Cloning a Cure – Ethical Dilemmas

Original article by Dr Adam Hedgecoe

Updated February 2004

Cloning for cures, known as therapeutic cloning, aims to provide therapies for illnesses that are incurable by other means. Whilst this type of cloning does involve cloning human embryos, unlike cloning people there is no effort to grow the embryos into new human babies. In fact, the process involves the destruction of cloned embryos. This fact lies at the heart of the ethical debate on therapeutic cloning.

Ethicists often consider both types of cloning separately, since they are quite different procedures with different aims. But this division is problematic for those who would outlaw cloning of any kind. They say it is a philosophical sleight of hand, aimed at prising the apparently more problematic reproductive cloning away from therapeutic cloning, making the latter seem more acceptable. And with the news in February 2004 that scientists from South Korea have cloned 30 human embryos in an effort to perfect therapeutic cloning, these debates are raging more fiercely than ever.

Opponents believe that therapeutic cloning is ethically as dubious as reproductive cloning, and so don't accept the separation as relevant. But it's hard to deny that the ethical issues involved in each type of cloning differ in some way, although they may be equally serious.

Even opponents of therapeutic cloning accept that there is a need to find cures for the diseases it hopes to tackle. The question for them is whether the need for the new therapies outweighs the ethical arguments. The ethical dilemmas involved fall into three categories: embryo experimentation, commercialisation and slippery slope.

Embryo experimentation

This is the main objection to therapeutic cloning. Supporters of this argument say that experimenting on an embryo is the same as experimenting on a child or adult human. The objectors, many but not all from religious traditions, believe there is a strong link between embryos and the humans they would naturally become. The US conservative Family Research Council says that every embryo produced as a result of fertility treatment should have 'an opportunity to be born'. The Pope, a fierce critic, has described human cloning as 'evil' since it involves 'the abortion of human embryos.'

From this perspective, embryos deserve the same kind of protection that people get. If we wouldn't allow experiments on, and the destruction of, human babies in order to develop stem cells, then we shouldn't allow it on embryos. That these embryos are tiny bundles of cells the size of a full stop isn't relevant – each embryo could become a human being if given a chance. Embryos cloned by South Korean scientist Woo Suk Hwang were allowed to grow for only 5-6 days before they were culled for cell harvesting. Tiny as they are, as inhuman as they seem, these 5-day-old bundles of cells did have the capacity to be human one day.

A potential solution to this issue lies with the few stem cells that a person retains through their adulthood in bone marrow. While not as 'flexible' as the embryonic cells, there is potential for adult stem cells to be used in the same way. The hope is that they could be manipulated to form desired tissues, thereby avoiding the whole embryo controversy.

This is an exciting avenue of research. But opponents of therapeutic cloning want to focus all funding on these adulthood stem cells, on the assumption that they will be as efficient as embryonic stem cells. Supporters of stem cell cloning point out that it's too early to make any assumptions and anyway bone marrow stem cells are harder to manipulate. Both areas of research are in their infancy, and no-one can be sure yet which one will prove fruitful.

Commercialisation

Concerns have been expressed over how researchers will get hold of the human eggs that they will need to produce the embryos. It's illegal in the US to use government money to carry out human embryo research. Consequently, most of the research there is carried out by commercial firms.

This has raised the issue of the commercialisation of human embryos. If private companies become the main driving force behind therapeutic cloning, there will be market pressures to get hold of human eggs. Critics are concerned that women could be offered money for their eggs – putting economic pressure on them to sell off parts of themselves. Neither do the critics wish to see eggs reduced to a mere commodity, to be traded on the world market.

Slippery slope

Critics suggest that once we allow cloning for therapeutic reasons, we will be at the top of a slippery slope. It will make it harder to resist pressure to allow evermore extreme forms of research, like reproductive cloning, genetic engineering of babies and who knows what. Unfortunately for proponents of this argument, the word coming from academic circles is that reproductive cloning may actually turn out to be easier to achieve than therapeutic cloning anyway. Of the 30 embryos that were cloned by Woo Suk Hwang of Seoul National University in February this year, stem cells were successfully harvested from only one. So, in the end the slippery slope won't really count.

Opponents point out that some reproductive techniques that were seen as extreme only 30 years ago (IVF, test tube babies, for example) are now widely accepted. This is evidence, they say, of the way in which society's ethical boundaries become desensitised to new technologies. But the obvious response is that people have grown to accept IVF over time not because they are desensitised but because they have realised it isn't an immoral pursuit after all.

