My thoughts

My Thoughts,

I think the biggest moral issue with cloning in any form is that it makes us question what does it mean to be human? Is it our physical form, being born of a mother and father, or can someone created have a soul? What makes you a person? I was reminded recently about someone who had a head transplant. The student I was talking to about this said that if your body belonged to someone else would you become you because your head is now attached or would it belong to the same owner as the body because it was the body's systems maintaining the head, and let the head feel, move and live. I immediately stated that it was now the head's because it contained the brain and therefore the consciousness, what makes a person a person. this had me thinking though if you cloned someone who would this person become? I believe that if we did permit reproductive cloning that several laws need to be put in place. I have one that jumps right to the fore in my mind: A clone is his/her own person and is not entitled to the inheritance of the donor. Why would I want this made into a law you might ask? The reason is simple, to prevent people from cloning themselves and then once they are on their deathbed trying to transfer their consciousness into the clone and destroying who that clone has become for their own selfish want to be immortal.

I personally believe that only therapeutic cloning should be allowed and no reproductive cloning. I believe this for several reasons and I will try to relate them to you as best as I can. I do not feel we should play God, if someone is hurt and we can make them healthy I am ok with that. I am not ok with us manufacturing people, I see it as a gateway to creating a slave race or with our past in mind weaponizing clones. When you give anyone so much power as could be available with what we are learning from countries permitting designer babies (which I am against) imagine if we made a super soldier one that was better than us in every way, we would either use them as if they were tools to be used and when damaged discarded or they would decide they no longer wanted to take orders from us. I have thought about this for a while being a scifi guy and these to me are the most likely results, one leads to us becoming monsters and the other ends up with us becoming slaves or dead.

I believe everything that lives has a purpose and should be treated with respect, if we were able to mass produce a people I honestly think that most people would view them as a subspecies that isn't really human. If you want to imagine what we would do if that was thought study US History about how we treated slaves. We are such an interesting animal.... capable of creating beauty and acts of compassion it will leave you breathless, dreams that will push our understanding of the universe, but we also have such a darkness inside that rivals that of the black between stars.
Note this has no sources because this is my thoughts, they may have been influenced by many sources but these are my thoughts.

In regards to the replies I have received.

My Reply

According to my last post's source the reason why her cells or HeLa cells never died is unknown, this is mentioned in the section labeled "Who was Henrietta Lacks?". I researched more by going into a Berkeley Science Review, and discovered a little more. The average cell only divides between 40-50 times, but HeLa cells aren't average they are in fact from a cancer tumor. The result is that the tumor had mutated cells, and the mutation is what makes it all work. The average cell has 46 chromosomes, HeLa cells have between 76-80 mutated chromosomes. I was also suprised to find that what caused this mutation is also what caused her cancer, HPV or Human Papilloma Virus. So, basically the reasons why they divide constantly is it was a cancer cell mutated by HPV. Here are a few visuals that I found interesting.
The difference in chromosomes, also known as Karyotype.

What has HeLa done for science?

Interesting facts about HeLa



Where is cloning legal and used?
The USA does not have any restrictions on human cloning other than, no federal funds can be used for it, except stem cell research before 2001. So it would seem that a privately fund research lab is fine, so research in the US on this topic is very likely already underway. Human cloning is banned in more than 30 countries however, a few such as England, China and Israel allow cloning research but no reproduction. I find this a bit odd myself, why allow the research and yet prohibit the use of the data its like promoting sex but outlawing pregnancy......I am not sure if I am doing them justice in that comparison but its how I see it.

How we clone mammals:
When we clone mammals we do something called Nuclear Transplantation. This is where you remove an unfertilized egg from the same species of animal and remove its nucleus. Once the egg's nucleus has been removed you replace it with a nucleus of the donor animal. Then you must fuse it, this is done by running an electric current through the egg. Scientist will then introduce a group of chemicals which will trigger the responses that would be present if it had been fertilized. If it takes the egg will grow much the same way as it would had it been natural.

If you have some more questions please leave a comment and let me know.

