Cloning and Ethics

Arina Amma and Guillaine

Levenswaard (V6A)

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Table of content

• In
troduction: Is the cloning of organisms ethical?…………………………………………………. 4

• W
hat is the principle of cloning?

- D
efinition and biological aspect…………………………………………………………………….. 5

- N
atural cloning……………………………………………………………………………………….. 5

> Humans offspring and twins ……………………………………………………………………5

> Other eukaryotes…………………………………………………………………………………7

> Plants………………………………………………………………………………………………8

> Prokaryotes (archaea and bacteria)………..…………………………………………………..9

- A
rtificial cloning………………………………………………………………………………………...9

> Eukaryotes………………………………………………………………………………………..9

> Plants……………………………………………………………………………………………..10

> Bacteria…………………………………………………………………………………………...11

• W
hich possibilities do we have with cloning?

- H
istory of cloning……………………………………………………………………………………..12

- T
o what extent can we use cloning?……………………………………………………………….17

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- A
nimals and endangered species..…………………………………………………………………19

• H
ow will cloning affect our morals and norms?

- D
efinition of morals and norms in our society……………………………………………………. 22

- P
ublic’s opinion…………………………………………………………………………………..….. 24

- N
ature vs. Nurture……………………………………………………………………………………28

> Nature-nurture and individualism in philosophy………………………………………………. 28

> Nature vs. nurture in the media…………………………………………………………………. 33

> Nature vs. nurture in science…………………………………………………………….……….34

• A
re there concerns about the scientific and ethical perspectives?

- G
eneral explanation of ethicality……………………………………………………………………34

- E
thical debates in religion and science……………………………………………………………35

> Religious debates………………………………………………………………………………….35

> Scientific debates………………………………………………………………………………….36

• C
onclusion………………………………………………………..……………………………………39
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• A
nnexes……………………………………………………………..…………………………………40

• S
ources and references………………………………………………..……………………………45

• R
egistry……………………………………………………………..………………………………… 52

Introduction: Is the cloning of organisms ethical?

The practice of cloning and its controversies is often included in media publications. We can find
it pretty much everywhere around us, but when talked about it’s often considered a negative
aspect of our society. Statements and questions concerning ethics can cause major discussions,
with no clear outcome. Even though we might already have or could develop the technology to
clone an organism as complicated as a human being, it’s very unlikely to happen any time soon
and to be a common thing in the future. Would it even be humane to clone a human being for
our own benefits or other purposes?

We are curious to find the reasoning behind the different perspectives on this topic and will be
discussing in what ways individuals form their opinion about it. In order to rationalize these
perspectives, it’s important to understand the meaning and different forms of cloning that occur,
either naturally or artificially.

We plan to research how human beings feel about cloning in terms of morality and ethicality. To
make the perspectives clearer, we’re going to do research in the biological field as well, to
conclude what cloning consists of looking at current and past events. Other than that, we’re
including a questionnaire to find out what the public’s opinion is, which we will also further
analyze.

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We’re assuming that most individuals will have some sort of objection against the cloning of
humans, and less objection against the cloning of animals, plants and bacteria, which is our
thesis statement. We’re going to try to find an answer to the research question “Is the cloning of
organisms ethical?” and view the different perspectives on statements that answer that specific
question.

What is the principle of cloning?

Definition and biological aspect

The principle of cloning has been an element of our planet for a long time. There are several
kinds of cloning that occur naturally and a couple that can only be completed with human and
scientific influences.

The term cloning can be interpreted in different ways, but the most general definition is
something along the lines of ‘copying or replicating an individual to produce a genetically
identical organism, either naturally or artificially.’

Certain plants, bacteria and fungi can only create offspring by natural asexual reproduction,
which is a form of cloning as the next generation has the exact same genes as the original
organism. Asexual reproduction is a way for an organism to produce offspring without having a
mate or partner that plays a role in the process. This implies that fertilization or inter gamete
contact does not take place. Because of this method, specific species have been able to
advance to different locations for millions of years.

