Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a
humanHumans are bipedal primates belonging to the species Homo sapiens in Hominidae, the great ape family. They are the only surviving member of the genus Homo. Humans have a highly developed brain, capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection, and problem solving...
(not usually referring to monozygotic multiple births), human
cellThe cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos...
, or human
tissueTissue is a cellular organizational level intermediate between cells and a complete organism. Hence, a tissue is an ensemble of cells, not necessarily identical, but from the same origin, that together carry out a specific function...
. The ethics of cloning is an extremely controversial issue. The term is generally used to refer to artificial human cloning; human clones in the form of identical twins are commonplace, with their cloning occurring during the natural process of reproduction. There are two commonly discussed types of human cloning: therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning. Therapeutic cloning involves cloning cells from an adult for use in medicine and is an active area of research, while reproductive cloning would involve making cloned humans. Such reproductive cloning has not been performed and is illegal in many countries. A third type of cloning called replacement cloning is a theoretical possibility, and would be a combination of therapeutic and reproductive cloning. Replacement cloning would entail the replacement of an extensively damaged, failed, or failing body through cloning followed by whole or partial brain transplant.
History
Although the possibility of cloning humans has been the subject of speculation for much of the twentieth century, scientists and policy makers began to take the prospect seriously in the 1960s. Nobel Prize winning geneticist
Joshua LederbergJoshua Lederberg was an American molecular biologist known for his work in genetics, artificial intelligence, and space exploration. He was just 33 years old when he won the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering that bacteria can mate and exchange genes. He shared the prize...
advocated for cloning and genetic engineering in a seminal article in the
American Naturalist in 1966 and again, the following year, in the
Washington Post. He sparked a debate with conservative bioethicist
Leon KassLeon Richard Kass is an American physician, scientist, educator, and public intellectual, best known as proponent of liberal education via the "Great Books," as an opponent of human cloning and euthanasia, as a critic of unrestrained technological progress and embryo research, and for his...
, who wrote at the time that "the programmed reproduction of man will, in fact, dehumanize him." Another Nobel Laureate,
James D. WatsonJames Dewey Watson, born April 6, 1928, in Chicago, Illinois, is an American molecular biologist, best known as one of the two co-discoverers of the structure of DNA, with Francis Crick in 1953...
, publicized the potential and the perils of cloning in his
Atlantic Monthly essay, "Moving Toward the Clonal Man", in 1971.
Human cloning also gained a foothold in popular culture, starting in the 1970s.
Alvin TofflerAlvin Toffler is an American writer and futurist, known for his works discussing the digital revolution, communication revolution, corporate revolution and technological singularity. A former associate editor of Fortune magazine, his early work focused on technology and its impact...
's
Future Shock,
David RorvikDavid Rorvik is an American journalist and novelist who authored the 1978 book In His Image: the Cloning of a Man, in which he claimed to have been part of a successful endeavor to create a clone of a human being....
's
In His Image: Toward Cloning of a Man,
Woody AllenWoody Allen is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, comedian, writer, musician, and playwright....
's film
SleeperA sleeper is a person who is sleeping."Sleeper" or "sleepers" may also refer to:-Entertainment:* Sleeper hit, a work, such as a movie, book, or product, that obtains unexpected recognition or success...
and
The Boys from BrazilThe Boys from Brazil is a 1978 thriller film made by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and produced by Stanley O'Toole and Martin Richards with Robert Fryer as executive producer. The screenplay, by Heywood Gould, is based on...
all helped to make the public aware of the ethical issues surrounding human cloning.
Ethical implications
Advocates of human therapeutic cloning believe the practice could provide genetically identical cells for
regenerative medicineRegenerative Medicine is the process of creating living, functional tissues to repair or replace tissue or organ function lost due to age, disease, damage, or congenital defects. This field holds the promise of regenerating damaged tissues and organs in the body by stimulating previously...
, and tissues and organs for transplantation. Such cells, tissues and organs would neither trigger an immune response nor require the use of immunosuppressive drugs. Both basic research and therapeutic development for serious diseases such as
cancerCancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth , invasion , and sometimes metastasis...
,
heart diseaseHeart disease or cardiopathy is an umbrella term for a variety for different diseases affecting the heart. As of 2007, it is the leading cause of death in the United States, England, Canada and Wales, killing one person every 34 seconds in the United States alone.-Coronary heart disease:Coronary...
and diabetes, as well as improvements in burn treatment and reconstructive and cosmetic surgery, are areas that might benefit from such new technology. New York University bioethicist Jacob M. Appel has argued that "children cloned for therapeutic purposes" such as "to donate bone marrow to a sibling with leukemia" might someday be viewed as heroes.
Proponents claim that human reproductive cloning also would produce benefits.
Severino AntinoriSeverino Antinori is an Italian gynecologist and embryologist. He has publicly taken controversial positions over in vitro fertilisation and human cloning....
and Panos Zavos hope to create a fertility treatment that allows parents who are both infertile to have children with at least some of their DNA in their offspring.