The Consequences of Cloning

The Consequences of Cloning

I had originally planned on doing this blog on the morals of cloning but the subject is as complicated as DNA itself. I made the choice to discuss what happens when we decide to clone. The answer to this does not lie only in the future of possibility but in the past and it all started with a little lamb.

Not Mary's Lamb

Dolly was the first mammal to be cloned, and what made this possible was a mammary gland cell of a healthy sheep. The announcement of her birth rocked the scientific world and caused a huge debate about the ethics of cloning. There were scientist who praised the achievement while others felt it was the beginning of the darkest chapter in our history. This will be discussed later but what should really be discussed is what happened to Dolly? Dolly is dead. What killed her do you ask? She was euthanased. A veterinary examination discovered she was suffering from a progressive lung disease. She was six years old when she was put down for a disease that is common in older sheep, that would be about 11 or 12 years old. Why is this? She was cloned from an adult sheep so although she was only 6 her base cells were much older, much like if you cloned a 70 year old man and then his clone died at 20 years old do to heart complications common in the elderly.  This is something that will have to be overcome if we decide to pursue reproductive cloning.

The Woman Who was wronged by Science
Henrietta Lacks, she is a woman who has enabled modern medicine to advance and she didn’t even know it. She went to see a doctor and that doctor took cells from her tumor and without her knowledge or permission gave them to a different scientists who was trying to grow tissue samples. What hospital could have doctors so without morals you may ask Johns Hopkins in 1951, and the result: HeLa Cells. HeLa cells didn’t die and no one knows why. These cells have been used in everything from vaccines, research, and heck they even went to space. The worse part is that when people started trying to figure out where these cells came from they stonewalled in every way they could going so far as to lie about her name, to hide what they did. The question here is why have I brought up this woman? The answer to that is if we are so caught up in the science of this woman’s cells that they would literally steal her cells and use them without knowledge or consent, what makes you think we would be better with a organ? What would some scientist decide was worth taking from you…….a kidney, liver, lung or a heart?

Cloning

Cloning

Cloning, what does cloning mean? When you clone something you use matter from the original and make a copy of it. When most people think of cloning they think of Jurassic Park,or Star Wars. But what are the real world applications of cloning?

Delicious Baby Wine

We have been cloning for hundreds if not thousands of years without even really realizing it. The common practice when growing grapes for wine is to make a type of grape you want and then use snips of it to produce more of the same plant, this is cloning but the cloning of mammals is fairly recent.

Clones on Parade

I will be focusing on cloning as it pertains to humans. There are two main forms of cloning, Reproductive and Therapeutic. Reproductive cloning is when you make a copy of a whole person, such as the Clone Army in Star Wars where thousands of copies of the same person was made. Therapeutic cloning is when you clone only a part of the person to help cure an alignment or injury, such as someone having lung cancer getting a new set of lungs grown to replace the damaged ones.

The news has discussed a topic that has a lot to do with this subject, Stem Cells. What are Stem Cells? Stem cells are a very interesting type of cell, in that they have the inherent ability to become a plethora cell types during the time that the body is growing. These cells also can act as a repair system for the body, constantly dividing to replace cells for the life of the person. The Stem cells will sometimes lay dormant for many years, and then an event will take place and then the cells will become active and replace either damaged or worn out cells. The most interesting part of stem cells is that when they divide each new cell has the same potential as the original, to stay a stem cell or change into a type that is needed at the time. The more we learn about Stem cells more we learn about how we develop from a single cell into a complex organism.

More info on Stem Cells

The reason why research into Stem cells is so debated is because it leads to cloning whether Reproductive or Therapeutic. The knowledge gained through that research would be directly related to any further human cloning research or endeavors.

The more we learn about cloning the more we need to consider what is ethical, and moral.

This blog is for my ENG 121:111 Course. This blog will consist of topics pertaining to cloning both reproductive and therapeutic. I welcome comments, but keep in mind that this is  an English assignment about a scientific subject, so while I will be using facts and actual data this will not be in depth. Thank you.

Test

This is my first attempt to blog, so forgive ant mistakes lol.