Therapeutic Cloning

The more Acceptable Side of Cloning

Cloning has been hugging headlines and pages of scientific journals for years now. But ordinary people see it in just one perspective- it is unthinkable and insult to the Almighty. Moralists have been condemning it, saying it is unethical. Many people remain even more skeptical about it after the death of Dolly, the world’s first cloned sheep.

But cloning is actually misunderstood. Cloning is not just reproducing or replicating an organism. There is also such thing as therapeutic cloning.

What is therapeutic cloning?

Therapeutic cloning is a technique that aims to produce embryos that can be a source of stem cells. Stem cells can differentiate into any body cell such as nerve cells, skin cells, kidney cells or any damaged cells of organs that need replacement. The technique does not aim to make whole humans. Such stem cells could possibly be used to grow organ that can be transplanted without fear of rejection since the cultured organ is from the parent cell as well. The technique is also referred to a “somatic cell nuclear transfer” or SCNT.

How is Therapeutic Cloning Done?

1. A person who needs healthy stem cells would provide a somatic cell. This is any cell of the body except for the reproductive cells (egg and sperm)
2. The DNA of the somatic cell is removed and inserted into a donor egg that has been stripped on its nucleus and DNA as well.
3. The donor egg which has not been fertilized by a sperm but with the introduced DNA would begin dividing like a fertilized egg and would form an embryo.
4. Five to six days after the egg started dividing, stem cells can now be harvested from the embryo.
5. The harvested stem cells would be grown and cultured and thus would provide the needed healthy cells.