Some scientists, including Dr. Richard Seed, suggest that human cloning might obviate the human aging process. Dr.
Preston EstepPreston W. Estep III is an American biologist and science and technology advocate. He is a graduate of Cornell University, where he did neuroscience research, and he earned a Ph.D. in Genetics from Harvard University...
has suggested the terms "replacement cloning" to describe the generation of a clone of a previously living person, and "persistence cloning" to describe the production of a cloned body for the purpose of obviating aging, although he maintains that such procedures currently should be considered science fiction.
In Aubrey de Gray's proposed SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence), one of the considered options to repair the cell depletion related to cellular
senescenceSenescence refers to the biological changes which take place in organisms as they age. It encompasses all of the biological processes of a living organism's approaching an advanced age...
is to grow replacement tissues from stem cells harvested from a cloned embryo.
Opponents of human cloning argue that the process will likely lead to severely disabled children. For example, bioethicist
Thomas MurrayTom Murray was a Scottish curler. He was part of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club team which won the first Olympic gold medal in curling at the inaugural Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France, in 1924....
of the
Hastings CenterThe Hastings Center, founded in 1969, is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit bioethics research institute based in the United States. It is dedicated to the examination of essential questions in health care, biotechnology, and the environment...
argues that "it is absolutely inevitable that groups are going to try to clone a human being. But they are going to create a lot of dead and dying babies along the way."
ie: because of the difficulty of cloning
any living animal, it is likely that there would be a great number of failures in the creation of a living human clone, such as clones without viable immune systems or other gross genetic failures.
United Nations
On December 12, 2001, the
United Nations General AssemblyFor two articles dealing with membership in the General Assembly, see:*General Assembly members*General Assembly observersThe United Nations General Assembly is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation...
began elaborating an international convention against the reproductive cloning of human beings. A broad coalition of States, including
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
,
PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
, the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
,
Costa RicaCosta Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the east and south, the Pacific Ocean to the west and south and the Caribbean Sea to the east.Costa Rica, which translates literally as "Rich Coast", constitutionally...
and the
Holy SeeThe Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, commonly known as the Pope, and is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and speaks for the whole Catholic...
sought to extend the debate to ban all forms of human cloning, noting that, in their view, therapeutic human cloning violates human dignity. Costa Rica proposed the adoption of an international convention to ban all forms of Human Cloning. Unable to reach a consensus on a binding convention, in March 2005 a non-binding
United Nations Declaration on Human Cloning calling for the ban of all forms of Human Cloning contrary to human dignity, was finally adopted.
Australia
Australia had prohibited human cloning, though as of December 2006, a bill legalising therapeutic cloning and the creation of human embryos for stem cell research passed the House of Representatives. Within certain regulatory limits, and subject to the effect of state legislation, therapeutic cloning is now legal in some parts of Australia.
European Union
The European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine prohibits human cloning in one of its additional protocols, but this protocol has been ratified only by
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
,
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
and
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
. The
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European UnionThe Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union is a document enshrining certain fundamental rights.The wording of the document has been agreed at ministerial level and has been incorporated into the draft Constitution for Europe. However, the draft constitution was rejected by referendums...
explicitly prohibits reproductive human cloning, though the Charter currently carries no legal standing. The proposed
Treaty of LisbonThe Treaty of Lisbon of 1668 was a peace treaty between Portugal and Spain, concluded at Lisbon on 13 February 1668, through the mediation of England, in which Spain recognized Portuguese independence.-The principals:...
would, if ratified, make the charter legally binding for the institutions of the
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
.
United States
In 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2007, the
United States House of RepresentativesThe United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as the "House," is the lower house of the bicameral United States Congress, the upper house being the United States Senate. The composition and powers of the House and the Senate are established in Article One of the Constitution...
voted whether to ban all human cloning, both reproductive and therapeutic. Each time, divisions in the Senate over therapeutic cloning prevented either competing proposal (a ban on both forms or reproductive cloning only) from passing. Some American states ban both forms of cloning, while some others outlaw only reproductive cloning.
Current regulations prohibit federal funding for research into human cloning, which effectively prevents such research from occurring in public institutions and private institutions such as universities which receive federal funding. However, there are currently no federal laws in the United States which ban cloning completely, and any such laws would raise difficult Constitutional questions similar to the issues raised by
abortionAn abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo. An abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy or can be induced, in humans and other species...
.
United Kingdom
The British government introduced legislation in order to allow licensed therapeutic cloning in a debate in January 14, 2001 in an amendment to the Human Fertilization and Embryology Act 1990. However, on November 15, 2001, a
pro-lifeThe pro-life movement is a political and social movement focused chiefly around opposition to abortion, and especially support for the criminalization of abortion. Those involved in the movement generally maintain that human fetuses and embryos are persons, and that therefore they have a right to...
group won a
High CourtThe High Court of Justice is, together with the Crown Court and the Court of Appeal, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
legal challenge that effectively left cloning unregulated in the UK. Their hope was that Parliament would fill this gap by passing prohibitive legislation. The government was quick to pass legislation prohibiting reproductive cloning Human Reproductive Cloning Act 2001. The remaining gap with regard to therapeutic cloning was closed when the appeals courts reversed the previous decision of the High Court.
