Posted on 05/19/2005 7:57:01 PM PDT by neverdem
In what scientists say is a stunning leap forward, a team of South Korean researchers has developed a highly efficient recipe for producing human embryos by cloning and then extracting their stem cells.
Writing today in the journal Science, they report that they used their method to produce 11 human stem cells lines that are genetic matches of patients aged 2 to 56.
Previously, the same group, led by Dr. Woo Suk Hwang and Dr. Shin Yong Moon of Seoul National University, produced a single stem cell line from a cloned embryo, but the process was so onerous that scientists said it was not worth trying to repeat it, and some doubted the South Koreans' report was even correct.
Now things have changed.
"It is a tremendous advance," said Dr. Leonard Zon, a stem cell researcher at Harvard Medical School and president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, who was not involved in the research.
The method, called therapeutic cloning, is one of the great hopes of the stem cell field. It produces stem cells, universal cells that are extracted from embryos, killing the embryos in the process, and, in theory, can be directed to grow into any of the body's cell types. And since the stem cells come from embryos that are clones of individuals, they should be exact genetic matches. Scientists want to obtain such stem cells from patients to study the origin of diseases and to develop replacement cells that would be identical to ones a patient has lost.
Dr. Zon cautioned that "it will take a lot of work" before stem cells fulfill those promises, but said the new finding would bring scientists significantly closer to the goals.
"It will spearhead the effort, for sure," Dr. Zon said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Science Magazine apparently started a new, free, limited service where you get access to abstracts and some free articles like this one, Korean Team Speeds Up Creation Of Cloned Human Stem Cells, if you're willing to agree to 2 - 3 Emails per month during registration.
ping
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
No one with even the tiniest shred of ethical concern about cloning or producing humans for disposal would use this kind of language.
This is actually one of the best articles that I've seen on this subject, with an excellent discussion of the technique, the ethical dilemmas, and the controversies.
What they did was make clones of sick people to obtain stem cells from the human cloned embryos.
Those stem cells are specific to the patient who donated the nuclear DNA and the scientists will have to find the key to treating the disease - and that will be the treatment for the one person who was cloned.
In order to do this, they used an average of 17 oocytes (eggs) for each stem cell line. I haven't seen how many clones were produced, but 11 stem cell lines were produced from 9 patients. So at least 220 oocytes - harvested from healthy young women - at least in 17 of the 18 women who donated, since one of the 18 was one of the nuclear DNA donors who donated her own oocytes as well - by laparoscopy after treatment to produce superovulation - were used.
The problem is that at least 11 cloned humans were created for the purpose of killing them and harvesting their inner cell mass.
From the article:
""Scientists say they know the word "cloning" raises fears of actual babies that are clones, but say they have no intention of doing such work. The South Korean government, which paid for the new study, has made it a criminal offense to implant a cloned embryo into a woman's uterus, Dr. Hwang said. "It should be banned throughout the world," he added.
Few would venture into the cloning arena if the science were not so promising, researchers say.
Of course, they add, there is a long way to go from stem cells to therapy. "It's going to take a lot of work," said Dr. Ronald McKay, a stem cell researcher at the National Institutes of Health. "But we want this to work - it's not a theory. My technical and professional judgment tells me this is really important."
But Dr. Kass of the President's Council on Bioethics says that cloning and extracting stem cells from the embryos are not the only ways to do such work. He notes that the majority of the council called for a moratorium on cloning for research. And, he said, the council recently suggested other ways of getting stem cells that could develop into the desired tissue types and that would match a patient's own cells, "without these violations and moral hazards."
Opinion polls have had varied results, often depending on the words that are used to describe the work. In one recent Gallup poll, just 38 percent of respondents approved of cloning embryos for research. Another poll, that used the term "somatic cell nuclear transfer" instead of "cloning" found that 72 percent approved.
Dr. Hwang's paper goes a step further, using "S.C.N.T." instead of "somatic cell nuclear transfer" and then dropping the first two letters and calling the process "N.T."""
That number is almost the same as national dem registration. Go figure. Who are the knee-jerks?
My purpose is just to keep abreast of stem cell science and legislation, whether it pertains to stem cells obtained from adults, umbilical cords or embryos, even though I have objections to using embryos.
They are not unqualified objections. What is supposed to be done with excess embryos from fertility clinics? I haven't heard a good answer yet. If the biological parents of those embryos give consent, what about problems with immunologic rejection or teratomas in therapeutic cloning?
This is one place where the ethics get "hairy", for lack of a better term. It also helps to understand why Catholic doctrine is against in vitro fertilization. But we already have a fait accompli.
South Koreans Streamline Killing of Human Embryos
Again, an abomination
This development is a puzzlement, because in animals, cell cloning of this kind sometimes never produces an actual embryo even if implanted in a uterus. Thus, one might surmise that whatever modified cells were generated by such a process really IS "only tissue" that couldn't possibly have turned into anything else even given the most solicitous care known to mankind.
Now there would be one way to test these cells to see if this is really true, and that would be by implanting samples of the cloned cells in a human womb to see if any of them turn into an embryo. But who'd want to be the first doctor to try? Whether the experiment "failed" or succeeded, he or she would be a world pariah.
http://blog.bioethics.net/
Way, way down at May 11,
When it Snows Embryos
Be sure and read Glenn's comments.
Embryo adoption is the best idea I've read in a very long time.
If only this could be passed into law and the subpreme court leave it alone!
How will we ever know whether or not the human embryos will grow?
It is never ethical to create human life to be used as property or with the intent to kill. In vitro embryos in general and these clones in particular are caused to begin life in danger of their lives. That's slavery and endangerment of life.
As far as cloned embryos, it's similar to cutting off a man's legs with the intent to kill him *because* he can't run away.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.