Therapeutic Cloning in Medicine of the Future

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Therapeutic Cloning: Medicine of the Future When most people hear the word clone, they are not thinking of something that treats disease and severe injuries. Instead, the first thing that comes to mind is an identical copy of a human that is created in a lab. However, this is rarely what scientists are referring to when they are using this term. What they are talking about is a very different process, known as therapeutic cloning, in which specific cell types of a person can be cloned and incorporated into their body for medical use. This astounding method is a potential cure for even some of the most adverse diseases. Therapeutic cloning has immense potential in being the regenerative medicine of the future, and in no way should be outlawed or forgotten. The procedure of therapeutic cloning first must be understood before its medical advantages can be explained. The procedure used for this is known as Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, or SCNT, and begins with an unfertilized egg cell whose nucleus (holds the genetic information for person) is removed. The scientist then takes a somatic cell (any body cell other than sperm or egg) from the patient and extracts the nucleus, then inserts this nucleus into the egg cell. Now, this cell begins to divide into a cluster of cells, and within the cluster are embryonic stem cells. An embryonic stem cell is “a relatively unspecialized cell that can both reproduce itself indefinitely and, under appropriate conditions, differentiate into specialized cells of one or more types”(Campbell 415). These cells are then extracted by the scientist and continue to divide in a culture to create a stem cell line (Murnaghan). This stem cell line continues to make these embryonic stem cells, which are insert... ... middle of paper ... ...ople had with therapeutic cloning in the first place. A medical advancement of this magnitude should not be delayed by the political and ethical issues that continue to keep it from reaching its full potential for human application. The issues restraining the use of ES cells for medical purposes are only preventing scientists from finding cures to the most brutal diseases, and furthermore inhibiting something that could save millions from being further investigated. The reasoning behind these ethical issues are very vague and have proven to be invalid in most cases, allowing the benefits of therapeutic cloning to greatly outweigh whatever problems people may have with it. Though several laws and issues still remain, in recent years politicians like Barack Obama have been heading in the right direction by gradually reducing the laws on therapeutic cloning (Harris).

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