CLONING I.

ETYMOLGY Greek = klon = a branch or a twig from a plant which when inserted in the soil can reproduce the plant from which it was taken

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DEFINITION Cloning is the asexual and agamic reproduction of a biological entity which is genetically identical to the one from which it originated.

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HISTORY Cloning of plants (such as growing a plant from a cutting) has been a common practice of mankind for hundreds and perhaps thousands of years ago. Since the '30s experiments have been made in producing identical individuals by artificial twin splitting, a procedure which can be improperly called cloning. In 1993 Jerry Hall and Robert Stilmann of George Washington University published data concerning the twin splitting they performed on human embryos. 1995 - Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell of the Roslin Institute in Scotland successfully cloned two sheep, Megan and Morag, using cells extracted from differentiated embryos. 1996 - Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell cloned the first animal from adult cells. Dolly the sheep born on July 5, 1996 1998- Dolly gave birth to three healthy lambs, conceived by natural mating. The cloning of Dolly is one of the most important milestones in the history of animal cloning, as it proves that cloning of adult animals is possible. PROCEDURE 1. Reproductive 2. Therapeutic 3. PURPOSE 1. reproductive - to obtain individuals with a genetic patrimony identical to that of the donor of the nucleus; 2. Therapeutic - to obtain an embryo immune from mitochondrial diseases 3. productive - obtain selected organs, tissues and cell lines of the required genetic quality. 4. Experimental - to understand the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of cell growth, potency, differentiation, regeneration and senescence.

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CHURCH STAND Human Cloning -- Regardless of Its Procedure and Purpose -- Is Contrary to the Dignity of Human Beings and Their Right to Life. Since it is asexual reproduction it is against the procreative design of the Creator to man Against Gods plan against nature

Why reproductive cloning is immoral Cloning, like in vitro fertilization, participates in the basic evil of moving human procreation out of the setting of committed marital intimacy and into the laboratory. Each of us has a right to be brought into the world as the fruit of marital love, rather than as the product of technical domination and manufacturing protocols. Each of us is meant to be treated as a subject of inestimable and unrepeatable value, rather than as an object for manipulation. Procreation is not meant to be replaced by production. it represents an extremely serious form of domination and manipulation by parents over their own children. cloning is a type of human breeding, a despotic attempt by some individuals to dominate and predetermine the make-up of others. This notion that children are always a gift, rather than a product to be manipulated or designed according to our own fancy, stands at the heart of what is objectionable about human reproductive cloning. With cloning you also distort the relationships between generations. Cloning commodifies the bodies of women. Women are deprived of their innate dignity by becoming suppliers of eggs and wombs.

Why is therapeutic cloning Immoral? therapeutic cloning is worse than reproductive cloning it is the creation of that same identical twin for the premeditated purpose of ending his life to harvest his tissues. Human therapeutic cloningthe artificial creation of a human being for the sole purpose of his exploitation and destructionwill always be gravely unethical, even if the desired end is a very good one, namely, the curing of diseases. Once you are constituted a human being, which always occurs at fertilization (or at an event that mimics fertilization, like cloning), you are a new member of the human species and must be protected unconditionally. Once you are a being who is human, you are the bearer of human rights, and you are inviolable.