The first licence was granted on August 11, 2004 to researchers at the
University of NewcastleNewcastle University is a major research-intensive university located in Newcastle upon Tyne in the north-east of England. It was established as a School of Medicine and Surgery in 1834 and became the University of Newcastle upon Tyne by an Act of Parliament in August 1963...
to allow them to investigate treatments for diabetes,
Parkinson's diseaseParkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that often impairs the sufferer's motor skills, speech, and other functions....
and
Alzheimer's diseaseAlzheimer's disease , also called Alzheimer disease, Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer Type or simply Alzheimer's, is the most common form of dementia. This incurable, degenerative, and terminal disease was first described by German psychiatrist and neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer in 1906 and was...
.
In popular culture
Cloning is a recurring theme in contemporary
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
. Examples include the novels
Joshua Son of NoneJoshua Son of None is a 1973 political thriller by Nancy Freedman.Dr. Thor Bitterbaum is in Dallas in November 1963 when the mortally wounded President of the United States is brought to the hospital at which he works. Bitterbaum, recalling recent research in cloning, saves some of the President's...
(about the cloning of an assassinated U.S. President strongly implied to be
John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
) and
The Boys from BrazilThe Boys from Brazil is a 1976 thriller novel by Ira Levin.It was subsequently made into a movie of the same name that was released in 1978.-Plot:...
(cloning
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
), as well as the
Star WarsStar Wars is an epic space opera franchise initially conceived by George Lucas. The first film in the franchise was originally released on May 25, 1977, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, spawning two immediate sequels, released at three-year intervals...
films and TV series
The Clone WarsThe Clone Wars are a series of fictional intragalactic battles in George Lucas's science fiction saga Star Wars. The conflict is first mentioned in the film, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , but no details are given , and the wars themselves are not featured until the second and third episodes of...
. The 2000
Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian American bodybuilder, actor, businessman, and politician, currently serving as the 38th Governor of the state of California....
film
The 6th DayThe 6th Day is a 2000 action film directed by Roger Spottiswoode and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. He plays family man Adam Gibson, who is cloned against his will. Schwarzenegger received a salary of $25 million for his role in the film.-Plot:...
and 2005
The IslandThe Island is a 2005 science fiction film directed by Michael Bay and starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. It was released on July 11, 2005 in the US. It was nominated for 3 awards including the Teen Choice award...
, directed by
Michael BayMichael Benjamin Bay is an American film director and producer. Bay is best known for making large-budget action films, such as Armageddon, The Rock, Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and producing remakes of horror movies such as Friday The...
, also explores the theme of human cloning. An episode of
Star Trek: EnterpriseEnterprise is a science fiction television program created by Brannon Braga and Rick Berman and set in the fictional Star Trek universe created by Gene Roddenberry in the 1960s...
(
Similitude"Similitude" is the title of an episode from the third season of the television series Star Trek: Enterprise. It first aired on 19 November 2003 and was the sixty-second episode of the series.-Plot:...
) deals with the moral and ethical issues surrounding growing a human clone to harvest tissue for an injured crewman. The famous video game franchise
Metal Gear Solidis a stealth action video game directed and written by Hideo Kojima. The game was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and first published by Konami in 1998 for the PlayStation video game console. It is the sequel to Kojimas early MSX2 computer games Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid...
, also revolves around the concept of cloning and genetic alteration. In Margaret Peterson Haddix's novel Double Identity, Bethany is an exact copy of her deceased older sister Elizabeth. The young adult Sci-Fi novel
The House of the ScorpionThe House of the Scorpion is a science fiction novel by Nancy Farmer about a young clone who is being raised to provide spare organs for the powerful drug lord known as "El Patrón". The story is set in the near future. -Plot summary:...
, by Nancy Farmer, also explores the idea of cloning.
Religious objections
The Roman Catholic Church, under the papacy of Benedict XVI, has condemned the practice of human cloning, in the magisterial instruction
Dignitas Personae, stating that it represents a "grave offense to the dignity of that person as well as to the fundamental equality of all people".
Human Cloning is forbidden in
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
. The
Islamic Fiqh AcademyIslamic Fiqh Academy is an Academy for advanced study of Islam based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It was created at the decision of the second summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference 1974 and inaugurated in February 1988.-References:...
, in its Tenth Conference proceedings, which was convened in
JeddahJeddah is a Saudi Arabian city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh...
,
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia , is an Arab country and the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south...
in the period from June 28, 1997 to July 3, 1997, issued a
FatwāA fatwā , in the Islamic faith is a religious opinion concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwa is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be binding, depending on the status of the scholar...
stating that human cloning is
haraamHaraam is an Arabic term meaning "forbidden". In Islam it is used to refer to anything that is prohibited by the faith...
(prohibited by the faith).
External links