Cloning and stem cell research

In practice there is no difference between therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning, as both rely on the creation of a new human being. The only distinction is that in one case the embryo is allowed to develop to maturity, whereas in the other the embryo is destroyed in order to obtain its stem cells or organs.

In natural fertilization , the healthiest sperm is likely to be the most successful.
Each gamete contributes 23 chromosomes.Neither sperm nor oocyte can develop into a human by itself.Germ cells -- egg and sperm -- each has only half the DNA, or genetic material that code for a fully functioning human. That is, each germ cell is haploid.

At fertilization two pro-nuclei merge to become the nucleus (the darker centre mass) of the fertilized cell or, thus pairing off the 23 chromosomes of the mother with those of the father, in order to form a unique new individual human being, a single celled human zygote. When sperm and egg unite, the resulting entity or embryo has the full complement (diploid) of DNA necessary for a human being to develop.

This new single-cell human being immediately produces specifically human proteins and enzymes (not potato or rabbit enzymes and proteins), and directs his/her own growth and development.This growth and development has been proven not to be directed by the mother.It is accomplished by turning genes on and off as needed by continually blocking and unblocking the genetic information in the DNA - thus sending a "cascade" of molecular information throughout their growth and development. This development is a physically continuous process of growth and complexity, which continues until death.
If the developing human blastocyst is prevented from implanting into the uterus, then the embryo dies.

IVF attempts to produce fertilization artificially by putting the eggs and sperm together in a laboratory glass container. Sometimes the sperm is injected into the egg.

If separated at the 2,3, 4, or 8 cell stage, each separated cell will itself form a living human twin of the original, identical in genetic content. In humans, clones occur naturally in the case of identical twins who possess identical genetic material. They are effectively clones of each other but not of their parents as they posses genetic information from both mother and father. Human twins can form naturally even after 14 days.
 While twinning (splitting off a cell from an embryo) is one means of producing clones, the more common laboratory method is what is known as somatic cell nuclear transfer.

This cloning technique is described below:

A human egg nucleus has only 23 chromosomes - it cannot by itself become a new human being. Each cell of a human being who has been born has 46 chromosomes, however not all are still "switched on" - they have become specialised to form cells of skin, muscle, bone etc. ["Downs syndrome" humans have one extra chromosome.]
Once a cell has become a skin cell, it continues to produce skin cells as it multiplies.

This is because early in fetal development, cells turn off some of the universal set of instructions found in the DNA on the chromosomes, and specialise.
If grown in a solution and starved of the nutrients which allow them to divide, cells go into a "resting" stage, during which all the DNA in the 46 chromosomes switches back on, like those in the cells of an early embryo, and this is when a single skin cell, or just its nucleus, can be fused with an egg cell which has had its nucleus sucked out, to form a cloned human embryo .Now the new human being has 46 chromosomes, and is a genetic clone of the person who donated the skin cell.

 However the cloning process is far from easy and has a massive failure rate....
Comparing the biology, then, both cloning and fertilisation result in the human egg cell becoming diploid, thus initiating cell development that can lead eventually to a baby's live birth. Both the naturally created and the cloned embryo are entities in the earliest stages of the human species.