Natural Cloning

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Cloning is often seen as something that is man-made and unnatural, but what many don’t realize
is that cloning can be a perfectly natural thing and a form of reproduction for many organisms. A
lot of these organisms even depend on this process in order to keep existing. Asexual
reproduction can be seen as cloning. It’s a process in which male and female organisms don’t
have sexual intercourse and can be found in many different forms, depending on the type of
organism. When looking at twins or litters of animals there are also aspects of cloning present,
but all of them can be categorized and explained in different ways.

Human offspring and twins

It’s quite common for most female mammal species to give birth to multiple organisms with a
single pregnancy, for non-humans this is also referred to as a litter. For humans (and other larger
mammals) it’s a lot rarer to give birth to twins, triplets etc., compared to the number of single
births that take place. The type of the pregnancies and offspring produced depends on the
development of the fertilized egg (i.e. zygote). Thus, can this process be considered as a form of
cloning?

Mono-, di- and polyzygotic

The difference between monozygotic (identical)

twins and dizygotic (fraternal) twins lies in the
parallels of the organism’s genetics, and the type
of fertilization. Whereas identical twins have the
exact same DNA, as they were developed from a
single, (split) fertilized egg cell, fraternal twins
developed from separate fertilized egg cells at the
same time.

These dizygotic twins can inherit and express

different genes, due to the parents producing non-
identical sex cells and the combination of them.
For polyzygotic twins (three or more zygotes) it
could be a combination of the two different
development and fertilization types named above.

There are other differences that may occur at the development of the zygote. A monozygotic can
split into two cells at different stages, which will have influences on the placenta and embryo
forming.

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Artificial zygote splitting

The conception of twins can happen artificially, it is

primarily mimicking what naturally happens to a fertilized
egg cell. This is something that has been successfully
done with (mostly farm) animals and might happen to
humans in the future to improve the efficiency of IVF (in
vitro fertilization) treatments; a treatment where the sex
cells are extracted from the body, the egg is fertilization in
a laboratory and later placed back into the mother’s
uterus.

Other eukaryotes and their offspring

Each organism (e.g. puppies or kittens) in a litter is created by a unique egg- and sperm cell, much
like dizygotic twins. This is because of the random nature in which genes are passed down, a
process known as genetic recombination. So even though the same parents each produce sex
cells and reproduce together, the different sex cell contain different gene variations and so the DNA
of the offspring will vary. This causes variations in the gene expressions and can, just like the
fraternal twins, result in organisms with different physical appearances and genes.

Embryos can also be formed from unfertilized egg cells once the female organism produces diploid
oocytes (egg cell), this process is called parthenogenesis and often occurs within the animal
kingdom. Because of the absence of fertilization by a male organism (asexual reproduction), the
offspring will always be female (if there is an XY determination system for that specific organism).
This form of cloning can be performed by some insects, crustaceans, nematodes, fish and reptiles;
e.g. fire ants, hammerhead shark, wasps, bees and Komodo dragons.

Fungi are multicellular eukaryotes -with the exception of yeasts

which are unicellular- and can reproduce asexually through the
production of vegetative spores (conidia). These spores are
produced by a single parent through the cellular process mitosis. For this process, the
chromosomes of the parent organism are copied, after which the cell divides into two, producing
two daughter cells that are identical to the former parent cell. There are two ways for mitosis to
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be completed, which are open and closed mitosis. The difference
between the two is the complete or incomplete scattering of
chromosomes in the nuclear membrane. Closed mitosis is
common for fungi cells, and open mitosis can be
found in animal cells.

The way in which spores disperse differs per species, though

most distribute with the help of nature; being blown away by the
wind or moved by animals. Another option could be tension buildup that would
cause the parent fungi to explode and so spread its spores.

A way to reproduce and create offspring with identical genetic material for fungi
is mycelium fragmentation. This is a process where part of a fungal mycelium
splits off (often not intentionally), and both the separated part and the parent
organism fully regenerate. It results in the production of a complete and new
individual. Fragmentation allows organisms to spread more easily compared to
sexual reproduction.

Fragmentation is also common for some multicellular animal species such as starfishes,
flatworms, larvae, corals and sponges. It’s mainly the same concept, if a piece of their bodies is
broken off, both the dissected- and the original part regenerate.

