LEGAL ISSUES OF HUMAN
CLONING AND
THERAPUTIC CLONING
WORLDWIDE CLONING
RESEARCH LEGSLATION
Country
Human Therapeutic Create/Use of
cloning Cloning
embryo
Germany Illegal Illegal
Illegal
UK
Illegal
Legal
Supernumerary OK
Japan
Illegal
Legal
Legal
Canada
Illegal
Legal
Sterility only
US
Illegal
Legal
China
Illegal
Legal
Private company
only
Therapeutic
CLONING ANIMALS
• A costly and lengthy approach
– Dolly: 1 out of 276 attempts
– Mouse: 100 blastocysts transferred to wombs, seventyone were able to take, from which between five and
sixteen fetuses developed, and eventually two or three
live mice were born
• Only private funded research with creation of
embryo is allowed in States
PRIVATIZED CLONING
RESEARCH
• Research carried out in commercial labs is not as accessible and
amenable to being judged and criticized by other scientists.
• High demand of human ova can result in uncontrollable coercion
or exploitation of ova donors
• The absence of transparency and scrutiny not only hinders
scientific advance but also can make the public, and lawmakers,
nervous.
• Legislation of identity, rights and status of clones must be
established before any human cloning research is permitted
CLONE IDENTITY
• The most accurate human identity diagnosis will
fail (e.g. DNA profile, fingerprints)
• Difficulties of enforcing laws:
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Criminal identity
Inherited properties between donor and clone
Kinship of offsprings
Relatives approval immigration, etc.
TREATING CLONES AS
NORMAL INDIVIDUALS
• Will citizenship granted for clones?
• Clones carried with mutations from donors
– Should our current health care system support a
multiplying clone population with inherited diseases?
– Will handicapped clones receive public support by
providing with extra privileges?
TREATING CLONES AS
“SUB-HUMANS”
• How can we treat sub-humans?
• Will we have right to destroy clones at certain
physical state and age to save medical care?
• Will the discrimination of legislation between
human and clone become slavery?
• What if clones have significant support of the
society?
ANTI-CLONING
Ethics
Threat to a person's individuality
and uniqueness
• Genetically identical
with another person
• Feel that they are a
less unique individual
than other people
• Because they
genetically identical,
they will have almost
everything in common
with their genetic
parent
It's too risky
• At present, it is
experimental and
unpredictable
• Carries a high risk of
abnormality in the
resulting child
• Put both the cell donor
and the birth mother at
risk
• High failure rate
Eugenics – Start of a Brave New
World
• Encourages selective
breeding
• Discriminate against
people
• Genocide is an
extreme form of
eugenics
• Could be used to
produce an superior
master race and
underclass of slaves
It involves murdering embryos
• Cloning inevitably involves
throwing away some fertilized
embryos, and at the current
stage of development many of
the embryos selected to live
fail to develop and eventually
die before birth
Cloning reduces human beings to
manufactured products
• The way a person comes into being affects their
value - or their dignity
• People should be made by an act of love between
their parents, not by a laboratory process
• Supposing a particular embryo turns out to be very
good - someone could patent its genes and use it to
manufacture lots of similar clones for profit. That
would degrade people
Problems of power
• Invokes a degree of power and control over
the physical identity of other persons
Take-home Message
Issues In Cloning:
Loss of Biodiversity
What is Biodiversity
• Three types of Biodiversity
– habitat diversity, genetic
diversity, and species diversity
• Of these Genetic Diversity is at
risk through Cloning
• Why is Genetic Diversity So
Important?
– Conveys the small differences
between members of a species
that promote the survival and
continued improvement of the
species as a whole
– Darwinian Evolution
Genetic Biodiversity
• Why should humans worry about
diversity?
– Many traits are being linked to
genetics which were previously
though to be unrelated including
anger, intelligence and obesity.
–Diversity allows our species to flourish
•Exceptional individuals such as
Einstein DeVinci have greatly molded
the advancement of human society.
–Genetic Diversity is essential to disease
resistance (survival of the species)
•AIDS, Plague (CCR5)
Examples of Diversity
Problems
• The problems caused by a loss in genetic
biodiversity are real.
•Bananas
–Worldwide crops are threatened by a
fungal pathogen
–This is dues to the clonal nature in which
banana crops grow
•Cloned Trees
–Some trees are more resistant than others to certain
diseases. Forest companies have to ensure that a wide
enough variety of clones is used to repopulate a forest to
prevent potential disaster
Other Genetic Diversity
Problems
• Other genetic problems could
arise in a clonal society, similar to
those observed in inbreeding
• Clones of clones could pick up
mutations through each passage.
– Mutations in haplosufficient
genes
– Mutations in haploinsufficient
genes
REPRODUCTIVE
CLONING
METHOD
SOMATIC CELL NUCLEAR TRANSFER
PARTHENOGENESIS
INSTABILITY AND UNPREDICTABILITY
•DNA TRANSFERRED IS ALREADY
DIFFERENTIATED
•DIFFERENTIATED SOMATIC CELLS
FORMATTED DIFFERENTLY FROM
GERM CELLS
•DIFFERENTIATED DNA MUST BE
REPROGRAMMED TO ALLOW
EMBRYOGENESIS
•BUT HOW??
NUCLEAR REPROGRAMMING
•REQUIRES REMOVAL OF EPIGENIC MODIFICATIONS
IMPOSED ON DIFFERENTIATED CHROMATIN
•OOCYTE CAN REVERSE THESE ALTERATIONS TO A
STATE OF “TOTIPOTENCY”
•HOW THIS IS DONE IS CURRENTLY UNKNOWN
•HOW EFFICIENT IS THIS??