Whether therapeutic cloning is ethically acceptable or not seems to hinge on how highly you rank the medical treatments that might possibly result. One could value the human embryo highly (as many supporters of this technology do) but at the same time feel that therapies resulting from this research justify their destruction. This is not a morally incoherent position, merely a finely balanced one.

You may also be interested in these other Channel 4 articles

The Race to Make a Human
The story behind the mavericks striving to be first past the post in the human cloning game.

Cloning Ourselves – How Close Are We?
The truth behind recent cloning claims, the reasons for doing it and the dangers involved.

Cloning Ourselves – Ethical Dilemmas
The potential to make a living clone is already with us, here are the ethical arguments laid bare.

Cloning a Cure – How Close Are We?
How cloned human embryos could heal the sick, including the methods and the motivation.

Immortality – Hype or Hope?
How cloned stem cells will leave no branch of medicine untouched. How long would you like to live for?

Cloning FAQs
Answers to some commonly posed questions. Including the difference between the two types of cloning and what stem cell therapy could do for us.

Dolly
The life and times of Dolly the sheep, the first ever cloned mammal.

Severino Antinori biography
The independent fertility specialist who wants to clone whole human beings.

Francis Galton biography
Introduction to the life and work of the man known as the 'Father of Eugenics'.

Find out more

Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third party sites

Websites

Roslin Institute, Edinburgh
www.roslin.ac.uk
Scientists here created the first ever clone of an adult mammal in 1997, Dolly the sheep. Almost all the research is published in the public domain. The 'public interest' pages offer summaries of published reports on mammalian cloning, the technology, its progress, ethics, plus discussion papers, press articles and an image library.

Clonaid
www.clonaid.com
This private US organisation has pledged to be the first to clone an adult human and offers a range of services, including Clonapet, promising the possibility of cloning a deceased family pet. Note that the organisation was set up by Rael, spiritual leader of the Raelian religious cult movement and the world's largest UFO-related organisation.

Advanced Cell Technology
www.advancedcell.com
Website of the company claiming to have cloned the first human embryo.

New Scientist
www.newscientist.com/hottopics/cloning
Up-to-date articles and information on the ongoing cloning debate.

Pondering the Ethics and Science of Stem Cells
www.upenn.edu/gazette/0302/0302gaz1.html
Article on the ethical issues raised by stem cell research.

Bioethics.net
http://bioethics.net/cloning.php
Site by the Amercian Journal of Bioethics. News and features to suit all levels of knowledge.

Primer on ethics and human cloning
www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/mcgee.html
Article, on the Action Bioscience website, introducing the key issues in human cloning and ethics.

Genetics
www.channel4.com/genetics
Channel 4 site accompanying Sir John Sulston's Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. Includes the first 'artificial life experiment' designed for the general public.

Books

	A Clone of your Own? by Arlene Judith Klotzko (Oxford University Press, 2002) The writer-in-residence at the Science Museum takes a look at the science and ethics of cloning. Get this book
	The Cloning Sourcebook by Arlene Judith Klotzko (Oxford University Press, 2001) Aimed at increasing public understanding of cloning. Discusses animal cloning since the birth of Dolly the Sheep and the questions raised by cloning for society. Get this book
	The Impact of the Gene: From Mendel's peas to designer babies by Colin Tudge (Hill & Wang, 2001) In the mid-19th century a friar, Mendel, discovered the basic laws of heredity. Tudge examines the influence of Mendel's ideas, considering the evolution of genetics as a science, and addressing questions of ethics, the public's fears about cloning and eugenics. Get this book
	The Second Creation: The age of scientific control by the scientists who cloned Dolly by Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and Colin Tudge (Headline, 2001) Recounts not just how Dolly was created, but also the techniques for her predecessors who were cloned from embryo cells. It explains the scientific reasons behind the research, and discusses where this technology will lead and the ethical issues that have been raised. Get this book
The Secrets of Life: Genes and genetics from evolution to engineering (Channel 4, 2001) £4.95 (inc P&P) Cheque or postal order payable to Channel 4 Television, send to: The Secrets of Life, PO Box 400, Wetherby, LS23 7LG or phone + 44 (0) 8701 246 444 Colour booklet, published to accompany the Channel 4 screening of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. Follows Sir John Sulston's journey from the beginnings of life to the latest developments in biotechnology and into the future. Discusses ethics of cloning.

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