Plants

In nature, quite a lot of plants reproduce without the interaction with another plant. As the
offspring will have the exact same genetic material in its cells as the parent plant, it can be
considered cloning when the offspring is produced. Though there are both pros and cons to this
form of reproduction.

• P
ros being the simplicity and minimal investments needed for the process, as there is no need
to look for a mate and very little time and energy is necessary to complete the full procedure.
It’s also useful in case of emergency, the plants are not depending on any minor environmental
changes.

• T
he cons include the lack of diversity asexual reproduction may cause, as the genes of all the
offspring are (with exceptions) identical. If illness were to hit the plants, the chance of them all
being affected is rather large. The fact that there is no diversity, compared to sexual

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 reproduction where there are gene combinations of both parent organisms, can stand in the
way of adaptation in new environments and could influence survival chances negatively.

Vegetative reproduction (or vegetative propagation) is one of the ways plants

individually produce offspring. The process consists of an organism developing
an outgrowth or bud due to cell division at one specific place. This outgrowth
continues developing and detaches from the parent organism when it’s mature.
The daughter organism contains the exact same genetical material as the parent
organism, which makes the two identical. There are many types of this form of
reproduction which differ per plant, but they amount to the same concept. Some
plant species that reproduce like this and the specific terminology for them are:
strawberries (runners), tulips (bulbs), ginger (rhizomes) and potatoes
(tubers).

Prokaryotes (archaea and bacteria)

Binary fission is a way in which bacteria, which is a single-celled

organism, can reproduce. It can be compared to mitosis and is quite
similar to the concept, though it also differs from it in quite some
ways. Binary fission is a process in which the parent organism
equally divides in two and produces two genetically identical daughter
organisms. It is a way for the cell to reproduce and add more bacteria
to the population. It starts off with the copying of the bacterium’s
DNA, which can be found in a section called the nucleoid (most
bacterial cells have a single circular chromosome and no nucleus). Both the copy and original
chromosome move to opposite ends of the cell, after which the cytoplasm divides, the cell wall in
between the two parts regenerates and the cell is eventually split into
two.

Artificial cloning

People tend to be scared of the negative effects of anything that scientists mess with. They would
rather buy natural tomatoes than those that have been genetically modified or artificially created.
Though besides some negative effects and risks, there are many positive influences of artificial
cloning on our present-day world. It creates opportunities and improves our lives on many
unthinkable levels. The types of artificial cloning differ from organism to organism and can be put
into different categories as well.

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Eukaryotes

Somatic cell nuclear transfer, also known as SCNT, is a laboratory technique which can be used for
therapeutic cloning or is the first step of reproductive cloning. A eukaryotic organism’s cell
nucleus is an organelle that contains its DNA and most of its genetic information.

To complete SCNT, the nucleus from a patient or the to-be-cloned organism’s cell is extracted. The
same procedure is executed for an oocyte, which leaves an enucleated oocyte that will be fused
together with the earlier extracted nucleus. This egg can be stimulated with a shock, start dividing
and eventually form a blastocyst (an early stage embryo). At this stage, the choice for a specific
result can be made, either reproductive- or therapeutic cloning.

For reproductive cloning, the blastocyst will be transferred into the uterus of a surrogate mother,
and a replica of the organism (where the nucleus originates from) will develop and be born if
nothing goes wrong during the pregnancy. There’s is still uncertainty regarding the success rates,
depending on the organism. The result of this process (when completed successfully) is a
functional, living clone of the desired organism.

The blastocyst has an inner and outer layer of

cells.
The inner layer, called the inner cell mass,
consists of lots of stem cells. For therapeutic
cloning, these cells will be isolated and can be
integrated into the patient’s tissue, adapting to
the structure and function needed. The purpose
of this process is to obtain stem cells that are
pluripotent (they can develop into any cell of the
body) and they can help to, potentially, treat a
patient’s disease in any body organ or tissue by
replacing dysfunctional cells. A benefit from this
form of therapy is the decreased risk of
immunological rejection, since the patient’s own
genetic material is used. Since the mitochondria in the cytoplasm of the donor egg contain its own
DNA, compared to the DNA of the organism or cell that is being cloned, this should be considered
whenever the embryo is being developed.

