identical animals:
genetically
a) Embryo splitting;
b) Nuclear transfer.
11
12
Embryo splitting:
a) physically separating the cluster of cells
derived from a single fertilized egg into 2
or more parts;
b) it occurs spontaneously in our species, to
produce “identical” twins;
c) it supposes a mother and a father;
d) you can only obtain 4 genetically identical
individuals.
13
14
Nuclear transfer:
a) never occurs spontaneously in mammals;
b) produces thousands of copies of genetically
identical individuals;
c) the nucleus of an unfertilized egg is removed,
and replaced by a nucleus of a somatic cell,
and this reconstructed egg is stimulated to start
developing as an embryo;
d) can be done with the genetic material of 1
individual.
15
16
The history of cloning:
a) Embryo splitting;
b) Nuclear transfer.
17
a) Embryo splitting:
a) monozygotic twins have always existed;
b) artificially done in the last 50 years with
frogs, rabbits, sheep, cows and human
embryos;
c) in 1993, JERRY HALL and ROBERT
STILLMAN of George Washington
University, splitted 17 nonviable human
embryos in 48 embryos, some of which
survived in vitro 6 days.
18
19
b) Nuclear transfer cloning:
a) commonplace in the plant breeding
world;
b) in the animal breeding world –
preformed in frogs, sheep, mice, cows
and monkeys;
c) Megan and Morag, Welsh Mountain
sheep were born in 1996 at Roslin
Institute – the first clones from
differentied embryo cells.
20
Megan and Morag:
21
1996 – Dolly is born:
• cloned from the mammary cells of an
adult female;
• Scottish;
• had no father;
• was a twin sister of her biological
mother;
• mother of a lamb, named Bobby.
22
23
24
She had 3 mothers:
a) the ewe which gave the somatic cell;
b) the ewe which gave the enucleated egg;
c) a
surrogate
mother
(a
Scottish
Blackface).
Dolly was the first mammal to be
cloned from an adult cell, since
she was genetically identical to
the donor ewe.
25
1996 - 2014:
a) Meng and Wolf clone monkeys from
embryonic cell nuclei;
b) Wakayama clones mice from adult cell
nuclei;
c) Wells clones cows from adult cell nuclei;
d) Severino
Antinori
proposes
to
reproductively clone humans.
When shall humans be cloned?
26
Dr. Antinori and Dr Panos Zavos:
27
Prof. Grahame Bulfield
Human cloning:
• technically possible – “in
principle, what we can do with
one mammal we can do with
another”;
• “the only barrier to cloning is
the political and ethical
barrier”.
29
Is human cloning ethically
and legally acceptable?
Dolly’s cloning lead to
the
discussion
of
human cloning.
30
We have to consider:
Non-human
animal cloning;
b) Human cloning.
a)
31
a) Non-human animal cloning:
a) is useful for the treatment of human
diseases;
b) allows the serial production of
genetically engineered animals that can
be used as animal “donors” for
xenotransplantation;
c) allows to expand the n.º of chosen
livestock, so that we can have more and
better food.
33
Ex.:
a) Polly, a transgenic sheep that has a
human gene in every cell of her
body, and produces proteins that
can be used as medicine in her
milk;
b) Pigs are genetically engineered in
order to became source animals for
xenografts.
34
Polly, the sheep:
35
Questions:
• How many human genes must a lamb or a
pig have in order to be a juridical person?
• Which are the risks of the disappearance
of the barriers among species?
• Which are the consequences of cloning in
biodiversity? – all clones shall be affected
by the same infections that may kill them
all.
36
Chimera:
37
Animal cloning is not forbidden:
• it is very important for
medical progress;
• if the legal principals that
rule animal research are
respected
and
animal
welfare preserved.
38
39
Why should we clone
sheep if they are so
similar to each other?
40
41
Why should we clone human
beings if they are so similar to
each other, the sheep would
ask.
Why should we clone or not
clone human beings?
42
For cloning:
a) it is important for medical
research, allowing a better
understanding
of
human
development;
b) therapeutic cloning is useful for
the treatment of diseases like
cancer and Parkinson.
43
Reproductive cloning:
a) embryo splitting raises the n.º of embryos
available for womb implantation, and so it
will not be necessary to repeat in case of
failure, medical treatment in infertile
women;
b) allows us to perform pre-implantation
diagnosis in one embryo and to implant
the other if the first embryo is healthy;
c) allows us to have identical twins that are
born in different years.
