Pablo Tostado Marcos NIA: 100284397 Biomedical Engineering CLONING, AN OPEN DOOR TO ENTERNITY Deep developments would shoot

up the human beings life expectancy From the earliest days, the human being has never given up in the ongoing battle against diseases. Health problems have always constituted the main risk for the humans life. Severe have been the attacks of common illnesses along evolution, and so has been the anxiety to find remedies against them. Life expectancy has risen more than 30 years in the last century, (reaching the pinnacle of 80 years in Spain)1, and life quality does never stop improving. However, despite the fact that men have fought hard to be able to overcome almost every known disease, death still ends drastically with all our expectations of knowing what will happen tomorrow. Precisely, this aim of staying in this living world as long as possible is the reason why men try so hard to preserve their physical body functions. This never-ending battle for the healths sake pushes scientists to look for more ambitious, fearless solutions, with no settled horizon at the front. However, every new step in the science career brings a deep debate attached, not always easy to solve. It has been 50 years since the DNA and its function as life controller was discovered, and it conferred the most powerful weapon ever in order to understand the mechanism of life, the origin of several important inherited disorders, and what is more important, the process of reproduction. From then on, myriad branches of science have based their investigations on this issue finding out astonishing opportunities, some of them as extraordinary and controversial as it is the aim of artificially cloning organisms. The term cloning is often thought to be related to the creation of a living organism identical to another one. This definition is not so far from the real concept; the problem relies on what people understand by a living organism.
1

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundosalud/2007/10/29/medicina/1193655603.html

The strict meaning of cloning refers to the process by which identical copies of an organism, cell or molecule are asexually obtained.2 According to this definition, we can think about natural reproductive processes which could be considered to produce clones, and so they are. As long as sexual reproduction is avoided, there is no genetic variability among the offspring, and what we obtain is simply identical descent, e.g. starfish, bacteria, common cells (bipartition) etc. Everyday-used, common techniques such as the duplication of a DNA strand by using a plasmid are also considered clonation. As a matter of fact, scientists clone everyday, and there is no cause for concern. All this said, it is important not to forget the options that all this knowledge brings along with, about which we are still walking on a limb, i.e. the creation of an exact genetic copy, and hence, life. There are two main methods to perform the cloning technique: Artificial Embryo Twinning.3 An early embryo is artificially divided and them inserted into a surrogate mother Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer. The nucleus of an adult somatic cell is extracted and manually introduced into an egg cell whose nucleus has been previously removed. Once settled an accurate definition of what cloning refers to, an endless fan of possibilities manifest in several branches of science. Cloning molecules and cells is currently one of the most powerful tools of research. The capacity of cloning cells enables scientists to obtain an infinite number of samples of them, for the further analysis of a certain feature, the origin of a malfunction, or the cause of any irregularity. This nave notion of cloning not only does provide an efficient method to analyze how do cells behave and reproduce, but a method to work out their reaction when they are exposed to an external agent, that is, an antibiotic for example, or when their genome is manipulated. It is essential to emphasize that this
2 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloning http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/tech/cloning/whatiscloning/

technique supposes a great advance in the research of diseases causes, and to understand the reproductive tendency of viruses, infections and even cancer. Therapeutic cloning, which suppose a step forward in this context, and probably the most hopeful application of this field, is just around the corner. Its goal consists of the use of Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer technique in order to get a pluripotent embryonic cell, able to reproduce and specialise towards every different tissue of the organism. The limitations of this method are based on the difficulties that appear when trying to guide the reproduction in a specific direction, i.e. liver, kidney etc.4 Yet, the latest investigations have made a step forward using different cultures for each different type of cell, which is the key point to control the specialisation to the target tissue.5 In the field of medicine, there is a direct implication of this artificial mechanism to obtain a culture of cells under control. The development of the necessary technique to guide the differentiation wanted would become the everyday-dreamt solution to one of the most important current causes of death all around the world: transplants. The lack of available, compatible transplants kills twelve people every day in Europe.6 Transplants insufficiency is one of the most alarming threats in the present society, directly pointing to healthcare. Its importance relies on the fact that there is not a complementary way to solve certain physical damages. Nonetheless, this technique could immediately quell this problem. It would award patients the possibility of receiving an organ directly developed from their own cells. This way, the lack of available transplants would not be a problem any longer. It should never be forgotten that incompatibility is one of the most standing causes of rejection, an inconvenient which would also be immediately extinguished. What is quite certain is that the coming future will make use of all these improvements in a natural way. The promising aspect about the different branches of genetics is the close interrelation existing among them, allowing science to combine all together, which is, cloning tissue genetically manipulated in a bid for longevity or strength.

4 5

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonaci%C3%B3n (Andropatic cloning) http://www.nuncbrand.com/us/page.aspx?ID=312 6 http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/ONU/alerta/creciente/trafico/personas/trasplantes/elpepusoc/20 091013elpepusoc_11/Tes

A more risky but not less promising field of application is the manipulation of stem cells. It is known as one of the most controversial aspects of the topic. The extraction of the nucleus of a somatic cell to be artificially introduced in an egg cell, if let to reproduce naturally, could result in a complex living organism, obtained by an artificial asexual replication. As there is no fecundation, the interchange of genetic material does not take place, and all the genetic information is provided by the same progenitor. It is a widespread event the sheep Dolly clone. The scope of this issue fairly goes beyond our understanding, and it is questionable whether science should have the right to manipulate potential human embryos or not. Church is reactant both to concede and to approve this behaviour, considering it as a way of abortion7. In addition, controversy related to the category of the new individuals also appears. The possibility of creating identical forms of life to the pre-existing ones in a non-natural way raises the human being to the role of God, an attitude whose consequences is not likely to be ready to stand. On the one hand, the control of this capability might confer the power of relive, to be born once again, to become immortal. But on the other hand, the danger of loosing identities or unique personalities could also happen. For the time being, it is nothing but a science fiction idea, but ethical commitments must be defended and established in advance. The inescapable conclusion which emerges from what herein has been said is that restrictions must be settled carefully as long as moral issues are involved in the topic. However, necessary investments in this branch of bioengineering would instantly aid to solve myriad everyday problems which are severely threatening a notable percentage of the worldwide population.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books INTRODUCTION TO BIOENGINEERING

http://www.americancatholic.org/news/stemcell/

HUMAN CLONING Sources http://www.godandscience.org/slideshow/stemcell.html http://www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/bioethic/stemcell/StemCell_Q&A_Spanish08.pdf http://www.biotech.bioetica.org/i19.htm http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/tech/cloning/whatiscloning/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloning http://www.embrios.org/clonacion/fin_terapeutico.htm http://ciencia.glosario.net/biotecnologia/clonaci%F3n-celular-10064.html en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_cell_controversy