Plants

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Horticultural reproduction, which is also be viewed as vegetative propagation, occurs when
humans step in and influence the reproduction of plants. It is one of the
most common ways to produce plants with the desired characteristics as
it is simple and efficient, even on bigger scales.

Processes as grafting (attaching the tissue of the desired plant to

another growing plant, letting them integrate and continue their growth
together) and cutting (cutting off a piece of a parent plant, like a stem or
leaf, and putting it elsewhere to continue its growth as a new identical
organism) are common examples. Roses, viviparous grasses, mangoes,
bananas and grapes are some of the organisms that reproduce and are
produced this way with influences of human beings.

Bacteria

Due to their simple genetic makeup, bacteria were the first organisms to be genetically modified.
When a specific enzyme, protein or other genetic characteristic is desired, the possibility of it
being able to be placed into the genetic material of a bacteria species is rather big. These cells
can easily be isolated and cloned, which is a fast and efficient process. This is the concept of
molecular cloning, more precise, experiments to produce molecules with the use of techniques
that result in recombinant DNA.

Recombinant DNA molecules are formed through methods of genetic

recombination, and the technique can be applied to any type of organism.
This is because DNA molecules from all organisms share the same
chemical structure and only differ in the nucleotide sequence.

The process consists of combining certain parts of plasmids (circular

genetic fragments), from different sources, to form a gene sequence that
would normally not be found in the genome (the genetic material of an
organism). This is completed by cutting the plasmid fragments and putting
them back together with the help of enzymes.

There are a couple of common ways this technique is used. One of them being gene therapy,
which has the aim to correct a genetic disorder or disease by altering the faults in the genes.
The production of recombinant proteins is another purpose, which is more focused on producing
certain protein products. The desired gene is to be cloned and built into the organism’s genetic
material, which causes the amount of the protein to grow. Generating transgenic organisms is
also a concept created through the usage recombinant DNA. Its main use is to improve the
organism function in the way it’s needed. Genes for specific expressions from one organism can

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be built into the genes of another. These organisms are called transgenic- or genetically
modified organisms.

Which possibilities do we have with cloning?

History of Cloning

Cloning has been a subject of interest in the past, as it is in

the present. An increasing number of scientists started
researching and doing experiments concerning this
phenomenon during the late ninetieth century, trying to find
solutions to the unanswered questions and proving whether
claimed hypotheses were right or wrong.

August Weisman theorized, in 1885, that each daughter cell

had half the amount of information as the cell whence it came from. This would explain why a cell
could be highly specialized and have a specific function in a part of the body, hence containing an
incredible amount of information about cells of the other body parts.

The first-ever demonstration of artificial embryo twinning, which was executed by Hans Adolf
Edward Driesch (also in 1885), was based on this theory. For this experiment, Driesch shook a
two-celled blastomere (embryo) of a sea urchin, after which the cells separated. Each of the cells
grew into larva, what indicated that the single cells, in fact, contained the information to continue
developing into a new healthy organism. After repeating this experiment several times, getting the
same results, he proved the theory of August Weissman to be false.

Vertebrate cells appeared to be stickier and harder to split than the sea urchin embryo cells. Hans

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Spemann found that the embryo cells of salamander could eventually be separated using a single
strand of baby hair in the form of a noose, tightening it between them. Each cell grew into an
identical, healthy, adult salamander, which showed that embryos from a more-complex organism
can also be twinned, but only up to a certain stage in development; Spemann tried to divide more

advanced salamander embryos, this was not as successful.

In 1928 Spemann did research on the cell nucleus

and how it controls the embryonic development.
His experiment can be viewed as the beginning of
nuclear transfers; Spemann, as he had done in
earlier experiments, tied a noose made out of baby
hair around embryonic salamander cells. This caused the
nucleus and part of the cytoplasm to be segregated. The
part of the cell that contained the nucleus, continued to
divide, though the other part did not. Spemann loosened
the noose when 4 cell divisions were completed, after
which he let the nucleus slide back into the remaining
cytoplasm part he earlier blocked off. He separated this
now-complete early embryonic cell from the ones that
already divided. Both of these small cell groups
developed into normal salamander embryos.