44
It allows:
d) a grown up person to have an identical
twin that he should rise as if it were his
own child;
e) a couple with a genetic disease to have a
child only with the genome of the healthy
member;
f) the enlargement of the reproductive
options available for humans;
45
g) the resurrection of the dead,
cloning them from cells that
were kept in laboratories.
h) to settle the old-age naturenurture dispute by creating
clones and raising them
systematically in different
environments.
46
To produce:
i)
embryos for allotransplantion in
case we needed an organ;
j) embryos to replace a child in case
she/he dies;
k) hundreds of copies of genetically
superior persons;
l) clones to give or to sell multiples of
chosen human beings.
47
The clone would be “unique” since:
a) identical twins have different
personalities;
b) the genome determinates only a
part of human identity, being also
important factors as the place and
time of birth, the culture where one
lives and the family to which one
belongs.
50
c) if clone and cloned had a very large
age difference they might not even
recognize each other;
d) it is better for the child to be born as
a clone than not being born at all;
e) as we got used to single mothers
and fathers we shall get used to
families with clones.
52
On the other side of the
mirror:
54
Cloning is ethically unacceptable:
a) it violates the respect for the dignity of the
human being;
b) embryo splitting reduces the size of each
embryo and might damage it;
c) nothing is known about the health or
disease of cloned people;
d) a manufacturing error might affect several
generations of clones and have
unforeseen consequences.
55
e) it reduces biodiversity;
f) it represents one more step in the
progressive dissociation between
sexuality and reproduction;
g) the serial production of human
beings violates the quality that each
human being has of being unique
and irreplaceable.
56
The deliberate creation of the
clone:
a) he is treated as an object, chosen
accordingly to the tastes of the
person who ordered him, as a car
or a boat are chosen;
b) allows the production of human
beings with a pre-determined
genome, as aimed by the
proponents of eugenics.
57
58
c) the production of a child for egoistic
proposes – Jacques Testard: “je préfère
l’enfant que serait issu de moi seul à
celui procrée avec un partenaire; ou,
pour le dire moins durement: ce que
j’aime dans mon enfant, c’est moi”;
d) the person would be less respected
because she could be easily replaced;
59
e) the distinction between human beings of
“1st class” and of “2nd class” since a
copy is less valuable than the original;
f) the violation of the dignity of the clone,
who has been produced as a copy;
g) the offense of the futures generations
rights, since they have not consented in
being born as clones;
60
g) the
weakening
of
social
relations, in particular of family
relations;
h) the commercial use of cloning,
with catalogues that have a list
of human beings available for
cloning, with a different price for
different features.
61
62
The clone would:
• feel he was manufactured;
• be reared up to act as the copied
person;
• be regarded as an object.
63
What are the legal
national
and
international rules for
human reproductive
cloning?
64
65
UNESCO:
Universal Declaration on the
Human Genome and Human
Rights of 11 November 1997:
“Practices which are contrary to
human
dignity,
such
as
reproductive cloning of human
beings, shall not be permitted”.
66
WHO:
Resolution adopted in 14 May
1997, on the 50th World Health
Assembly: “the use of cloning for
the
replication
of
human
individuals
is
ethically
unacceptable and contrary to
human integrity and morality”.
67
UN’s Declaration
Cloning:
on
Human
• General Assembly’s Resolution of
8 March 2005;
• invites Member States to forbid all
kinds of human cloning that are
“incompatible with human dignity
and the protection of human life”.
68
69
Council of Europe:
a) Recommendation 1046 (1986) on the use
of human embryos and foetuses for
diagnostic,
therapeutic,
scientific,
industrial and commercial purposes;
b) Principles on human artificial procreation
(1989);
c) Additional protocol to the CHRB, on the
prohibition of cloning human beings
(1998).
70
Recommendation 1046.º and
the Principles:
Call on the governments of
the member states to forbid
“the creation of identical
human beings by cloning or
any other method, whether for
race selection purposes or
not”.
71
Additional protocol to CHRB:
Art.
1.º
prohibits
“any
intervention seeking to create
a human being genetically
identical to another human
being, whether living or dead”,
meaning “genetically identical”
the fact that they share “the
same nuclear gene set”.
72
73
European Union:
a) European Parliament;
b) European Commission;
c) European Council of
Amsterdam.
