Where is human reproductive cloning legal

Given current safety concerns about cloning, she was in favor of a continuing ban. But ultimately, she argued, cloning should be regulated rather than banned outright. In fact, she suggested, the entire fertility industry requires more regulation.

As a basis for such regulation, she proposed assessing the motivation of those who want to use the technology. Those whose motives arise from benevolence--for example, those who want to raise a child but have no other means of bearing a genetically related baby--should be allowed to undergo a cloning procedure.

Those whose motives arise more from narcissistic considerations -- people who want immortality or novelty -- should be prohibited from using the technology.

She proposed mandatory counseling and a waiting period as a means of assessing motivation. Zoloth reached a different conclusion about reproductive cloning based on her reading of Jewish sources. She argued that the availability of such technology would make human life too easily commodified, putting the emphasis more on achieving a copy of the self than on the crucial parental act of creating "a stranger to whom you would give your life. While Zoloth reported that Jewish ethicists vary considerably in their views about reproductive cloning, there is fairly broad agreement that stem cell research is justified.

Among the Jewish traditions she cited were:. Catholic bioethicist Albert Jonsen, one of the deans of the field, gave a historical perspective on the cloning debate, citing a paper by Joshua Lederburg in the s, which challenged his colleagues to look at the implications of the then-remote possibility. He also traced the development of Catholic views on other new medical technologies.

When organ transplantation was first introduced, it was opposed as a violation of the principal, "First, do no harm" and as a mutilation of the human body. Later, the issue was reconceived in terms of charity and concern for others.

One of the key questions, Jonsen suggested, is What can we, as a society that promotes religious pluralism, do when we must make public policy on issues where religious traditions may disagree. He argued that beneath the particular teachings of each religion are certain broad themes they share, which might provide a framework for the debate. These include human finitude, human fallibility, human dignity, and compassion.

Lawrence Nelson, adjunct associate professor of philosophy at SCU, opened the ethics panel with a discussion of the moral status of the human embryo. Confining his remarks to viable, extracorporeal embryos embryos created for fertility treatments that were never implanted , Nelson argued that these beings do have some moral status--albeit it weak--because they are alive and because they are valued to varying degrees by other moral agents. This status does entitle the embryo to some protection.

If the gamete sources agree, Nelson believes the embryos can be used for research if they are treated respectfully. Some manifestations of respect might be:. Over the last 50 years, scientists have conducted cloning experiments in a wide range of animals using a variety of techniques.

In , researchers produced the first genetically identical mice by splitting mouse embryos in the test tube and then implanting the resulting embryos into the wombs of adult female mice. Shortly after that, researchers produced the first genetically identical cows, sheep and chickens by transferring the nucleus of a cell taken from an early embryo into an egg that had been emptied of its nucleus.

It was not until , however, that researchers succeeded in cloning the first mammal from a mature somatic cell taken from an adult animal. After attempts, Scottish researchers finally produced Dolly, the lamb from the udder cell of a 6-year-old sheep.

Two years later, researchers in Japan cloned eight calves from a single cow, but only four survived. Besides cattle and sheep, other mammals that have been cloned from somatic cells include: cat, deer, dog, horse, mule, ox, rabbit and rat.

In addition, a rhesus monkey has been cloned by embryo splitting. Despite several highly publicized claims, human cloning still appears to be fiction. There currently is no solid scientific evidence that anyone has cloned human embryos. In , scientists in South Korea claimed to have successfully cloned a human embryo, but said the experiment was interrupted very early when the clone was just a group of four cells. In , Clonaid, part of a religious group that believes humans were created by extraterrestrials, held a news conference to announce the birth of what it claimed to be the first cloned human, a girl named Eve.

However, despite repeated requests by the research community and the news media, Clonaid never provided any evidence to confirm the existence of this clone or the other 12 human clones it purportedly created. In , a group led by Woo-Suk Hwang of Seoul National University in South Korea published a paper in the journal Science in which it claimed to have created a cloned human embryo in a test tube.

However, an independent scientific committee later found no proof to support the claim and, in January , Science announced that Hwang's paper had been retracted. From a technical perspective, cloning humans and other primates is more difficult than in other mammals.

One reason is that two proteins essential to cell division, known as spindle proteins, are located very close to the chromosomes in primate eggs. Consequently, removal of the egg's nucleus to make room for the donor nucleus also removes the spindle proteins, interfering with cell division. In other mammals, such as cats, rabbits and mice, the two spindle proteins are spread throughout the egg.

So, removal of the egg's nucleus does not result in loss of spindle proteins. In addition, some dyes and the ultraviolet light used to remove the egg's nucleus can damage the primate cell and prevent it from growing.

