It has been four years since the breakthrough cloning of Dolly the sheep. Have science and medical technology come any closer to defining the line between nature and nurture since then? Regardless, ethical and moral debates have yet to simmer.
Britain has staked claim on the forefront of medical technology with the House of Lords' Jan. 26 legalization of human embryo cloning. Is the reproductive cloning of humans the inevitable next step?
Assistant professor of biomedical engineering Steven Slack says it's a question of legality.
"Take this with a grain of salt, but I project in five to eight years we'll be cloning reproductively," Slack said. "It's a matter of whether they do it legally or illegally."
Cloning has been taking place since the 1960s. Moral opposition found its target when humans became a cloning objective, said Charles Lessman, professor of microbiology and molecular cell science.
Stem, or master, cells are the object of research with human embryo cloning. The stems are unprogrammed cells found in early stage embryos that can match any cell type and generate tissue and organs. These efforts are aimed at cures for leukemia, Parkinson's and diabetes -- to name a few.
Citizen activist and official spokesperson for the Human Cloning Foundation Randy Wicker expressed the medical society's excitement.
"England is light years ahead," Wicker said.
Lessman said he sees no problem with embryo cloning research, but said the same research could be done using animal, rather than human, cells.
"Where is the merit for scientific advantage?" Lessman asked.
"It's a naughty issue," Slack said. "Embryos have a chance of survival."
Despite the potential for creation of a cloned human, regulations state all clones are to be terminated after a two-week period.
Wicker said he is opposed to the forced termination rule.
"So it's okay to clone to kill, but it's not okay to raise, love and nurture," he said.
People from the President to the Pope have taken anti-clone stances. President Bush said in a press conference that embryos have constitutional rights. The Pope, in a public address in August, frowned on failure to recognize the value of a person. He said even with a directive good in itself, the manipulation and termination of human embryos is morally unacceptable.
Identical twin studies hold the key to cloning, Wicker said. Twins separated at birth and reunited late in life show astonishing similarities in food preference, favorite colors, sports interests and interest in the opposite sex.
"Society thinks nurture is everything and nature is little," Wicker said. "Who thought colors or music were a product of genetics? It's the differences that will shed light on genes and nurture."
He said verbal skills and creativity can be very different, though, even in identical twins. Clones, which are merely physical replicas, are just as closely related as identical twins. An identical twin meeting his or her other half 20 years after birth is no more than staring a clone in the eye, according to Wicker.
"What's the purpose," Lessman asked. "Nature has been cloning humans as long as we can date with identical twins. Identical human twins are clones of each other. If nature already does it, why does man want to? What's the purpose?"
It's all about responsibility, said Ricky Roehr, spokesperson for Clonaid in California. "There is wisdom behind technology," Roehr said.
He said even extinct species can flourish again by cloning embryos from cryogenically preserved tissues. The woolly mammoth and Tasmanian devil are two species that could be brought back from extinction by cloning.
"It raises a lot of questions, but finally science is meeting my needs," said junior history major Colin Britton. "We need elephants with more hair."
Slack said there is a tremendous opportunity to wreak havoc.
"Don't throw the baby out with the board," Wicker said. "Right-to-lifers want to ban stem cell research period. Yes technology can be abused, but science is better than stupidity. People are killed every year in automobiles. Do we ban cars? No, we penalize drivers."
It needs to be handled in the public eye because dangers arise behind closed doors, Roehr said.
"When new technology hits, there's always resistance -- but the more restrictions that are put on cloning, more doors are closing," said Roehr. "We can clone an army of angry, violent people or an army of good, happy people. There is so much potential for happiness if done responsibly. People suffer from disease and cloning and genetic engineering can eliminate suffering."
Wicker said cloning even points toward longer life-spans. To date, a cloned mouse has spawned five generations.
"It's a cheap shot, but it may indicate that clones live longer," Wicker said.
Roehr said reproductive human cloning is certainly inevitable.
"If it's going to happen it's going to happen," he said.
Wicker said when it does, it has to be perfect.
"Even a sixth finger and the people will eat it up," Wicker said. "It has to be perfect."
You can find further information on human/embryo cloning at www.Clonaid.com, the Human Cloning Foundation at www.HumanCloning.org. and Clonerights.com.