74
a) European Parliament:
a) Resolution on the Ethical and Legal
Problems of Genetic Engineering (1989)
– “criminal penalties are the only
possible reaction against human
cloning”;
b) Resolution on Cloning (1997) – “call
each Member State to enact binding
legislation prohibiting all research into
any kind of human cloning within its
territory”.
75
c) Resolution on artificial insemination
“in vivo” and “in vitro” of 16 March
1989;
d) Resolution of 28 October 1993 on
the cloning of the human embryo;
e) Resolution of January 1998 on
human cloning;
f) Resolution of 7 September 2000 on
human cloning.
76
Directive 98/44/EC of the European
Parliament and of the Council:
• of 6 July 1998 on the legal protection
of biotechnological inventions;
• art. 6.º - the processes for cloning
human
beings
are
considered
unpatentable since their commercial
exploitation would be “contrary to
ordre public or morality”.
77
b) European Commission:
• JACQUES SANTER – requests in February
1997 an opinion to the Group of Advisers on the
Ethical Implications of Biotechnology to the
European Commission;
• Opinion issued in May 1997 – considerations of
instrumentalization and eugenics render any
attempt to produce a human individual by
nuclear transfer unacceptable.
78
c) The European
Amsterdam:
Council
of
• 16 and 17 June 1997;
• Declaration on the banning of
human cloning – “all Member
States wish to adopt the
measures that are necessary to
prohibit human cloning”.
79
Charter of Fundamental Rights
of the European Union:
• proclaimed in December
2000;
• art. 3.º - prohibits the
reproductive
cloning
of
human beings.
80
81
Portugal:
a) National Council of Ethics for the
Life Sciences;
b) Constitutional Law n.º 1/97, of 20
September – approved the 4th
alteration
to
the
Portuguese
Constitution of 1976;
c) Lei n.º 32/2006, de 26 de Julho
sobre Procriação Medicamente
Assistida.
82
a) National Council of Ethics for the
Life Sciences:
“Human
cloning for reproductive
purposes should be prohibited
because it constitutes a violation
of human dignity” (Opinion n.º
48/CNECV/06).
83
b) Constitutional Law N.º 1/97:
alters art. 26.º - “The law shall
guarantee the personal dignity
and genetic identity of the human
person,
particularly
in
the
creation, development and use of
technologies and in scientific
experimentation”.
84
c) Law n.º 235/2006:
• art. 7.º - prohibits human
reproductive cloning that aims at
creating
genetically
identical
human beings;
• art. 36.º - punishes it with
imprisonment from 1 to 5 years.
85
Resolution
of
the
National
Parliament n.º 1/2001, of 3 January:
ratifies CE’s additional protocol to the
CHRB with regard to the application
of Biology and Medicine, on the
prohibition of cloning human beings.
86
87
Spain:
a) Ley 14/2006, de 28 de mayo, sobre
técnicas de reproducción humana
asistida – “reproductive cloning by
nuclear transfer is a very serious
infraction” (art. 26);
b) Penal Code – punishes “the creation of
identical human beings by cloning or
other methods that aim at racial selection”
(art. 161, n.º 2).
88
89
Belgium:
• Loi relative à la recherche sur les
embryons in vitro du 11 mai 2003;
• prohibits human reproductive cloning
(art. 6);
• the breach of the law is punished with
imprisonment (5 years) and or fine
(10 000 Euros).
90
91
Italy:
• Legge 19 febbraio 2004, norme in
materia
di
procreazione
medicalmente assistita;
• art. 13.º - human reproductive
cloning is prohibited and punished
with fine and imprisonment.
92
93
France:
a) Loi n.º 2004-800 du 6 août
2004 relative à la bioéthique;
b) Opinion of the Comité
Consultatif
National
D’Éthique pour les Sciences
de la Vie et de la Santé.
94
Loi n.º 2004-800:
• art. 16-4 of Code civil – “any intervention
that aims at creating an human being
genetically identical to another human
being alive or dead is prohibited”;
• art. 214-2 of Code pénale – the breach of
the law is punished with prison (30 years)
and a fine (75 00000 Euros);
• art. L. 611-18 of Code de la propriété
intelectuelle - the processes for cloning
human beings are unpatentable.
95
CCNE:
“Such
a practice, which imperils
radically the autonomy and dignity
of the human person, would be a
grave moral regression in the
history of civilisation. (…) it should
be legally qualified with a view to
an universal ban.”
