While therapeutic cloning holds so much promise for all, its enormous potential for medical advancement has been slowed down because of people who think the therapeutic cloning might lead to human cloning. The oppositions against cloning are mainly due to insufficient knowledge about its potential benefits which is further complicated by misconception that all kinds of cloning lead to duplication of human being.
It bears stressing that despite the strong oppositions being mounted against cloning in general not all people are against it. In fact, in a poll commissioned by the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research (CAMR), a majority of Americans support embryonic stem cell and therapeutic cloning research.
Out of the 1,000 respondents, 59% strongly or somewhat favored therapeutic cloning research and only 33% opposed or strongly opposed it.[1] Education also plays a key role in the acceptability of research on therapeutic cloning as the percentage of those in favor rose to 68% after the participants were informed about the potential benefits of therapeutic cloning.[2]
The recent developments in therapeutic cloning should give the public an idea of its importance. Medical science has been looking for ways to find a cure for Parkinson’s disease. It is a disorder in the person’s central nervous system that affects and impairs a person’s skills, speech and other functions. According to a study, about one million people in the United States are living with Parkinson’s disease.[3] Among its victims are celebrities like Michael J. Fox, Vincent Price, Michael Redgrave, Mohammed Ali, and Billy Graham.
Recent breakthroughs have shown that therapeutic cloning may help find cure for people who are afflicted with this devastating disease. According to a team of researchers at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), therapeutic cloning has recently been proven to treat Parkinson’s disease in mice.[4] The team of researchers led by Lorenz Studor used skin cells from the tail of a mouse to generate customized dopamine neurons, the neurons destroyed by Parkinson’s disease.
Through therapeutic cloning, cells taken from a mouse’s tail were converted into embryonic cells and then to the necessary nerve cells. Studies show that the mice that received nerve cells manifested neurological improvement. While this study was initially done with animals, the procedure done by Lorenz Studor and his team can in the future be applied on a human patient to grow part of a person’s brain tissue to repair damage caused by Parkinson’s disease.
Therapeutic Cloning may also be the answer for people who have diabetes. In 1970s Congress almost came to the point of imposing a moratorium on research involving recombinant DNA. A compromise was subsequently reached and the National Institute of Health and Food and Drugs Administration were established to regulate such research.
More than three decades after, millions of people worldwide have benefited from life-saving drugs produced from this research. If the federal government will not extend its support in the development of therapeutic cloning, it is as if they will be denying cure to the millions of people worldwide who are afflicted with other diseases such as diabetes. Present research says that therapeutic cloning may help in creating cells that can produce insulin. It can also be used to create replacement tissue to allow organs such as pancreas to function normally.[5]
Therapeutic cloning may in the future replace organ transplants. At present, people rely on organ transplants to replace their damaged organs. This however is very risky and there is always the possibility of immunological rejection. Therapeutic cloning may hold the answer since the cells used to create an organ will not come from a third person but from the same person who has the same genetic material. This possibility was proven in 2002 by scientists in Massachusetts who found a way to use cells derived from a cloned cow embryo to grow kidney-like organs that functions properly and are not rejected when implanted into adult cows.[6]
Conclusion
The possibilities for future medical discovery and breakthroughs are endless for therapeutic cloning. This is a giant leap for science and also for human race. In the future, it may be possible for people who have heart ailments to have a new heart grown to replace their ailing heart. Those who have liver problems may have a new liver grown to replace the damaged liver. Those whose fingers were cut or hands or feet were amputated may someday be able to grown new arms and feet. Unfounded fears should not be used as an excuse to prevent research on therapeutic cloning.