Later in 1952 two researchers named Robert Briggs and Thomas King completed the first
successful nuclear transfer. They did so by extracting the nucleus from an early tadpole embryo
and transferring it to a frog egg cell, from which the nucleus was removed (enucleation), which
ended up developing into a tadpole.

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The extended versions of this experiment did show that when
the nuclei were extracted during a later stadium (instead of the
embryonic stage), the likeliness of the organism developing
without abnormalities decreased incredibly.

John Gurdon’s experiment in 1958 was very similar to the

experiment of Robert Briggs and Thomas King. The thing that
made it particularly stand out is that the nucleus was, even with
the knowledge that during earlier experiments abnormalities
would form, taken from an intestinal cell and placed into a frog
egg.
It showed that nuclei from somatic cells, taken from fully
developed animals, could -in fact- be used for nuclear cloning.
Which would imply that cells remain to contain all the genetic material needed to ‘build’ the
organism, even when they
differentiate and divide.
Steen Willadsen created the first mammal by nuclear
transfer in 1984. He extracted the nucleus of one cell, from
an 8-cell lamb embryo, using a chemical process. He fused
it together with an egg cell, of which the nucleus was also
extracted, with the help of an electrical shock. This new cell,
consisting of the single lamb embryo cell nucleus and the
enucleated egg cell, started dividing. Willadsen placed the
embryos into the womb of surrogate mother sheep, which resulted in the birth of three lambs.
It suggested that the cloning of more complicated mammals
via nuclear transfer was actually possible and could result in
living, fully developed clones.

The former experiments all consisted of donor nuclei from

cells in early embryos. In 1996, Ian Wilmut and Keith
Campbell did an experiment, again using donor nuclei. The
difference with other researches is that they used cultured
sheep cells, which they had kept alive in a laboratory. The
nuclei from the cultured cells were transferred into enucleated
sheep cells, which (after further development) resulted in the
birth of two lambs named Magan and Morag.
The transferring of genes into cultured cells had already been shared knowledge among scientists.
Though the fact that this experiment shows that cultured cells can supply donor nuclei for cloning

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with nuclear transferring, it opened doors for a lot of new
ideas and possibilities, mainly concerning modifying cells to
develop transgenic animals.

Probably the most famous sheep known by men was Dolly

the sheep. She was the first mammal to be created by
somatic cell nuclear transfer in history. Ian Wilmut and Keith
Campbell succeeded to extract the nucleus from an adult
sheep’s udder cell (in 1996) and combined it with an
enucleated sheep egg cell with the help of an electric shock.
This was very similar to John Gurdon’s tadpole experiment in
1958, in which he worked having the same concept of generic material in mind. Dolly the sheep
was put down five months before her seventh birthday, she had developed arthritis and a
progressive lung disease called ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma. The scientists researching her
behavior did not expect the illness to be due to her being a clone, as it had affected and killed other
sheep in the same flock. Lung diseases like these are a particular danger for sheep were to be
kept indoors. This can be seen as a valid reason for her getting sick, as Dolly had to sleep inside
for security reasons.

An experiment in 1997 combined knowledge gained from

earlier researches. Though for this Angelika Schnieke, Keith
Campbell, Ian Wilmut transferred the human Factor IX gene
into the genome of sheepskin cells grown in a laboratory dish.
This gene codes for a protein that helps blood clot and is used
to treat hemophilia, which is a genetic disorder that obstructs
blood from forming proper clots. The experiment, with the goal
to create a transgenic sheep, consisted of nuclear transfer
using donor DNA from cultured transgenic cells. This resulted in
a sheep named Polly that produced milk containing the Factor
IX protein.
This process concluded that the DNA of sheep, and possibly similar organisms, could be modified
to produce therapeutic
or other useful proteins in their milk. It opens a lot of doors
concerning the potential in the medical and commercial uses
of cloning.