96
97
United Kingdom:
• Human Reproductive Cloning Act 2001;
• a “person who places in a woman a
human embryo which has been created
otherwise than by fertilisation is guilty of
an offence” and is “liable on conviction on
indictment to imprisonment for a term not
exceeding 10 years or a fine or both”.
98
Human
Fertilisation
Embryology Authority:
and
• keeps under review information
about embryos and authorises
embryo research;
• authorised in 2004, replacing a
nucleus of an embryo’s cell with a
nucleus taken from another cell.
99
100
Germany:
Law on Embryo Protection
(Embryonenschutzgesetz) of
December 1990 – “any
intervention seeking to create
a human being genetically
identical to another human
being, whether living or dead,
is prohibited”.
101
102
Greece:
• Law n.º 3089 on medically
assisted human reproduction;
• prohibits in article 1455 of the
Civil
Code
“human
reproduction with the methods
of cloning”.
103
104
Switzerland:
• Loi fédérale relative à la recherche sur les
cellules souches embryonnaires, du 19
décembre 2003;
• prohibits the creation of a clone (art. 3);
• the processes for cloning human
beings and the human clones are
unpatentable since their commercial
exploitation would be contrary to
ordre public or morality.
105
106
Australia:
• Prohibition of Human Cloning for
Reproduction Act 2002;
• prohibits the placing of a human
embryo clone in the human body or
the body of an animal;
• maximum penalty: imprisonment for
15 years.
107
108
Japan:
• Law Concerning Regulation Relating
to Human Cloning Techniques and
Other Similar Techniques (2000);
• art. 3 – “No person shall transfer a
human somatic clone embryo (…)
into a uterus of a human or an
animal”.
109
110
Israel:
• prohibition of Genetic Intervention
(Human
Cloning
and
Genetic
Manipulation of Reproductive Cell)
Law n.º 5759-1999;
• a person who performs human
reproductive cloning shall be liable to
4 years of imprisonment or a fine.
111
112
Peru:
• Penal Code of April 1991;
• art.
324
–
human
reproductive
cloning
is
punished with 8 years of
imprisonment.
113
114
Brasil:
• Lei n.º 11.105, de 24 de Março
de 2005;
• art. 26.º - punishes with
imprisonment (maximum 5
years) the realization of human
cloning.
115
116
Argentina:
• Decreto 200/97 – Prohíbense los Experimentos de
Clonación
Relacionados
con Seres Humanos
• art. 1 – forbids human
cloning.
117
118
Bill Clinton (1946):
119
BILL CLINTON
• human reproductive cloning raises serious
ethical questions;
• “each human life is unique, born from a
miracle”, and so we must resist the
temptation of producing clones – “we’re in
the business where people are trying to
play God”;
• asked an opinion to the National Bioethics
Advisory Commission.
120
National
Bioethics
Advisory
Commission (June 1997):
“it is morally unacceptable to
attempt to create a child through
nuclear transplantation cloning,
since
available
scientific
information shows that this
technique does not offer the
indispensable safety conditions to
be used in human beings”.
121
Human Cloning Prohibition Act of
2001:
• enacted by the Senate on 26 April
2001;
• any person who performs or
attempts to perform human
cloning shall be fined or
imprisoned not more than 10
years.
122
What is the position of
the several religions on
reproductive human
cloning?
123
124
Catholic Church:
a) Instruction on the Respect
for Human Life in its Origin
and on the Dignity of
Procreation (1987);
b) Osservatore Romano (27
February 1997).
125
a) Instruction on the Respect for
Human Life:
“attempts for obtaining a human being
without any connection with sexuality
through cloning are to be considered
contrary to the moral law, since they
are in opposition to the dignity both of
human procreation and of the
conjugal union”.
126
b) Osservatore Romano:
“the human being has the right
to be born in a human way
and not in a laboratory. It is
ethically desirable that the
national governments adopt
laws that forbid the cloning of
human beings”.
127
128
Buddhism:
“What did Dolly do in a
previous
life
that
determined that she was
cloned?” (Donald Lopez)
129
130
The Muslim Church:
Cloning is ethically acceptable
since it represents a progress
in the better knowledge of
nature by man.
131
In EU almost everyone
agrees
that
human
reproductive
cloning
is
unacceptable from an ethical
and legal point of view.
132
And if it becomes real?
Shall
it
alter
our
understanding of what
being “human” means?
