Stem Cell Research and a Ban on Human Cloning :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

Stem Cell Research and a Ban on Human clone Some biotechnology companies claim that a ban on producing human embryos through cloning would stall important research in generating stem carrells to bring back a variety of diseases Cong. Record, 2/5/98, S425. To put this claim in perspective 1. Cloning is desired as a source of customized stem mobile phone lines which would be an exact genetic match to each individual patient with a given disease. But this would require each individual patient to sustain somatic cell nuclear transfer to produce one or many living human embryos who genetically are the patients identical twin sisters or brothers. These embryos would then be destroyed to provide embryonic stem cells. Two regularitys of obtaining the cells have been set forth. In one, the embryo is allowed to develop normally for a week or two to the blastocyst stage, at or after the usual time of implantation in the mothers womb then this embryo, consisting of hundreds of cells, is dissected for its stem cells. The other method is to introduce molecular signals into the embryos environment to trick its cells into departing from normal development and instead producing a mass of undifferentiated tissue, which can then be reprogrammed into various kinds of cells Lee Silver, refashion Eden Cloning and Beyond in a Brave New World (Avon Books 1997), p. 128. In either case, the living embryo is destroyed. 2. This avenue for providing medical benefits has been described even by supporters as largely conjectural (J. Kassirer and N. Rosenthal, in New England Journal of Medicine, March 26, 1998, p. 905). President Clintons discipline Bioethics Advisory Commission called it a kinda expensive and far-fetched scenario. The Commission observed Because of ethical and moral concerns raised by the use of embryos for research purposes it would be far more desirable to explore the mastermind use of human cells of adult origin to produce specialized cells or tissues for transplantation into patients. The Commission outlined three alternative avenues for promising research apply stem cells that do not involve human cloning, two of which do not use human embryos at all (Cloning Human Beings Report and Recommendations of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, June 1997, pp. 30-31). The Commissions Alternatives The alternatives outlined by President Clintons Commission are as follows 1. Generating a few, widely used and well characterized human embryonic stem cell lines, genetically altered to prevent graft rejection in all possible recipients.