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Does Personhood Begin During Pregnancy?
Published in Christopher Kaczor, The Ethics of Abortion, 2023
Another view is that implantation in utero marks the moment when a human being becomes a person. The importance of implantation is linked to the issue of abortion (particularly very early chemical abortion), the fate of human embryos created through in vitro fertilization not implanted in the womb (“spare” human embryos), and to therapeutic cloning, so a word about cloning is in order. A distinction is sometimes drawn between therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning. Therapeutic cloning creates a new human embryo with the same genome as the “parent” who is cloned but destroys this human embryo in research before it is implanted in a woman's uterus. Reproductive cloning creates a human embryo for the sake of implanting the embryo in a maternal womb to be born. (In fact, both forms of cloning are “reproductive” in that they both produce an embryonic human being.) So, if human personhood begins at implantation, and not before, then therapeutic cloning would be permissible even though it destroys a human embryo. US Senator Orrin Hatch expresses this view in its most popular form when he says that a human life worthy of respect begins “in a woman's womb, not a Petri dish.”
Exploitation and control of women's reproductive bodies
Published in Wendy A. Rogers, Jackie Leach Scully, Stacy M. Carter, Vikki A. Entwistle, Catherine Mills, The Routledge Handbook of Feminist Bioethics, 2022
Therapeutic cloning involves producing stem cells which can repair and replace damaged human tissue, and it depends on a suitable supply of human eggs. Biologists have observed that the mammalian egg can remodel and replicate chromosomes not only from a sperm head but also from a variety of other cells (Kiessling 2004). This property has been exploited in the process of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), which involves removing the nucleus from an egg and replacing it with the nucleus of a somatic cell. The egg is then stimulated with a shock to develop into an embryo, either for transfer to a uterus for further development (reproductive cloning), or for culture in vitro (therapeutic cloning).
The Dawn of GM Humans
Published in Tina Stevens, Stuart Newman, Biotech Juggernaut, 2019
As controversy about human cloning brewed, bioentrepreneurs attempted to redefine scientific terminology for public consumption. The goal was to snuff out smoldering contention and popular challenge to professional autonomy. The method was to subdivide the definition of the term “cloning.” If the intent in producing a clonal embryo by nuclear transfer was to study it in the hope of finding cures, the recommended term was “therapeutic cloning.” If the intent in producing a clonal embryo by nuclear transfer was to bring to term a cloned infant, the recommended term became “reproductive cloning” (Kass et al., 2002; Beverly, 2003). Therapeutic cloning would be acceptable. Reproductive cloning could remain beyond the pale. The new nomenclature did not reflect existing scientific terminology, but appeared to be invented to sow confusion. More specifically, it did not correspond to how scientists in the field described their uses of SCNT. SCNT was the same technology, regardless of whether the researcher’s intent was to find cures or create a full-term human clone. Diverting attention away from the technique itself to the intentions of the scientist directing it was a political strategy. The motives of the researcher would function in place of externally imposed regulation.
Challenges and ethical considerations for using cloned primates for human brain discovery
Published in Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery, 2018
Alan O. Trounson, Andrew J. French
Ethical discussion on cloning has mainly been confined to human reproductive cloning and somatic cell nuclear transfer or therapeutic cloning [15]. There were some concerns about cloning farm animals and their entry into the human food chain but these have disappeared with regulatory approval for their use. Cloning NHP is a technical step closer to the cloning of humans and this might be an ethical concern to some people. Regulatory authorities do not require data from NHP models in preclinical medical research unless the therapeutic risks and efficacy cannot be demonstrated adequately in rodents or other large animals, or in vitro. It is difficult to completely avoid the use of NHP in neurological research because of the need to find models that represent closely human neuronal conditions. NHP research attracts increased opposition from animal activists but the degree of concern varies in different cultures. There is also a general trend by research ethics committees for reducing the number of animals used in experiments in medical research and cloned animals may be considered as supporting this trend because of their genetic homogeneity. However, other practical factors such as cost and availability will also impact on the use of cloned NHP.