Transcript Animal Cloning - Parkland College

Animal Cloning
Heidi Leuszler
Parkland College
March 2002
Types of Cloning
Gene
Cell
Organism (both plant and animal)
Embryo
Reproductive Cloning
Therapeutic Cloning
Human Development
Zygote  morula  blastula  gastrula  fetus  baby  adult
Considered the “embryo”
fertilization
Zygote
Morula
Blastula
Stem cells
Gastrula
Will become the anus opening
to the digestive tract
Fetus
Baby
Adult
Embryonic Cloning
•A morula is broken into individual cells
•Each cell has potential to become a complete organism
•Only can occur at early stages of development (<16-cell stage)
•Used in agriculture for 25+ years
•Cannot make clones of adults
Cloned Embryos
Original Embryo
Reproductive Cloning
•DNA from a body cell of an adult is obtained
•An egg cell has the DNA removed from it
•DNA from body cell inserted into egg cell
•Altered egg stimulated to develop
•Can become a clone to an adult organism
Embryos can be grown (in theory) to complete development
and form an adult
The result would be a genetic copy of the adult the original
DNA was taken from
OR
Stem cells can be removed and used in therapeutic cloning
Therapeutic Cloning
•Same as reproductive cloning in process
•Stem cells can be harvested from embryo
•Stem cells are used for creating medical
treatments and possibly new organs
Stem cells
Ethical Dilemmas
Is cloning wrong?
This question is too simple… it is not a simple issue!
November 26, 2001
Should therapeutic cloning be legal?
54%..................Yes
46%..................No
Total: 11165 votes
July 23, 2001
Should scientists pursue human cloning?
50%..................Yes
50%..................No
Total: 6024 votes
August 6, 2001
Should the government fund embryonic stem cell research?
60%..................Yes
40%..................No
Total: 6685 votes
Have we cloned a human yet?
Research:
19 eggs injected with adult DNA:
•2 divided until 4-cell stage
•1 divided until 6-cell stage
•Others failed to develop
Have we cloned a human successfully?
It is important to understand our definitions of
Human and Nature before we can make a
judgment about cloning issues.
When is an embryo a human?
Research:
4-cell stage- cells unspecialized, have potential to become entire organism
16-cell stage- cells genetically specialized, fated to become specific tissues
30 days- specialization of cells into definable organs: heart, brain, tongue, legs,
arms
Most scientists maintain that a 10-day old embryo is not yet a
life because the nervous system hasn't developed, an event that
begins around day 14.
Many say any cell with potential to become an adult
“It’s not natural!”
What is your definition of “nature”?
•A primitive, wild condition, an uncultivated state
•The material world, esp. as surrounding man and existing
independently of his activities.
•Reality, as distinguished from any effect of art
•The physical being
•The particular combination of qualities belonging to a person or thing
by birth or constitution.
•The Universe, with all of its phenomena.
•The sum total of the forces at work throughout the Universe
Are humans and their activities included in your definition of “nature”?
What is “natural”?
•For thousands of years, people have bred animals and
plants with traits we desire (domestic dog, corn, etc.)
•Farmers artificially inseminate cattle every season
•Hundreds of babies are born every year due to in vitro
fertilization techniques
•Breeders use embryonic cloning to copy cattle, sheep,
goats, chickens, race horses……….
•We modify viruses and use them as vaccines, injecting new
DNA and proteins into our bodies
•Researchers use stem cells from naturally-occurring
embryos
Is this a good argument to use against cloning when
we do so many other “unnatural” things?
Is it really an argument against
progress? Against technology?
•What defines “progress”?
•Is technology inherently bad?
•Is it application or the actual act of doing something that is wrong?
Hiroshima vs. nuclear power
Small pox vaccine vs. bioterrorism
Test tube babies vs. cloned babies
Should the negative acts of the few govern progress?
Religion vs. Science
What role should religion play in ethical decisions?
What role does religion play for you?
What role should religion play in making laws
and regulations about science?
National Journal, Sept 1, 2001
What ideas most influence Americans' opinions on cloning?