After the growing amount of cloning success stories,

more and more experiments over the whole word

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started taking place. This resulted in an increase of
different mammal species that were successfully cloned
using somatic cell nuclear transfer, especially around
1998-1999. This included transgenic animals and
clones that were made from both fetal and adult cells.
Another groundbreaking procedure was the cloning of
male mice, which was quite special as the previous clones
all had been female.

Since the different possibilities and knowledge regarding cloning expanded, scientists started
experimenting with extinct species during the early 21st century. As the procedures were similar to
what they had already successfully done, the idea of reviving species that were no longer alive was
seen as a challenge. (See the subtopic ‘cloning of endangered species’)
In 2007, Shoukhrat Mitalipov and his colleagues took the
nucleus of an adult monkey cell and fused it together with
an enucleated egg cell, with the use of an electric shock.
The new cell started dividing and was allowed to develop,
after which the cells were grown in a culture dish (these
were embryonic stem cells that can differentiate to any
cell type).
This experiment showed that nuclear transfer was possible on
primates. There were other researches with a similar process,
like the creation of Dolly the sheep. But this specific one
stands out, as the majority of former experiments including primates failed. The production of
primate embryonic stem cells with a method as somatic cell nuclear transfer, suggested
there were new opportunities for human therapeutic cloning
(as stem cells could be used to treat or study diseases).

Shoukhrat Mitalipov and his colleagues took it a step

further in 2013. After using somatic cell nuclear transfer
on different primate species, they created a human
embryo that could be used as a source of embryonic stem
cells. The stem cells lines originated from a baby with a
rare genetic disorder and were specific to this patient. The
researchers took the nucleus from a skin cell to begin the
experiment and fused it together with a donor egg cell.
The culture liquid was modified and a series of electrical

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pulses were used to stimulate the egg to begin dividing, it ended up giving the desired results and
being a great success.

In 2017 Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, identical female cynomolgus monkeys, were born. They were
created by scientists from the Institute of Neuroscience of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, led
by Qiang Sun and Muming Poo, with the same method that was used to create Dolly the sheep.
For the completion of somatic cell nuclear transfer, the scientists had taken nuclei from the
fibroblasts of an aborted fetal monkey and inserted them into enucleated egg cells. The
researchers used enzymes to change the memory of the transferred nuclei, which allowed them to
avoid the main obstacle they and other scientists had been facing cloning primates, and increased
their chances of success. 21 of these egg cells were placed into surrogate mothers, with the result
of six pregnancies, of which two produced living animals. Compared to the 277 attempts it took to
create one lamb in 1996, Dolly, the improvement over time was clearly noticeable.
To what extent can we use cloning?

As the technology continues to develop and research techniques improve, the different
opportunities for cloning increase drastically. We use cloning for both research purposes, in
order to gain knowledge about our own bodies, other organisms and to find solutions to
problems such as illnesses and cell malfunctions. Due to artificial cloning, we could control what
happens to certain species and how we as humans continue to advance. The main problem is
what the public finds ethically correct and what now, this mainly depends on how far researchers
can go.

Cloning animal models of disease and drug production

A lot of what we know about diseases is because of studying animal models. Some organisms
carry (often mutated) genes that cause specific illnesses. These genes can be bred out of a
species if the right animals reproduce with one another. This is a trial-and-error process, which
can be sped up using cloning methods and so create a population of identical animals.

It has happened before that scientists used cells, genes to be specific, from organisms to treat
other species that otherwise would have never had access to these characteristics. By a difficult
process, modifying these cells and transplanting genes, specific diseases can be prevented.

Not only can animal- and organism cells help to cure specific diseases, they can be used for
testing drugs and medicine as well. Cells as early as in the embryo stage can be extracted from
a cluster and will guide researchers how they react to treatments before these are used on other
organisms.

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Cloning to make stem cells

The function of stem cells is to maintain, build and repair our bodies throughout our lives. They
repair damaged or diseased organs and tissues, and could be transferred from one person to
another for medical reasons. Unfortunately, they can be seen as foreign by the body and cause
an immune response. This problem would not occur if the cells were to be identical to the ones
of the individual in need of stem cells, which is exactly what researchers are looking into.

