Is somatic cell nuclear transfer ethical?

Is somatic cell nuclear transfer ethical?

SCNT is not ethically acceptable because it infringes on the dignity and individuality of the individual produced, affects the right of the child produced to ignorance, treats the oocyte donor as an object, and may have adverse effects in the children born.

Can somatic cell nuclear transfer work on humans?

Human Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (hSCNT) is a required procedure before derivation of autologous embryonic stem cells (ESC) for clinical treatment. The developmental mechanism for SCNT is similar to the developmental mechanism for fertilized embryos without sperm fertilization.

What ethical issues are involved in cloning?

Therapeutic cloning raises several different but related ethical issues. These include the appropriateness of creating embryos with the intention of destroying them, of hastening the day when reproductive cloning might become feasible, and of fostering a market in human oocytes for research purposes.

Is stem cell therapy ethical?

Adult stem cells and cord blood stem cells do not raise special ethical concerns and are widely used in research and clinical care. However, these cells cannot be expanded in vitro and have not been definitively shown to be pluripotent.

Why is SCNT good?

Another important use of SCNT is to create new embryonic stem cells. These cells have been recognized in the scientific literature and by the NIH as having important biological properties. Therefore, they could provide the scientific basis for research leading to cures and treatments for disease.

What is required for somatic cell nuclear transfer?

Regardless of the species, the SCNT procedure involves three major steps: enucleation, injection/fusion, and activation. After removing the oocyte nucleus, the donor cell nucleus is injected or fused with the enucleated oocytes before the reconstructed embryos are activated.

What is the purpose of somatic cell nuclear transfer?

The main biological goal of SCNT is to reverse the differentiated state of a somatic cell, for the purpose of creating blastocysts from which embryonic stem cells (ESCs) can be derived for therapeutic cloning, or for the purpose of reproductive cloning.

Why is somatic cell nuclear transfer important?

The aim of carrying out this procedure is to obtain pluripotent cells from a cloned embryo. These cells genetically matched the donor organism from which they came. This gives them the ability to create patient specific pluripotent cells, which could then be used in therapies or disease research.

Does cloning pose a long term health defects?

Cloning may cause long term health defects, a study by French scientists has suggested. A two month old calf, cloned from genes taken from the ear of an adult cow, died after developing blood and heart problems.

Why is stem cell therapy unethical?

Stem cells differentiate into many specialized cells and are therefore of interest in chronic conditions for which treatment is limited. However, human embryonic stem cell (HESC) research is unethical since it results in the destruction of human life for research purposes.

What are the other ethical concerns issues raised by stem cell therapy?

Unlimited differentiation potential of iPSCs which can be used in human reproductive cloning, as a risk for generation of genetically engineered human embryos and human-animal chimeras, is major ethical issue, while undesired differentiation and malignant transformation are major safety issues.

Does SCNT have a significant clinical impact to therapeutic cloning?

SCNT in the context of therapeutic cloning holds a huge potential for research and clinical applications including the use of SCNT product as a vector for gene delivery, the creation of animal models of human diseases, and cell replacement therapy in regenerative medicine.