16% education
15% news reports
4% personal experience
3% family and friends
10% other factors or no opinion
36% were guided by their religious beliefs. Nonreligious beliefs were the next 17%
British Medical Journal, Dec 15, 2001
Russian Orthodox church threatens excommunication for human
cloning: it will excommunicate any Russian doctors or scientists
doing research into human cloning, and people who receive or
use cloned stem cells for medical treatment
National Catholic Reporter, Dec 21, 2001
Catholic Church rules that human clones will have souls with
the first spark of life. Clones will be equal in dignity and
rights with human beings created through fertilization.
National Catholic Bioethics Center, Boston
Regulation and Patenting
FDA/ NSF/NIH laws governing research
Who will fund the research?
Who has rights to the research?
Private vs. public
“The National Institutes of Health has, in a controversial decision,
announced that it will support scientists who want to work with
established embryonic stem cell lines--but not investigators who
want to establish the lines in the first place, because the process
entails killing an embryo and so would contravene a congressional
ban. Although some 70 legislators have objected to the NIH
decision, the agency is now drawing up guidelines to govern the
work. They require that the cell lines must have been derived from
freely donated spare embryos resulting from treatment of infertility,
not from embryos created specifically for research. In late May the
National Bioethics Advisory Commission was set to issue yet more
liberal recommendations. It favors federal grants for scientists both
to experiment with and to derive embryonic stem cells from
abandoned embryos, a shift that would mean lifting the
congressional ban on most embryo research”
-2000
No embryonic or genetic engineering research can be
performed if there is the slightest threat to human
reproduction. If a stem cell has the potential to
incorporate into a woman’s eggs or a man’s sperm,
the research is not approved for federal funding.
Many other countries have made regulations
concerning embryo cloning and the use of stem cells,
but few have the ability to implement them.
Private industry vs. public/Academic research……..
Lower research monies are found in federally-funded labs
Private industry is profiting off this research, and thus is able
to fund more research. With bigger and better machines, they
will be in charge of the research.
Is this good or bad?
Benefits to each?
Negative implications?
Outcomes of these regulations?
Federal regulations can keep things in check.
Governments have the infrastructure for largescale regulation and penalty systems in place.
Without federal regulations for the research, private
industry has no restrictions.
President Bush’s decision in 2001 to allow stem cell
and embryonic research to continue will allow
regulation to occur at a federal level.
Many argue that cloning is going to happen, and regulation is the issue.
Who owns the genes?
Who owns the gene products?
Who has permission to modify
the genes?
Academic Institutions
Private Research Companies
Pharmaceutical Companies
Patent laws
Currently 8000 US patents on genes or gene products
14 March 2002
Bill introduced in US Congress could suspend federal
patent laws for some doctors and medical researchers
working with disease-causing genes.
Approximately 400 examiners in the USPTO Biotechnology
Group examine a variety of biotech patent applications relating
to all fields of biotechnology – from genes and enzymes to
pharmaceuticals and combinatorial chemistry to gene therapy
and antibody engineering.
Feb. 6 2002
European Patent Office granted European Patent No. 0849990
including 21 claims covering various aspects of the use of
nuclear transfer technology in the cloning of non-human
animals to Geron Corp. (Menlo CA)
March 14 2002
A new bill introduced to Congress to alter federal patent laws
for non-commercial genetics research or disease testing
Main Ethical Questions for
Scientists
•What is the moral status of the organisms created by cloning?
•Is it permissible to create such a developing human entity only to
destroy it?
•Is it right to seek human eggs for scientific research?
•What are the ethical issues relating to the person whose cells are
being cloned?
•Will therapeutic cloning facilitate reproductive cloning, the birth
of a cloned baby?
Keep yourself informed!!!!
Resources
Geron Corporation http://www.geron.com/
Roslin Institute http://www.roslin.ac.uk/
Advanced Cell Technology http://www.advancedcell.com/
WiCell Research Institute http://www.wicell.org/
National Institute of Health http://www.nih.gov
News Updates:
http://www.sciam.com/explorations/2001/112401ezzell/news.html
http://msn.slate.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com
The President’s Council on Bioethics http://bioethics.gov/
National Bioethics Advisory Commission Archives (grant ended 2001)
http://bioethics.georgetown.edu/nbac/
National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature
http://www.georgetown.edu/research/nrcbl/
Kennedy Institute of Ethics http://www.georgetown.edu/research/nrcbl/index2.htm