More monkey business
Comments (5)
Friday, November 16, 2007 | 05:24 PM ETBy quirks
By Bob McDonald, host of the CBC science radio program Quirks & Quarks.
The cloning debate is back in the news, after researchers in Oregon cloned a monkey embryo, then destroyed it to harvest embryonic stem cells. The technique, if applied to humans, could lead to treatments for serious illnesses, such as Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis and spinal injuries. But it also raises ethical issues about the use of embryos and the scary possibility of creating a cloned human.
Scientifically, this experiment was an important step towards the use of stem cells to produce tissues for transplant, which would contain the recipient’s own DNA and therefore not be rejected by the body.
Here’s how it could work. Suppose you’re in an accident that injures your spine. You need a transplant of spinal material. If the transplant comes from someone else, your body could attack it, which means you have to take drugs that suppress your immune system. But that can also make you vulnerable to other diseases. Making new tissue from stem cells is like growing your own transplant.
You start with a few cells that are taken from, say, your skin. The nucleus containing your DNA is removed from one of those cells and carefully inserted into a human egg that has had its DNA removed as well. The egg, now containing your genetic information, develops into an embryo, but it’s not allowed to proceed very far. When it is still just a tiny ball of cells, it is taken apart and embryonic stem cells are separated out.
Stem cells have the potential to produce any type of cell in the body. So through a trick of chemistry, those stem cells are encouraged to produce new spinal cells, which are transplanted into your back. Those new cells are accepted as though they were your own because, genetically, they are your own.
That’s the power of stem cell therapy. It has the potential to generate new tissue that is indistinguishable from your own, so rejection is not an issue. Need a new patch for your heart that was damaged by stroke? Grow your own heart tissue. Need some new skin after that terrible fire? Grow your own.
It may even be possible to grow new cells for the brain. At least that’s the hope. Remember, this was a lab experiment using monkeys that was very difficult to perform, involving far more failures than successes.
While the scientists are celebrating this small step forward, it once again raises the issue of using embryos as a source of cells for therapy, and the possibility of producing a cloned individual.
In other words, if an unscrupulous scientist planted one of the embryos containing your genetic material into the womb of a surrogate mother, you could have a clone of yourself to deal with. Who would be the parent of that clone: you, the surrogate mother, the woman who donated the egg, all of you? What if there was more than one?
Of course, no one working in the field of cloning wants to clone a human. Many say it’s not even possible to do it. Yet therapeutic cloning is a powerful tool with great potential.
To take the next step, from monkey to human experiments, which is a very big step, human embryos must be used and destroyed. Opponents will oppose, and the science will stand still until the debate is resolved.
How long will it be before the debate is put to rest and the scientists are allowed to get on with their work of developing treatments for very sick people?
- Bob McDonald
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Comments (5)
Stewart Mitchell
eventually genetically engineering in primates will become so advanced that we will create a superrace . The fist child will be given the name of Adam. Later a super mate will produced . and she will be called Eve.
Eventually this supercouple will learn evil genetics (aka the serpent in the tree of life) .the couple will create a genetic bomb to wipe out their creators , humans. war ensues and the new superrace is bannished to a less pleasant enviroment. What happens to the human race is not clear.
Posted November 16, 2007 09:26 PM
Des Emery
Hi Bob -- Considering the kerfuffle that is inevitable in 'creating and then destroying' embryonic life, perhaps the best thing to do would be to invest heavily in growing and developing srem cells from other sources. News reports are consistently coming from all over the world, documenting 'discovery' of stem cells in all parts of our bodies, including bone, skin, eyes, umbilical cord, and menstrual blood, the latter just recently.
It seems to me that if cancer replacement cells are required, we would save time and money in directing stem cells already programmed to become the type of cells we need rather than start from scratch each time.
Your conjecture about parenthood of a clone is interesting, but if the clone is of me, then my parents are the parents of the clone, too, as my DNA is singular to the clone, regardless of the owner of the donated egg or the surrogate carrier of the embryo.
Posted November 17, 2007 12:11 AM
margaret dijkhuis
Could someone please comment on the following, considering that this stem-cell research area raises a number of serious moral issues:
Why not get stem-cells from umbilical cords? I have heard that this is as viable a source as embryos.
Thanks,
margaret dijkhuis
Posted November 18, 2007 09:58 PM
Leon
This week there was news that stem cells were successfully create (by two seperate teams using slightly different methods) from skin cells. I think this shows that if more research efforts were devoted to this line of investigation, instead of embryo stem cells, a great deal of controversy could have been avoided and the research would have progressed much further.
There were a few voices all along saying it should be possible to create stem cells from any cells in the body, yet the majority of researchers in the field seemed to choose the 'easier' though controversial route to an end.
I'm left wondering if this new and confirmed discovery will mean researchers will move away from using embryonic stem cells...
Leon
Posted November 23, 2007 03:24 AM
Rainer
Winnipeg
Im doing a project on this.
Posted November 27, 2007 11:29 AM