I used to make fun of my father by telling him how easy he had it in medical school compared to me. Back in the day when no one knew anything, and it was thought that there were only three elements, earth, water and fire, school must have been a breeze!While the extent of my joking may have been farfetched, nowadays, science has moved to new frontiers of biology and medicine that were simply unimaginable years ago.
As evidence of this progress, Hwang Woo Suk, and his team of scientists at Seoul National University in South Korea, recently brought the world a step closer to cloning a human being.In an article published in Science, they revealed that they grew human embryos all the way to the blastocyst stage, which is normally about five days after fertilization when the embryo divides into two different cell types, and longer than any cloned human embryo has lasted.Just as significantly, the scientists colonized a batch of those scientifically invaluable and highly controversial embryonic stem cells from the cloned embryos.
The Korean scientists began the experiment with a group of female volunteers who they fed hormones that dramatically increased their egg counts.Over 200 eggs were removed from the women, and the DNA in the eggs was replaced with DNA from the women's own ovaries with the use of electrical impulses.The large number of eggs that were induced from the women allowed the scientists to explore different cloning methods, and they eventually cultured 30 potent blastocysts and harvested stem cells from 20 of them.
Colonizing a batch of embryonic stem cells is significant because it is the first colony of stem cells to derive solely from a single person. This experiment brings scientists closer to using cloned stem cells for therapeutic uses such as repairing injuries to the brain and spine, and healing diseased organs, while lessening the chance of tissue rejection by the immune system.
Making cloned human embryos last until the blastocyst stage of development is quite an achievement since it had only been achieved in certain animals such as sheep and mice previously.The implication of this development is largely that these embryos could become viable offspring, which makes the science-fiction-like possibility of cloning a human much more real.
Although, the goal of this project was not to make human clones or even to facilitate human cloning necessarily.Rather, the Korean scientists were trying to bring forth more advanced medical treatments with the use of improved stem cell therapies.Unfortunately though, this does not close the door on all of the entangling political and ethical discussions that stem cells and cloning have brought forth.Rather, it blows the door wide open again.
Morally, people argue that is wrong to create embryos in a lab just to destroy them for scientific purposes.Even though this experiment had an especially high yield, many embryos were wasted, some of which could have become viable offspring.Many scientists argue that human embryos are naturally destroyed in failed pregnancies, wasted in fertility clinics, and destroyed during abortions, and thus using embryos for scientific experiments should not be slandered.
Politically, the United States has been struggling to create satisfactory policies to deal with this new frontier in medical science because of the moral opposition many constituents have and the potential therapeutic uses scientists envision.
In order to make a decision about cloning several crucial arguments need to be elucidated to the public.Ultimately, the exceedingly difficult definition of human life must be addressed.As Arthur Kaplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics, suggested to CNN, the cloning debate should be split into cloning for making human clones, and cloning for medical research.In order to better understand the issue from every perspective, it would be best to divide cloning into the two components that are at the crux of the issue.
The biggest danger with cloning is not its potential evil use because cloning viable people is still far off and the definition of human life is still hazy. Rather, it is the ignorance of the concept holistically. Scientists, politicians, clergymen and others should work together to discover the potential of this untapped therapeutic field.Perhaps, future generations will be able to make fun of how little we knew about cloning.
(Omid Fatemi is a biweekly Science columnist.He can be reached at ofatemi@cavalierdaily.com)
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