Genetic Engineering and Cloning

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Genetic Engineering and Cloning

On February 24, 1997 news broke globally that Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute in Scotland had successfully cloned the genetic material of an adult sheep and had created the infant Dolly. The discovery instantly caught the world's attention because Dolly had only one parent; Dolly had been formed by transferring the genetic material of an adult female into one of its own embryos. This process, known as "somatic cell nuclear transfer", refers to removal of genetic material from an adult cell and then implantation of that material into an embryo that has had it's original genetic material removed. The only way to clone an existing animal uses the process of somatic cell nuclear transfer. The science used to create Dolly applies to any mammal, and "the arrival of Dolly made it clear that human beings would soon have to face the possibility of human cloning" (Nusbaum and Sunstein 11). Motivated by profit and fame, scientists around the nation have been researching how to apply somatic cell nuclear transfer technology to humans. In response to this research Congress has been trying to draft legislation that will make the genetic cloning of a human illegal. Unfortunately, because of imprecise wording based on a shallow Congressional understanding of genetics, a ban on human cloning would inadvertently ban essential medical research that utilizes essential genetic cloning technologies. The term "human cloning" refers to a great number of technologies of which only somatic cell nuclear transfer can produce a living human being. Rather than an improperly worded ban on human cloning entirely, only genetic cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer should be banned while funding for other beneficial gen...

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...transfer. Supporting such an observation, the National Bioethics Advisory Commission has concluded "that at this time, it is morally unacceptable for anyone in the public or private sector to attempt to create a child using somatic cell nuclear transfer cloning" (Senator Gordon 3). Dan Brock, director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics at Brown University, argues that human cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer "would result in a persons' worth or value seeming diminished because we would come to see persons as able to be manufacture or "handmade." This demystification of the creation of human life would reduce our appreciation and awe of human life and of its natural creation" (159). Additionally, a child's sense of individuality and uniqueness would be substantially diminished as a result of expectations set by the life of the adult from whom he was cloned.

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