Clones and Cloning

By Dr. Andreas Lambrianides

General Surgeon, Brisbane, Australia
Clones are genetically identical individuals produced from a single parent.
Cloning is not new. It has been used in plant breeding for years, and plant
micropropagation techniques are now highly sophisticated. Clones can be
produced from both embryonic and non-embryonic cells using nuclear transfer
techniques. There are two distinct types of cloning: therapeutic and
reproductive. The former uses genetic material from the patient's own cells to
generate tissues to treat medical conditions, while the latter implants a cloned
embryo into a woman's uterus leading to the birth of a cloned baby.
Proponents of reproductive cloning often use the term therapeutic cloning, as
they claim to treat the disorder of infertility. Cloning in theory appears simple,
however success depends on many factors some of which scientists as yet do
not understand.
The basic nuclear transfer technique, involves a fine needle that is used to
withdraw genetic material from a mature egg. They then introduce the nucleus
of the donor cell into the enucleated cell, which is exposed to chemicals and
growth factors, in order to activate division and growth. By the fifth day, a ball
of cells, called the blastocyst, is formed. It contains a group of cells called the
inner cell mass that contains the stem cells. The blastocyst is subsequently
broken to obtain the inner cell mass that is grown in tissue culture to produce
stem cells. These cells are of great interest because of their unique ability to
develop into virtually any other human cell. It would be possible to grow
specific cells such as bone cells, liver cells, muscle or blood cells and thus
cure medical disorders such as diabetes, Parkinson's and other conditions, by
replacing faulty or diseased cells with healthy ones. Although stem cells can
also be obtained from an adult and other non-embryonic tissues they do not
have the same capacity to transform themselves the way embryonic cells do.
Blastocysts contain the inner cell mass with the stem cells. Subsequent break
of the blastocyst and growth of the inner cell mass to yield stem cells, that in
turn can be coaxed to grow into a variety of cells which can be injected into
patients, has not yet been accomplished in humans.
Embryos were successfully cloned from sheep in 1986, followed in 1998 by

the birth of Dolly, the first cloned lamb. Mammary cells were taken from the
udder of a sheep and grown in culture. An egg cell was taken from another
sheep and its nucleus removed. The mammary cell was then fused with the
enucleated cell, and after a growing period of six days the embryo was
implanted in the uterus of a third sheep, similar to the egg donor. The result
after gestation was a lamb, Dolly, identical in appearance and chromosome
make up to the sheep that donated the mammary cell. Dolly's Genome
however, cannot be completely identical to the mammary cell donor, as Dolly's
mitochondrial DNA is derived from the egg cell donor. In July 1988, mice were
cloned using nuclei from ovary cells.
In 2001, the completion of the first draft of human genome project was
announced and the United Kingdom parliament passed a regulation to allow
the cloning of human embryos up to fourteen days old for the purposes of
research into serious diseases. Finally in October in 2001, research workers
managed to coax one human embryo to progress to a six-cell stage at which
point it stopped dividing. In a similar experiment the same group succeeded in
prompting human egg cells to develop into blastocyst but none clearly
contained the inner cell mass that yields the stem cells. By about one week
after fertilization, cleavage, which is a succession of rapid cell divisions,
transforms the zygote, a single cell, into a ball of much smaller cells called
blastomeres, forming the embryonic stage called blastocyst. At this stage the
embryo has over a hundred cells arranged around a central cavity. Protruding
into one end of the blastocyst cavity is a cluster of cells called the inner cell
mass, which will subsequently develop into the embryo proper.
Some of the most ambitious medical projects involve the production of
universal human donor cells. Scientists know how to isolate undifferentiated
stem cells in mice, and they are also learning how to differentiate stem cells.
All cells contain within their DNA the information to reproduce an entire
organism. In adult organisms, the cells' personal access to parts of that
information has been switched off as the cells specialize. Scientists do not
know as yet how to switch those genes back on again.
Such techniques may make it possible to manufacture cells to repair or
replace tissue damaged by illness such as diabetes, Parkinson's and
muscular dystrophy. Stem Cells matched to an individual could be made by
transferring the nucleus of one of the patient's cells into a human egg to
create an embryo. The embryo will be allowed to develop to a certain stage
and then separate and culture stem cells from it.

