Cloning of living things has always been a goal that some genetic scientists have dreamed of achieving. But those dreams seemed so far away until recently.
The cloning of Dolly the sheep at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh in 1997, and the isolation of human embryonic stem cells by two research groups in the USA in 1998 have injected new life into the whole business of cloning living things.
Very soon after these breakthroughs an Italian scientist announced his intention to attempt the cloning of a human baby. The response from the scientific community and western governments was damning. The European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, covering not just the EU but all European states, immediately outlawed the practice. But this did not stop the renegade scientist, because he and his colleagues simply decided to take their experiment off shore where no governing body has any jurisdiction over their practice.
The scientists behind the latest revolution are a more reasonable and ethical bunch who will probably abide by the ruling of the UN.
According to the general scientific community, the next reasonable step would be to use these embryos to make embryonic stem cells. These are special cells in the early embryo before it begins to differentiate.
At this point, they can turn into any type of cell in the human body like skin, nerve cells and muscle. This technique could lead to revolutionary treatments for genetic diseases like Parkinson's, some heart conditions and diabetes.
The government have announced their plans to make active preparations to face this new technology head on. Alan Milburn the health secretary said, "The genetics revolution has already begun. It is not going to go away. It is time we as a nation started preparing today for the opportunities of tomorrow."
As we look into the future what can we expect. Will we see a time when human beings are made to order free of all hereditary and genetical diseases and abnormalities. Or is it simply impossible to predict what might happen as we take this unprecedented step into un-chartered territory with very serious implications to the human race and the world we live in.
All of a sudden Jurasic Park doesn’t seem like a remarkable fantasy film anymore.
Alan Milburn also reminded listeners at the International Centre for
Life that "Advances in genetics do raise difficult ethical questions.
The terrible lesson of history is that science can be claimed for
evil, as well as for good”. What do you say? |
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