The identical stem cells could be used for medical purposes and perhaps even to produce whole
organs. Cloned cells from an individual with a particular disease could help to gain knowledge
and understand it better, it would also help to find a cure more efficiently. Bodily defects such as
diabetes, organ damage or organ failures can be cured or prevented with the help of cloning and
the artificial production of stem cells.

Reproducing a deceased pet

Even though the cloning of pets is illegal in most countries, some individuals -including
celebrities- have confessed to have taken part in and supported this procedure. The first ever
pet to be cloned, was a cat at an A&M University in Texas, the United States of America, in 2001.
Scientists in South Korea were the first to ever clone a dog in 2005.

The procedure of cloning a pet costs a lot of money, freezing -and so preserving- your pets
tissue is also an option (this way the decision can be made in the future). The fact that the
character of a pet could differ from the one you know, as the environment plays a huge role in
shaping an individual, is something important to consider before taking action. Depending on the
chromosomes used, specific physical traits can differ too, considering variations in X
chromosomes, that can be turned off, for females (males have an X and a Y chromosome).

Cloning livestock

Producing animals using cloning methods is at the moment too expensive and labor intensive as
a way to provide only for consumption. As it is not consistent and efficient, cloning livestock is
used for breeding stock. Animals with the best qualities, think about meat, milk or best
performances, are assessed and can be selected to be cloned after passing (e.g. meat can only
be assessed after the animal is slaughtered, and the animals are often neutered which leaves
cloning as the only option to still reproduce).

Cloning humans

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Human cloning is theoretically possible, but due to the controversies concerning the ethicality
and potential risks, the prospect of cloning humans is still illegal. Although human cloning could
be a solution to problems as infertility and the shortage of (human) organs and tissues, it will still
be a big challenge to complete. The process is, even with the experience of cloning animals and
other organisms, complicated and inefficient. The success rate is quite low, as many embryos
fail to develop, which causes pregnancies to end in miscarriages.

Cloning of endangered or extinct Species

Reviving endangered or extinct species

There have been a lot of discussions concerning species revivalism, which is a term to describe
the resurrection of a species that has become extinct. With specific cloning methods where the
nucleus of a preserved cell (from the extinct/endangered species) is placed into an egg of the
closest living relative, the extinction or small population numbers can be pushed back. If this
succeeds, the zygote will be placed into a relative host that will proceed the pregnancy.

As a cell is needed for the procedure, this is most successful with recently extinct species,
compared to the older ones. Therefore, specific facilities that focus on the preservation and
conservation of endangered species exist. Stored cells of species in gene banks can be a way to
guarantee that there is access to cells of desired to-be-cloned organisms.

The guar, an ox type, was the first species on the verge of extinction, that was cloned using SCNT
in 2001. Although the guar died a couple days after its birth, the partly successful experiment
indicated that the guar nuclei, fused with the enucleated egg cells of domestic cows, could produce
new organisms of the endangered or extinct species. A clone of the mouflon, which is a type of wild
sheep, ended up being the first endangered species to survive beyond infancy. After being born in
2001, it survived at least 7 months until it passed away.

The preservation of the cells plays such a huge role, that after realizing this, people froze genetic
material in order to store it and increase the success rate of the possible cloning. Woolly
mammoths, Thylacine, Quagga and Pyrenean Ibex are on the list of current candidates for de-
extinction.

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Woolly mammoth

The mammoth is one of the most well-known extinct species known to man. The majority of these
organisms died out about 10,000 years ago, though some survived living on Wrangel Island, until
1650 BC. This organism is a close relative to our present-day Asian elephants. The main difference
between our current elephant and the mammoth, is the mammoth’s thick fur coat, which they
needed in order to survive the extremely low temperatures.

Remains of woolly mammoths, hundreds of thousands of years old, have been discovered several
times. Due to their cells being frozen and preserved after they passed, they have been part of
experiments even after their survival and Ice Age came to an end. The first Siberian woolly
mammoth fossils were found in 1806 by Botanist Mikhail Ivanovich Adams. The other discoveries
include a pair of mummified baby mammoths that were discovered in 2007 in Siberia. Their bodies
were so well preserved that researches could conclude their reason of passing with the use of a
CT scan, which was choking on mud.