Clones do not always look identical. Although clones share the same genetic material, the environment also plays a big role in how an organism turns out. For example, the first cat to be cloned, named Cc, is a female calico cat that looks very different from her mother.

The explanation for the difference is that the color and pattern of the coats of cats cannot be attributed exclusively to genes. A biological phenomenon involving inactivation of the X chromosome See sex chromosome in every cell of the female cat which has two X chromosomes determines which coat color genes are switched off and which are switched on.

The distribution of X inactivation, which seems to occur randomly, determines the appearance of the cat's coat. Reproductive cloning may enable researchers to make copies of animals with the potential benefits for the fields of medicine and agriculture. For instance, the same Scottish researchers who cloned Dolly have cloned other sheep that have been genetically modified to produce milk that contains a human protein essential for blood clotting. The hope is that someday this protein can be purified from the milk and given to humans whose blood does not clot properly.

It is not right to cut the string of life of the cell collection at the beginning of life for the purpose of medical research. Anyway, assessing the advantages and disadvantages of this technology is complicating and difficult because on one hand, it is a promise of the great probable advantage to the humanity and on the other hand, it causes several moral doubts and concerns at the level of society.

What adds more complications to this subject is that: first, it is not certain that scientists achieve what they claim. Second, there might be other alternatives with the same advantages and without the mentioned ethical issues. Such alternatives have already been proposed such as using adult stem cells. The most concerns made by the opposition about litigation of therapeutic cloning are on two axes. The first issue is the destruction of the initial embryos which is considered as disrespect of the newly-reproduced human and the initial point of human life.

Second, there is the fear that if the reproductive cloning is banned and the therapeutic cloning becomes free, whereas the initial procedures and techniques of both of the methods are similar, the freedom is abused in this regard and the embryos are developed for the purpose of human cloning. This concern is so serious that the American government strongly criticized to United Nations in a declaration on putting therapeutic cloning out of control and knew it a way to operate reproductive cloning.

Because the research institutes which clone the human embryo are able to use it for any purpose; for example, transferring the human embryo to a hired uterus and reproducing it to a human fetus. In spite of all respect for the new life in the frame of human embryo, supporters of therapeutic cloning believe that human dignity and legal status of the six-day embryo is never equal to a mature human and therefore, the moral problems arising from damage of the embryo are fewer than what the opponents claim.

They consider an average value for human embryos and believe that using the human embryo at the first stage of development is not objected if cloning is operated in the precise legal framework. Some others believe that embryo is a string of cells and it is worth as much as other cells in a body; thus, doing researches on ancestral cell and therapeutic cloning are the same as other cellular and molecular biology researches and they do not have any types of moral problems.

To prevent from long-term culture of embryo and future abuse from it, the experiments will be done on embryos of less than day-old. At this stage, organs are not differentiated yet. Supporters agree with the laws which put therapeutic cloning operation in the certain framework and by controlling the process of cloning operation prevent from any abuse and violation from the related regulations. They believe that the benefits of therapeutic cloning are so many that the technology cannot be ignored due to ethical problems.

This subject is important because reproductive and therapeutic cloning is considered a new technology and is different and various related aspects should be recognized and studied and put into the legal content. In idea of the religious intellects consider the sanctity of the matter to be so obvious that the opportunity for criticism and discussion of the followers in this area is closed.

Some of Sunni scholars exceptionally authorize it in some cases such as treatment of infertility, providing that the technology is guaranteed to be harmless. To keep sanctity of human cloning, some declare the doubtful speech that the cloning process changes the creation process by God and it is an act of evil and forbidden.

This challenge is stated by some of the Sunni scholars. They refer to some of the verses and cited comments to emphasize on sanctity of changing creation. Accordingly, change of creation is the temptation of Devil and Devil also tempts to corruption, prostitution and sins; thus, changes in creation is prohibited. Generally, the views of Shia scholars on human cloning can be classified in four categories of i. The total permit for human cloning: Some of jurists and scholars allow the cloning due to lack of specific documents and clear evidence on the sanctity of cloning and according to the principle of permissibility.

For example, Ayatollah Sistani and Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani considered human cloning not to be problematic if is limited to reconstruction of tissue damages. Also, Ayatollah Moosavi Ardabili believes that there is no strict reason for sanctity of human cloning and this operation is permissible if is limited to reconstruction of tissue damages.

According to reports by Professor Hassan Javaheri, there is no problem on cloning happening in nature, but it is not legal to be undertaken at large scale. Therefore, to prevent from such corruption, the human cloning is considered as the secondary prohibition. Ayatollah Yoosef Sanei also stated that normalizing and legalizing the cloning in a manner that it is considered the same as having children by marriage, is absolutely not compatible with Islamic regulations and jurisprudence and it results in corruptions which must necessarily be avoided legally, socially, ethically and developmentally.