If what cloning produces is more than a mere cluster of cells, if it produces a human entity as a research subject to be destroyed, then we may be complicit in research already condemned by globally accepted ethical treatises on human research such as the Nuremberg Code, or the Helsinki Declaration. That is, civilised society already deems it wrong to conduct human research where there is no potential benefit to, and where there is the sure demise of, the human research subject. If so, we need to be more circumspect about endorsing therapeutic cloning's good end of combating human illness without first answering moral concerns presented by its embryo-destructive means.
The worry is that if cloning to generate 'early' embryos to harvest embryonic stem cells is now deemed acceptable to save lives, it might soon become impossible to reject cloning to generate 'later' embryos -- that is, foetuses -- to harvest 'young organs' to save lives.Princeton bioethicist Peter Singer urges that cloned embryos be allowed to develop into advanced foetuses, from whom whole organs may be harvested. To make it palatable, he suggests that cloned embryos may be genetically modified to be headless or, at least, brainless, to render them 'not really persons'.
The reason for all this effort would be that embryonic stem cells culled from surplus or aborted foetuses, morality aside, may be rejected by the recipient without anti-rejection drugs.
Embryos cloned from the patient himself or herself will, in contrast --theoretically, at least -- be a source of genetically almost perfectly matched embryonic stem cells, thus potentially overcoming the rejection problem.
Opponents argue, however, that therapeutic cloning is barbarous since it involves the deliberate creation and sacrifice of human embryos. They say it is like 'cannibalising one's twin', twinning being nature's way of cloning a human being.

Human reproductive cloning has been banned internationally, but that has not stopped some scientists trying....
Why? What child wants to look "just like" mum or dad or be a replacement for their dead relative? Why risk the massive loss of life both before and after birth, or risk the health of the mother, or risk the large possibility of deformity?
 

Stem cells

To use embryonic stem cells for research, a "stem cell line" must be created from the inner cell mass of a week-old embryo. If they are cultured properly, embryonic stem cells can grow and divide indefinitely. A stem cell line is a mass of cells descended from the original, sharing its genetic characteristics.These cultures then continue to grow and divide. Batches of cells can then be separated from the cell line and distributed to researchers. 

TISSUE from aborted fetuses could be used in the commercial production of embryonic stem cells for export early 2003.Melbourne firm ES Cell International will use tissue from aborted fetuses if it is proven to be the best medium for growing human embryonic stem cells in bulk quantities.ES Cell, a commercial partner in Alan Trounson's National Centre for Stem Cell Engineering, funded research in Singapore resulting in the world's first solely human embryonic stem-cell line.

An embryonic stem cell line requires the direct killing of several individuals who are persons/human beings at fertilization.
If recent developments in Great Britain, which now allows scientists to create and destroy embryos in their laboratories, signify the wave of the future, stem-cell research will be building on cloning research to develop new therapies for degenerative diseases. Using spare embryos amounts to an interim step to later allowing cloning embryos from the patient's own cells and harvesting the stem cells from their own cloned embryos, as using stem cells from other embryos doesn’t guarantee the matching of tissue for patients needing cell therapy. Therefore stem cells from IVF embryos are likely to be used as a source of living human tissue to test drugs on, followed by a push to clone embryos of the patient to harvest compatible stem cells to treat  the patient.This latter technique will also necessitate the donation of many eggs in the cloning process for each patient.

Ethical Alternatives
Stem cells can be taken from the umbilical cord blood at birth, from bone marrow, from liposuctioned fat and many other places in the patients' own body.
Adult stem cells from these sources can also change into other types of cells and be used to treat the patient, without the need to kill any embryos at all!!!

The IVF process itself has a huge loss of live embryos - some are screened for genetic defects such as "Downs syndrome" and discarded, others fail to implant, others miscarry, others are stillborn, or die soon after birth. Those chosen for freezing may not survive the freezing/thawing process, and over years in storage their cells deteriorate. Strong superovulation drugs allow many eggs to be collected at once and fertilised, but only 2-3 live embryos at blastula stage or earlier, are put into the womb in each implantation attempt. The rest are frozen or discarded. Some international clinics do not freeze embryos, thus avoiding the problem of "spare" or "unwanted" frozen embryos. Australia has 70,000 frozen IVF embryos waiting in suspended animation for their parents to use in further treatment cycles. In spite of all attempts, many parents never take home a live baby.
When IVF techniques became routine two decades ago, over the objections of the Catholic Church, it became nearly impossible to effectively challenge the development of a myriad of new and perhaps more objectionable technologies—from human cloning to the manufacture of quality-controlled custom-built children—that are based on IVF.