THE MYTHS VS THE FACTS!
MYTH NO. 1:
THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THERAPEUTIC AND REPRODUCTIVE CLONING
FACT:
THE DISTINCTION BEING MADE BETWEEN SO CALLED "THERAPEUTIC" CLONING AND
REPRODUCTIVE CLONING IS COMPLETELY FALSE. IN BOTH CASES, THEY RESULT IN
THE REPRODUCTION OF A NEW LIVING HUMAN BEING - AN EMBRYO. THE ONLY REAL
DIFFERENCE IS HOW THEY ARE BEING USED AFTER THEY ARE PRODUCED. REPRODUCTIVE CLONING
MEANS THE NEW EMBRYO IS REPRODUCED, IMPLANTED IN THE WOMB AND
BROUGHT TO FULL TERM. THERAPEUTIC CLONING MEANS THE NEW EMBRYO IS
REPRODUCED AND THEN INTENTIONALLY KILLED FOR HIS OR HER STEM CELLS.
MYTH NO. 2:
THERAPEUTIC CLONING DOES NOT USE A REAL EMBRYO - IT IS ONLY A BUNCH OF STEM
CELLS, AN UNFERTILIZED EGG, A "PRE-EMBRYO".
FACT:
THERAPEUTIC CLONING DOES USE A REAL EMBRYO! ALL REPRODUCTION BEGINS WITH AN UNFERTILIZED EGG AND PRODUCES A NEW LIVING HUMAN
BEING, WHETHER THAT IS DONE IN NATURAL REPRODUCTION, IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION
REPRODUCTION OR CLONING. (PHOTOS OF EMBRYONIC
DEVELOPMENT) TO SAY THAT THESE NEWLY FORMED EMBRYOS ARE ONLY A BUNCH
OF CELLS DENIES THE SCIENTIFIC FACT THAT A NEW HUMAN LIFE BEGINS AT
FERTILIZATION. FURTHER, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A "PRE-EMBRYO"
(SEE EMBRYOLOGY TEXT QUOTES BELOW)
MYTH NO. 3:
THERAPEUTIC CLONING INVOLVES A DIFFERENT SCIENCE CALLED SOMATIC CELL NUCLEAR TRANSFER
(SCNT) TO CREATE CELLS, TISSUES OR ORGANS - NOT AN EMBRYO!
FACT:
THERAPEUTIC
CLONING DOES NOT INVOLVE A DIFFERENT SCIENCE! BOTH THERAPEUTIC AND REPRODUCTIVE
CLONING USES SCNT, WHICH IS ONLY ONE OF MANY CLONING TECHNIQUES, EACH OF WHICH
REPRODUCE A NEW HUMAN BEING. IN FACT,
SCNT IS THE EXACT METHOD USED TO PRODUCE DOLLY THE SHEEP. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE
HERE IS THAT RATHER
THAN IMPLANTING THE EMBRYO INTO A WOMB, ONE
WOULD HARVEST THOSE CELLS, TISSUES OR ORGANS AT EITHER THE EMBRYONIC OR FETAL
STAGE, WHICH OF COURSE DESTROYS THE BABY IN THE PROCESS.
MYTH NO. 4:
ONLY REPRODUCTIVE CLONING REPRODUCES A HUMAN BEING BECAUSE A HUMAN EMBRYO DOES
NOT BEGIN UNTIL IMPLANTATION IN THE WOMB.
FACT:
NEW LIVING HUMAN EMBRYOS ARE IMMEDIATELY REPRODUCED IN BOTH THERAPEUTIC AND
REPRODUCTIVE CLONING. IMPLANTATION SIMPLY ALLOWS THESE ALREADY EXISTING HUMANS
TO GROW BIGGER AND BE EITHER BORN OR HARVESTED FOR ORGANS AND BODY PARTS. THE
LIE THAT "LIFE BEGINS AT IMPLANTATION" IS AN OLD ONE - USED BY THOSE
WHO ALSO SUPPORT CONTRACEPTION, RU-486 AND THE MORNING-AFTER PILL.
MYTH NO. 5:
"THERAPEUTIC CLONING-ONLY" LAWS WOULD PREVENT HUMAN BEINGS FROM BEING BROUGHT TO
FULL TERM
FACT:
ONCE THE EMBRYO IS PRODUCED IN THE LAB, IT IS INEVITABLE THAT IMPLANTATION WILL
BE ATTEMPTED. SUCH LAWS WOULD THEN HAVE TO LEGALLY REQUIRE ABORTIONS TO BE
PERFORMED IN ORDER TO PREVENT THE CHILD FROM BEING BORN. THESE NEW ABORTION LAWS
WOULD CONVENIENTLY ALLOW THE DEVELOPMENT OF INFANTS UP TO VARIOUS STAGES OF
GESTATION IN ORDER TO HARVEST SPECIFIC ORGANS AND TISSUES.
MYTH NO. 6:
THERAPEUTIC CLONING CAN HELP TREAT MAJOR DISEASES AND SAVE LIVES
FACT:
THERAPEUTIC CLONING IS NOTHING MORE THAN A WAY TO BYPASS BUSH'S LAW GOVERNING
LIMITED FEDERAL FUNDING OF EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH. FURTHERMORE, TO DATE THERE HAS NOT
BEEN ONE SINGLE CURE USING EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS - THE TRUE PROGRESS IS BEING
MADE WITH ADULT STEM CELLS! (SEE RESEARCH NEWS)
- GET THE FACTS - UNDERSTAND
THE TRUTH-
IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION AND CLONING - STEP-BY-STEP-IN PICTURES!