Advocates of reproductive cloning aim to implant a cloned embryo into a

woman's uterus leading to the birth of a cloned baby. Therapeutic cloning on
the other hand, seeks to use genetic material from the patients own cells in
order to generate healthy tissue cells for repairing damaged organs, such as
the occasion of generating healthy pancreatic tissue to treat diabetes or nerve
cells to repair damage nerve tracts. What is disturbing is that advocates of
reproductive cloning, use the term therapeutic cloning claiming that infertility is
a disease, and as such, cloning is justified as a treatment for infertility. This
supposition is totally unjustifiable.
Cloning whether reproductive or therapeutic in nature, is, and always will be,
ethically and morally wrong. Consider the significant incidence of death and
birth defects in cloned animals. When Dolly was cloned only one embryo in
over two hundred was normal and many showed gross abnormalities. To
clone a human being, is to carry out a life long experiment, which may result
in adverse physical and psychological effects on the individual, and any
defects will be passed onto their offspring. Dolly was found to be ageing
prematurely and to suffer with severe arthritis in her left hind leg only two
years after its birth. Premature aging can be explained on the basis of the
donor cells being old and containing DNA material with short telomeres.
Researches at the Monash institute have shown, following research with mice
and sheep, that the technique of reproductive cloning, puts children at risk of
being born with life threatening deformities, and the mothers' life at risk due to
major abnormalities of the placenta. These abnormalities occur, because the
cells used to clone the embryo will be taken from one of the potential parents.
These adult stem cells retain the memory of whether they were a muscle or
skin, which means, they do not grow and behave in the way stem cells in a
placenta usually do.
Every born child is an original, and as such, deserves to be born his own
individual person. What is there to stop societies dictating which parent is
chosen as the clone donor? Are we to have pools of supermodels? Tall, green
eyed, thin and everything else that goes with them? Are we to replicate
selected genomes on a large scale for military purposes? Groups such as
religious cults or renegade scientists have already announced their intention
to clone a human being. Is it ethically right to use human eggs for research?
In order to increase the yields of the eggs drugs have to be given to the donor
females and in rare cases these drugs can lead to liver damage, kidney failure
or cerebrovascular incidents. Some studies have also suggested the
possibility of ovarian cancer as a result of using these drugs. Finally one has
to consider the risk of morbidity and mortality during surgery to retrieve the

eggs. Consider the commercial implications if payments are made to females

in order to entice them to become donors. Are human eggs going to become a
commercialized commodity? We do not permit the sale of human organs for
transplantation, yet sales occur on a regular basis. You can now buy a human
kidney for 15000 U.S. dollars.
Have we considered the psychological implications on cloned individuals or
even donors? What would be the relationship between a cell donor and his
clone? How do we deal with a clone wanting to identify his or hers, "parent"
donor? Cloned individuals may face unrealistic expectations to live up to the
standard of their cell donors and this will create undue psychological
problems.
Cloning, be it therapeutic or reproductive in nature is unacceptable. Human
life begins at conception and "activated" cells are morally equivalent to human
embryos since implantation of a cloned egg in the uterus, as carried out with
animals, can go to full development and birth. This requires the same degree
of protection and respect. How can we justify killing a living embryo to harvest
its tissues for the benefits of others? Making a human being in order to
destroy it, is murder, and it should be treated as such.
Although the clone did not result from the fertilization of an egg by a sperm,
yet the result is the same. A living human being should not be regarded as a
new biological entity exempt from the moral law of God, and therefore ours to
do as we please, to make and destroy for our own gratification. We talk of
cloning technology as being of benefit to man kind and forget that there is
always the desire to patent new technologies and make money.
We love forming ethic committees to decide whether it is right or wrong in our
own puny morality to carry out cloning. Our feeble moral standards are not the
ones that matter. The all important question is whether cloning complies with
the morality that counts, the morality of our creator and God.
"Walk in the light of your fire, and the sparks that you have kindled. You have
chosen to deceive yourself; I will not undeceive you. You have kindled a false
fire; I will not extinguish it that I may give you a true one. No. Walk in the light
of your fire enjoy your false confidence, rest securely on your delusive hopes,
foster your presumption faiths, comfort yourself with your rites, forms,
ceremonies and be fully persuaded of the truth of your false doctrine. Go on to
fill up the measure of your inequities to call evil, good, and good evil. To put
bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter until you have neither eye to see the one

not taste to discern the other."

On July the 31st 2001, the house of representatives voted on a broad ban on
human cloning that would not only prohibit the use of cloning for reproduction
but would also prohibit cloning for research purposes such as the derivation of
stem cells that could be used therapeutically. An amendment that would have
allowed therapeutic cloning failed. The issue of cloning is to be discussed
further by the Senate.
Let us not forget that an embryo is human life with the capacity to develop into
a natural human being. All of us that strongly believe that life begins once the
egg cell divides, also believe that we will be making and destroying human
beings. We all have sympathy with the suffering of patients but morally we can
not agree with the doctrine of making human embryos only to destroy them in
order to treat a medical condition. We can neither say that embryos do not
have consciousness, as then we will embark on a collision course to devalue
the mentally disabled.
"There are many devices in a mans heart. Nevertheless the council of the
Lord will stand."