He has declared that the prevention and punishment of its perpetrators and attempters is a must and a rational and religious assumption for all humans especially, legal and executive authorities and propagators. However, he allowed human cloning in rare cases and necessities when it is beneficial for human health and also the use of its scientific aspects; such as the cloning of organs for treatment purpose. According to changes in creation and based on the principle of non-possession of body for human and therefore, the danger and necessity of permissibility in this regard showed the ultimate prohibition of human cloning.

Despite the four categories and disagreements, most of the jurists banned human cloning. In other words, although according to the principle of presumption of innocence, initially, most of the Islamic intellects ruled on its natural permissibility and those who agreed and prescribed the cloning mentioned some of the applications and functions of this technology.

But ultimately, a large number of the Muslim jurists considered it as the secondary prohibition despite its primary and natural permissibility. The significance of jurisprudential analysis of therapeutic cloning is due to the unique features of the technique which play a crucial and exclusive role in treatment of incurable and deadly diseases.

Despite such a wonderful role, whose aspects reveal development of scientific researches everyday, it is required that the jurisprudence has comment on the mentioned problem, the problem which is referred as the loss of ethical dignity and human right on the embryo.

When embryo is developed, three actions can be undertaken including, i To allow to be destroyed, ii To place it in uterus where it develops into a human similar to the donor of the cell in terms of growth, and iii T use it to obtain stem cells.

The operation is the third stage of therapeutic cloning which is described later. It should be known that which one of the three stages of therapeutic cloning is permitted and which is not? Naturally, if only one of the stages is considered prohibited, it is not possible to give fatwa of permission for therapeutic cloning which includes all the stages. The permission of therapeutic cloning is subject to permissibility of all the stages.

Now to review the three stages: The first stage is the use of the cell from human body which is automatically not objected. If there is a problem, it is in the next stages which are not related to this stage. In the second stage, the cell is processed and developed for the next stage when the cell is at 6 or 7-day of age.

In this process, three actions should be done: i Enucleation of cell, ii Placing it into the enucleated oocyte, and iii Simulating the oocyte by chemical or electrical current to start cell division. This type of manipulation in this stage is not prohibitive itself. The only problem is that it might be banned as the point of prohibition. Of course, this initial point is the time when we know that if the operation begins and due to loss of control, the opportunity of abuse in the situation is available and the development of human embryo becomes inevitable.

If human cloning, either as primary or secondary, is a prohibited operation, the operation as the starting point of prohibition will be prevented. But, the third stage is the extraction of the hidden cell mass in the embryo for culturing and obtaining stem cells.

This problem caused a serious disagreement in Christianity and Islam in this stage. The problem is the extraction of cell mass which results in disappearing and killing of the fetus and its potential to become a human.

Naturally, there is a difference between the three categories. The category of sanctity for murder is more severe than the sanctity for the second and third categories. In the third one, the most important rule can be performed easier and more; that is, based on this theory, it can be said that although embryo destruction is banned, whenever a human is suffering from a severe illness and sometimes leading to death, with respect to the more importance of the human life, the embryo is allowed to be destroyed to obtain the stem cell to treat the patient.

As cloning is not still very common and is in the stage of development and has not been tested after birth, the countries with cloning technology do not have a complete and codified law for it. Human cloning may legally cause problems, including the reproduced individual that will be completely similar to the genetic donor, even his fingerprints, and it is exclusive for everybody and considered as the major factor to arrest the offender.

So the genetic owner can commit a crime and escape from law, and allocate his action to the cloned individual or vice versa. Thus, the rights and freedom of both of them will be withdrawn. In addition, the real culprit will not be identified and the rights of the accused person will be ignored. The cloned human does not have a father because it is not from the male sperm and a mother because it is not by composition of gamete and a sister and a brother and a relative, and it is grown in the uterus which is not of his mother but the surrogate mother.

In brief, he is an individual with no relativity. If a virgin woman has a child by cloning of her sexual cell, is her pregnancy legitimate or not? And is the born baby her clone or sister or daughter?

Who does the cloned individual inherits? If somebody kills the cloned individual, what are the rules for compensation or retribution? And who is responsible for alimony and custodianship of the cloned individual?

There are some other legal problems too. One of the tens of reasons for brain drain is lack of right and proper laws to protect scientists and intellects. Khordad 22, AP. Results: Most participants condemned cloning as immoral and said it should be illegal. Negative emotions were much more varied, but anxiety was the most common. Cloning is the process of generating a genetically identical copy of a cell or an organism. Cloning happens all the time in nature.

In biomedical research, cloning is broadly defined to mean the duplication of any kind of biological material for scientific study, such as a piece of DNA or an individual cell. The future uses of SCNT could include the production of transgenic mice, the production of transgenic livestock and assisting with the re-establishment of endangered species.