SAMPLES OF SOME OF THE OTHER TYPES OF CLONING - ALL OF WHICH CAN BE USED TO EITHER ASEXUALLY PRODUCE A CHILD OR TO HARVEST STEM CELLS, TISSUES AND ORGANS BY DESTROYING THE EMBRYO.
GERM LINE CELL NUCLEAR TRANSFER
There are two different kinds of cells in the human body:
somatic cells and germ line cells. "Somatic cells" are the
"body" cells; "germ line cells" are the reproductive
cells. Both cells are diploid ("46"
chromosomes") until maturity, and thus can be cloned by nuclear transfer.
Therefore there are two kinds of nuclear transfer cloning techniques: (1)
somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) as discussed above, and (2) germ line cell
nuclear transfer (GLCNT). Just as in SCNT, in GLCNT the diploid nucleus of
the germ line cell is transferred to an enucleated oocyte ("egg") and
the cell is stimulated chemically or electrically, causing a reprogramming of
the DNA in the cell which results in the conversion of this "cell"
into a new human "organism" - a new human embryo (human being).
Any diploid germ line cell at any stage of maturity can be cloned by nuclear
transfer.
TWINNING
Cloning by means of twinning requires that a cell be totipotent
(capable of forming a new embryo under certain conditions). There is a
range of "totipotency" in the cells of the early human embryo, so
there are several kinds of "twinning" possible, depending on the age
of the embryo: "blasomere separation" and "blasotcyst
splitting". A "blastomere" is just the name given to any
cell of the embryo from the 2-cell stage up to the 5-7 days blastocyst
stage. They are all totipotent, but as long as they are part of the
whole embryo they will not revert to new embryos. However, once a
totipotent blastomere is separated from the whole embryo, then it is possible
for it to be reverted to a new human embryo that is genetically
"identical" to the original embryo. This is "twinning"
by means of "blastomere separation". One can also
"twin" by means of splitting the older 5-7 day blastocyst, because
many of the
cells of the inner cell mass of the blastocyst are also totipotent.
Therefore, once the embryo is split into groups of cells, these cells, or groups
of cells, too are capable of possibly reverting to new embryos. This is
"twinning" by means of "blastocyst splitting".
Both mechanisms result in monozygotic twins. Unlike cloning by means of
nuclear transfer, this is a more exact kind of cloning, as both the
nuclear genetic material and the mitochondrial genetic material outside the
nucleus are the same in both "twins". Both kinds of
"twinning" are advertised by IVF centers as a means of "embryo
multiplication" - which could not only reproduce new embryos for
infertility "therapy", but also for pure research purposes only.
PRO-NUCLEI TRANSFER
This is a kind of cloning technique that involves the transferring of parts
of a nucleus (molecules of DNA), rather than the whole nucleus, and is
performed using micro-techniques refined in transgenic and in IVF research for
decades. "Haploid" refers to "23" chromosomes (half
the number required for a human being). "Pronuclei" are the
haploid male and haploid female chromosomes formed at the very beginning of
fertilization in the newly fertilized oocyte before they come
together to form the zygote. Because the male and female pro-nuclei are
still separate from each other, they can be individually removed and transferred
to an enucleated oocyte ("egg") to clone a new human being. For
example, one could take the male pro-nucleus from one IVF-reproduced human
embryo and transfer it to an enucleated oocyte. One could then take the
female pro-nucleus from a different IVF-reproduced human embryo and transfer it
to the same enucleated oocyte. Once this cell is chemically or
electrically stimulated, it could cause the pronuclei to come together and form
the new zygote. This would reproduce a human/human chimera - a human being
derived from two different human embryos.
Human Embryology Textbook References:
"In this text, we begin our description of the developing human with the formation and differentiation of the male and female sex cells or gametes, which will unite at fertilization to initiate the embryonic development of a new individual." WILLIAM J. LARSEN, Human Embryology (New York: Churchill Livingstone,1997)
"Human pregnancy begins with the fusion of an egg and a sperm. ... finally, the fertilized egg, now properly called an embryo, must make its way into the uterus." BRUCE M. CARLSON, Human Embryology & Developmental Biology (St. Louis, MO, Mosby, 1999)
"Human development is a continuous process that begins when an oocyte (ovum) from a female is fertilized by a sperm (or spermatozoon) from a male. (p. 2) ..."but the embryo begins to develop as soon as the oocyte is fertilized." (p. 2); ... "Zygote: this cell results from the union of an oocyte and a sperm. A zygote is the beginning of a new human being (i.e., an embryo)." (p. 2); ... "Human development begins at fertilization, the process during which a male gamete or sperm ... unites with a female gamete or oocyte ... to form a single cell called a zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marks the beginning of each of us as a unique individual." (p. 18) KEITH MOORE AND T.V.N. PERSAUD, The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology (6th ed. only) (Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company,1998)
"The ill-defined and inaccurate term pre-embryo, which includes the embryonic disc, is said either to end with the appearance of the primitive streak or ... to include neurulation. The term is not used in this book." (p. 55) "It is now accepted that the word embryo, as currently used in human embryology, means 'an unborn human in the first 8 weeks' from fertilization. Embryonic life begins with the formation of a new embryonic genome (slightly prior to its activation)." (p. 87) RONAN O'RAHILLY AND FABIOLA MULLER, Human Embryology & Teratology (New York: Wiley-Liss, 1994)
OTHER CLONING ARTICLES
WOMEN
BECOME A COMMODITY
REDEFINING
LIFE