Human clones at hand

[Nevan]

A step closer to human clones

New York - Scientists say they have produced embryos that are clones of two men, a potential step toward developing scientifically valuable stem cells.

It's the first documented demonstration that ordinary cells from an adult human can be used to make cloned embryos mature enough to produce stem cells, the researchers said. But because they haven't produced those stem cells yet, experts reacted coolly.

Since other scientists had previously made a cloned human embryo, "I found it difficult to determine what was substantially new," said Doug Melton of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

He said the "next big advance will be to create a human embryonic stem cell line" from cloned embryos. "This has yet to be achieved," Melton said.

Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk claimed a few years ago that he'd created such cell lines, but that turned out to be a fraud.

Dr. Samuel Wood, a co-author of the new paper and chief executive of Stemagen Corp of La Jolla, California, said he and his colleagues are now attempting to produce stem cell lines from the embryos.

The work was published online on Thursday by the journal Stem Cells.

Scientists say stem cells from cloned embryos could provide a valuable tool for studying diseases, screening drugs and, perhaps someday, creating transplant material to treat conditions like diabetes and Parkinson's disease.

But critics raise objections. Some say the procedure amounts to creating a human life in a lab and then destroying it to harvest the stem cells. Others raise concerns about health risks and exploitation if large numbers of women are asked to provide eggs for widespread cloning.

Those objections are one reason that an alternative route to stem cells made headlines last November. Scientists reported a relatively simple way to turn skin cells directly into stem cells.

This direct reprogramming carries a theoretical risk of cancer for the recipients of tissue from these cells, however, and many scientists have urged that work continue on the cloning technique as well.

The cloning approach involves inserting DNA from a person into an egg, and then growing the egg into an embryo about five days old before extracting the stem cells. At that stage, the embryo is a sphere of about 150 cells.

In the new work, researchers took skin cells from Wood and another volunteer and produced three embryos with DNA matching the men's. Further DNA testing on one of these embryos strengthened the case that it was a clone, researchers said.

http://www.news24.com/News24/Technol...253866,00.html

[dark_dragon_of_ice]

The actual process to get human clones is already well known..Its basically the same as how the cloned Dolly.

[Nevan]

Yes, it's not a new thing, although according to this report and the one by Time Magazine this is the first documented, successful account of human cloning. I was under the impression that human cloning experiments were supposed to be banned or unethical or something. Guess I had the story wrong.

There is an island afterall...

[CptSternn]

They didn't implant the embryo, therefore it's not technically illegal.

They can grow a fetus in a dish as long as they don't put it in a human. Lots of loopholes in the law, mainly because it was written by right-wing religious fanatics who have no idea of the science behind it, so they wrote the law to reflect a human clone birth, not a true cloning - leaving many, many, loopholes.

[Nevan]

I think, while the purpose of this research is mainly to aid cancer patients and such by being able to provide them with defect free organs, sooner or later they'll find a way around the legalities and people will be able to walk into any old family clinic and make a checklist of all the physical and mental attributes they want their kids to inherit from them.

And nice as that may sound - is that truly creating a new life?

I'm not really into the ethics of cloning per se, but the idea of a 'mini-me' running around simply doesn't sit well.

[AngelikDemonik]

I think that stem cells should be used...I have no problem with organs being cloned...

But I do not think that cloning individual humans is a good idea, at all.

[Delkaetre]

I think that cloning bodies and organs is a useful thing... create anencephaltic bodies with only enough brainstem to keep the basic functions (heartbeat, breathing) going. Not a human, just a slab of meat. Use that for organ transplants- the organs will all be healthy, having come from a body untouched by alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, etc, and will have little to no chance of rejection for the recipient, having been cloned from that person or their close family.
Of course, this brings in the worrying thought of the very rich being able to just 'buy' replacement bodies or have a flesh equivalent of a Real Doll with a deliberately under-developed brain. But quite such unethical pursuits could probably be legislated around so that bodies can only be grown for the purpose of organ transplants (or possibly, in the case of cancer victims with widespread or untreatable cancer, body replacements).
The whole science and ethics of cloning debate fascinates me.

[Don't Look Behind You]

This just makes me think of Brave New World, like many news these days do.
But the usefullness of treating currently untreatable diseases just has to go hand in hand with the risk of eventually developing a gene manipulated population of pre-programmed idiots....
Laws may work for a while but as soon as something is *possible*, it will be done, no matter how illegal.

[Lapin]

Originally Posted by CptSternn

They didn't implant the embryo, therefore it's not technically illegal.

They can grow a fetus in a dish as long as they don't put it in a human. Lots of loopholes in the law, mainly because it was written by right-wing religious fanatics who have no idea of the science behind it, so they wrote the law to reflect a human clone birth, not a true cloning - leaving many, many, loopholes.

And our brilliant scientists find those loopholes and think "Well, they didn't specifically say that we couldn't do this..."

On topic, I see nothing wrong with cloning. We already clone animals (Hello Dolly...that was bad and I know it). I think it's pretty damn cool actually.

[Wormboy]

I agree with Lapin and Delk. This cloning thing is awesome. A lot of people bring up this whole is it ethical thing. My question is: Who gives a shit? You don't like it then you don't use a cloned heart to save your grandfather's life eh? More for the rest of us.


I read somewhere on here that scientists learned to create living cells from inorganic matter, does anyone know the name of this type of thing?

[PinstripesAndPithHelmets]

George Lucas currently has a raging hardon.