133
The concept of “person”:
• Boethium (480 -525);
• Thomas Aquinas –(1225 - 1274);
• Emmanuel Mounier (1905 –
1950).
134
“persona est rationalis naturae
individua substantia”
135
“what exists in itself and by itself and
does not communicate to another”
136
“a person is what can not be
repeated twice”.
137
We may have to rethink what
“person” means since:
a) a human being could be easily
replaced from a genetic point of
view;
b) from a creature created to the
image of God – to a free and
unique being – to a simple
genetic code.
138
Cloning would affect our
concept of humanity.
Would it affect the
respect due to the
human being as an
end in itself?
139
The personal dignity of the human
being:
• “Act with reference to every
rational human being (whether
yourself or another) so that it is an
end in itself and never as a mere
means” (Kant);
• basic value of European Human
Rights Law.
140
• CFREU: “Human dignity is
inviolable. It must be respected
and protected” (art. 1).
• CHRB: “Parties to this Convention
shall protect the dignity and
identity of all human beings (…)”
(art. 1).
141
Cloning violates human dignity:
• aims at producing a child whose
production is similar to the
production of a boat, a car, a
house…
• the child is not an end in herself
but a means to have a child with
certain genetic features.
142
It offends the:
a) right of every human being to be unique;
b) right to inherit a genetic patrimony that
has not been artificially altered;
c) principle of the primacy of the human
being – “the interests and welfare of the
human being shall prevail over the sole
interest of society or science” (art. 2
CHRB).
143
After being born what
would be the juridical
status of a clone in
Europe?
144
As any other child born in
Europe the clone would be:
• a juridical person from birth to
death;
• an European citizen that would
be “a younger twin” of other
European citizen.
145
Legal problems:
Family Law
146
For instance in Portugal, Spain,
France:
• A, a woman, decides to give birth to a
clone of B, her deceased father;
• A is the clone’s mother – maternity is
a consequence of birth.
Who is the father?
147
If A is:
• Married – under common law,
a child born to the wife during
a
marriage
is
usually
presumed to be the husband’s
child;
• Single – the clone is a child
born out wedlock.
148
In this case it is not possible to:
a) legally acknowledge paternity
since it is only possible if it is
ulterior to fertilization and B died
before the clone was produced;
b) ask the court to determine
paternity since A is the father of
B – incestuous relationship.
149
A is a man that wants to
produce a clone of himself to
raise up as a son. He asks B
(a woman) to give birth to the
clone.
Who are
parents?
the
clone’s
150
The mother is B.
The father is:
-B’s husband if she is
married to another man;
-A if B indicates at birth that
the child is his;
-A’s father, since the clone
is an identical twin of A?
151
The clone according to these
European legal systems might
not have a father.
Is the father his greatgrand father?
Is the clone a brother of his
father?
152
The clone:
• is a twin of a different generation of
someone alive or dead;
• his
existence
would
have
consequences in the juridical concept
of parental relationship as a bond
established between 2 individuals
since one descends from the other or
they both descend from the same
person.
153
From the questions raised by
cloning:
a) The updating of legal rules;
b) To know if clone and cloned are
genetically identical;
c) Which is more important –
nature or nurture?
154
155
The most important:
The decision to build a
society in which a child is
built
by
asexual
reproduction – as foreseen
in Greek Mythology where
Baco was born from
Jupiter’s leg.
156
157
After:
• twins being born separately,
sometimes
with
years
of
difference;
• children being produced to donate
tissues in order to heal a sick
brother,
Isn’t cloning only one step ahead?
158
What is doubtful is:
• not that the clone after birth will
be a legal person;
• not that he shall have his human
dignity fully respected;
• the way he was designed by
Genetics from one single somatic
cell.
159
Jacques Testard:
160
Paris: Éditions Odile
Jacob, 1998
161
François Roussel:
• is a geneticist that knows how to clone
human beings;
• considers that the most important thing in
his life is the love he has for his wife,
Pauline;
• decides to produce a clone of himself and
a clone of Pauline to turn their love
eternal;
• places Pauline’s clone in Pauline and his
clone in the concierge of the building who
162
was unfertile.
The clones are born and become
adults:
• François dies;
• his clone, Robert, falls in love with
his wife, Pauline, and has two
children with her;
• Pauline’s clone, Eve, falls in love
with a job partner, Bertrand…
163
J. L . Borges:
“to give advice or to discuss
was not useful, since his
unavoidable destiny was to
became
what
he
has
became”.
164