FOR EVERY ANIMAL CLONED, HUNDREDS FAIL!!
MORE ON EFFICACY:
•MANY FAILURES AND DEFECTS
•NO DEFINED ASPECTS OF FAULTY DEVELOPMENT
•RATHER, CLONING PROCESS CREATES RANDOM
ERRORS IN INDIVIDUAL GENE EXPRESSION
•MAY PRODUCE A MANY NUMBER OF UNPREDICTIBLE
PROBLEMS
•DOES NOT INVOLVE CHROMOSOMAL ABERRATION
•DEFECTS CANNOT BE DETECTED BEFORE BIRTH
THE TELOMERE PROBLEM
•AGE OF A EUKARYOTE RELATED TO LENGTH OF ITS
TELOMERES
•TELOMERES RELATED TO CHROMOSOMAL INTEGRITY
•TELOMERE LENGTH OF SOMATIC CELLS MUCH
SHORTER THAN GERM CELLS
•FOR SUCCESSFUL CLONING, ONE MUST TURN BACK THE
CLOCK!!
REJUVINATION
•THE ENZYME RESPONSIBLE FOR EXTENDING THE
TELOMERES IS “TELOMERASE”
•THIS ENZYME IS NOT NORMALLY PRESENT IN
SOMATIC
CELLS, BUT SOME HAVE SHOWN ITS ACTIVITY IN
CLONED EMBRYONIC CELLS
•THIS MAY SUGGEST THAT THE OOCYTE CAN TURN
BACK THE CLOCK
HOWEVER!!
NEW EVIDENCE SUGGESTS SENESCENCE OF
DONOR CELLS IS NOT RESTORED
•14 CATTLE CLONED USING DONOR CELLS FROM MUSCLE,
OVIDUCT, MAMMARY, AND EAR SKIN
•SHOW REMARKABLE VARIATION IN TELOMERE LENGHTS
•SOME MUCH LONGER OR MUCH SHORTER THAN DONOR
•SUGGESTS THAT CLONING DOES NOT NECESSARILY
RESTORE TELOMERE CLOCK
•NUCLEAR TRANSFER ITSELF ITSELF MAY COMMONLY
TRIGGER AN ELONGATION OF TELOMERES, MORE OR LESS
ACCORDING TO DONOR TYPE
•Myashita et. Al: Biol Reprod 2002 Jun;66(6):1649-55
GENETIC DEFECTS:
•DOLLY-SHORTENED TELOMERES
•HEART DEFECTS IN PIGS
•OBESITY IN CLONED MICE
•GIGANTISM IN CLONED SHEEP AND CATTLE
•PLACENTA OF 4X NORMAL SIZE IN MICE
•DEVELOPMENTAL DIFFICULTIES IN , LUNG PROBLEMS,
AND MALFUNCTIONING IMMUNE SYSTEMS IN CLONED
COWS, SHEEP AND PIGS
EVIDENCE THUS FAR:
•CLONING IS STILL POORLY UNDERSTOOD
•CLONING IS FAR TOO INEFFICIENT
•GIVEN THESE FACTORS, IT WOULD BE DANGEROUS AND
IRRESPONSIBLE TO ATTEMPT TO CLONE HUMAN BEINGS
•CLONING OF ANIMALS SHOULD NOT CONTINUE GIVEN
THE ABNORMALITIES THAT RENDER THESE PRACTICES
UNETHICAL
MISCONCEPTIONS BORDERING ON IDIOCY
•CLONED INDIVIDUALS DO NOT IN FACT APPEAR
ADULT SIZE FROM TANKS FILLED WITH EMBRYONIC
FLUID
•CLONED INDIVIDUALS WILL NOT HAVE ALL THE
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DONOR:
ALTHOUGH THE TWO WILL BE GENETICALLY
EQUIVALENT (GIVEN NO SEVERE ABNORMAITIES)
PERSONALITY AND CHARACTER DEVELOP IN
CONTEXT OF EXPERIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT
Why Clone ?
Organ Harvesting
• The ability to create individuals with nearidentical genetics would allow for easier
organ transplantation
• This is fraught with perils as killing someone
is illegal and organ removal greatly weakens
the donor
• Cloning is horribly inefficient as it is quite
difficult to even create a clone let alone
waiting for one to develop to an appropriate
age for adult organ transplantation
Embryonic vs. Adult Stem
Cells
• Only embryonically harvested stem cells are
created through cloning
• The conversion of adult cells into cells with
stem cell like features does not require
cloning
• All that is required to create adult stem cells is
extraction of cells and treatment with media to
stimulate differentiated cells to undifferentiate
and adopt a stem cell like phenotype
Disease Treatment
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Brain tumours
Ovarian cancer
Solid tumours
Multiple myeloma
Breast cancer
Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
Multiple sclerosis
Systemic lupus
Rheumatoid arthritis
Anaemia
Stroke
Immuno-deficiency.
Therapeutic Cloning
• At this time there are no practical roles for
cloning in therapeutics
• Organ harvesting is unethical and suffers
from both inefficiency and a long gestation
period
• Stem cell transplantation while a viable
therapy has been shown to be effective using
adult stem cells removing the need to use
cloning to produce embryonic stem cells
Where have all the bananas
gone?
• The banana, discovered in South East
Asia 10,000 years ago, faces extinction
due to parasites that resist drugs.
• Bananas can only reproduce clonally
making it difficult to breed new,
improved varieties and therefore
impossible for them to adapt to drug
resistant pathogens
Don’t let this happen to us