Why We Still Haven't Cloned Humans — It's Not Just Ethics

Summary

Cloning humans, though technically possible, is fraught with ethical, practical, and scientific challenges. While scientists have cloned animals like sheep (e.g., Dolly), cloning humans would involve risky and inefficient procedures, including high failure rates and severe abnormalities. Moreover, there’s no compelling reason to clone an entire person, as therapeutic cloning, aimed at extracting stem cells for regenerative medicine, remains in its early stages. Easier, less controversial alternatives like induced pluripotent stem cells are currently preferred. In essence, cloning's biggest role might be in movies, not in real-life science.

Takeaways

• 😀 Cloning human embryos has been possible for about seven years, but no one has cloned a whole person yet.
• 😀 Cloning is not as straightforward as it seems, and it can be dangerous, often ineffective, and ethically complicated.
• 😀 Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal, was created in 1996, but it took 277 attempts to successfully clone her.
• 😀 The success rate of cloning mammals is currently only 10% to 20%, making the process inefficient.
• 😀 Human cloning faces additional challenges, such as the need for ethical egg donations and surrogates, and the risk of harming the fetus or the surrogate.
• 😀 Cloning embryos can result in high rates of miscarriages, abnormalities, and short life expectancy in cloned animals, making it even riskier with humans.
• 😀 There's no compelling reason to clone a human being, as it would only create a twin, not a replica of the individual.
• 😀 Therapeutic cloning could be used to harvest stem cells to treat diseases, but the process has limitations and ethical concerns.
• 😀 Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are an alternative to therapeutic cloning and have more practical and ethical advantages in medical research.
• 😀 While cloned cells have advantages like healthier mitochondria and the potential to create entire animals, iPSCs are more widely used in research due to their accessibility and efficiency.
• 😀 The Raelian cult claimed to have cloned a human baby named Eve in 2002, but there's no proof of her existence, and the company continues to make dubious claims.

Q & A

What was the first successful mammal cloning experiment?

The first successful mammal cloning experiment was the creation of Dolly the sheep in 1996. She was cloned using DNA from an adult mammary cell of a Finn Dorset sheep.

Why is human cloning considered a highly inefficient process?

Human cloning is inefficient because it has a low success rate, typically between 10% to 20%. For example, it took 277 attempts to successfully clone Dolly, and current cloning methods still have high failure rates.

What are the major challenges of cloning humans?

The major challenges of human cloning include the ethical concerns about cloning humans, the logistical difficulties of obtaining eggs and surrogates, and the high risk of birth defects and miscarriages in cloned embryos.

What ethical concerns arise from human cloning?

Ethical concerns around human cloning include the potential for harm to the cloned individual, the use of human embryos for research, and the violation of human dignity by creating genetic duplicates of people.

What is therapeutic cloning, and how does it differ from reproductive cloning?

Therapeutic cloning involves cloning embryos to harvest stem cells for medical research and treatment, without implanting the embryo into a uterus. Reproductive cloning, on the other hand, involves creating a fully developed organism from a cloned embryo.

What are the potential benefits of therapeutic cloning?

The potential benefits of therapeutic cloning include the ability to generate stem cells that could be used to treat various diseases, repair tissues, and regenerate organs.

What are the downsides of using stem cells from cloned embryos?

The downsides include the limited supply of stem cells from embryos, the ethical concerns of cloning embryos for research, and the potential for the patient's immune system to reject transplanted cells if they are not derived from their own DNA.

Why are induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) considered a better alternative to therapeutic cloning?

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are considered a better alternative because they are derived from reprogrammed adult cells, which avoids the ethical and logistical issues of cloning embryos. They can also be created more easily and inexpensively.

How does cloning compare to using iPSCs in medical research?

Cloning involves more complicated and expensive processes, requiring specialized lab equipment and personnel. In contrast, iPSCs are more accessible, easier to create, and can reliably generate various cell types, making them more practical for medical research.

What is the story behind the company Clonaid and its claims about cloning?

Clonaid is a company founded by the Raelian cult, which claims to have created the first human clone, named Eve, in 2002. However, there has been no proof of this claim, and it remains unverified after more than 18 years.