Scientists have been able to extract DNA from some of the remains
that were found, in specific one female mammoth that was around 50
years old when she passed and lived about 40,000 years ago. The
knowledge researchers have obtained from earlier experiments with
cloning, would suggest that bringing the woolly mammoth back with
certain methods (such as SCNT) should be possible, as there is
excess to their genetic material. There are several project groups that are trying their best to make
it happen, but reviving the organism comes with many uncertainties and questionable
consequences.

20
The cloning process had to be thought through, which will take time and many trial and error
experiments, as seen before with Dolly the sheep and the first primates that were successfully
cloned. The time gap will most likely cause a problem as well. There has to be a surrogate mother
to carry the embryo in order for it to develop. The pregnancies of elephants also take the longest
compared to any other animals, especially the organisms that were cloned. It may increase the
chances of something going wrong during the pregnancy, with negative results. Things as the
environmental changes and finding and replicating the habit of the mammoth should also be
considered.

Pyrenean Ibex

The Pyrenean Ibex became extinct during the early 2000s. It was one of the four subspecies of the
Iberian or Spanish Ibex, which was most common in the Cantabrian Mountains in Southern
France. Not only the Pyrenean Ibex got extinct, but its fellow subspecies, the
Portuguese Ibex died out in 1892. Researchers say both goat subspecies most
likely died out due to hunting pressure and the possible competition with
domestic and wild ungulates.

Alas, on July 30th in 2003, the Pyrenean Ibex was revived. The last Pyrenean
Ibex that had supposedly been alive, named Celia, was found after being killed
by a fallen tree, which made the extinction official. Samples of skin cells were
taken from her ear and stored in liquid nitrogen. The cells and the DNA it
contained, were used to clone the Ibex. A research team led by José Folch completed SCNT, using
the nuclei of Celia’s cells and combining them with enucleated domestic goat egg cells.

With many failed attempts to implant the cells in domestic goat surrogates, it eventually resulted in
7 pregnancies, 6 miscarriages and 1 clone that was born. The newborn, unfortunately, died 7
minutes after being born due to lung defects. This event was still considered to be the first de-
extinction in history and gave a lot of hope for future experiments. It showed there were
possibilities of reviving organisms that have been gone for a long time and brought the concepts
that many imagined to be fiction closer to reality.

21
 How will cloning affect our norms and values?

Definition of norms and values in our society

Every society has its own norms and values. Of course, these norms and values vary within
each society. For now, only the norms and values and how cloning will affect these of the
western society will be discussed. Before this, let’s state the definitions of values and norms:

Values are relatively abstract. Values are the things in life we value and find important on a
personal level. Thus, values vary from person to person. There are two types of values: intrinsic
and instrumental. Intrinsic value is something that is valued for its own sake, such as happiness.
We value something that is intrinsic not because of the factors that come alongside it, but just for
the value itself. Instrumental value is something that is not valued for its own sake, but for how it
helps us reach the intrinsic values that are appreciated for their own sake. For instance, money
is an instrumental value because it has no real value just by itself. Money gets value once we
are able to use it to achieve something that we do value, like happiness. For example, when
someone spends their money on a nice holiday, the intrinsic value of happiness is achieved by
using an instrumental value, money.

Norms are derived from our values and form ‘social rules’. Contrary to values, norms are much
less abstract and more obvious in day-to-day behavior. Norms can state something that’s
prohibited (for example, you must not kill) or something that is favorable (you must respect your
elder). Everyone in our society is expected to behave according to this code of conduct. Norms
are dependent on a person's religious, cultural, social and social background. Every culture has
its own norms and values. What is seen as completely wrong to one person can be considered
normal to the other. When someone behaves differently than what we consider to be normal,

22
various conflicts can be caused. Here are some examples of norms, and the values they are
derived from:

- Norm: Standing up for an old lady in a crowded bus

Value: Respecting the elder

- Norm: Do not lie to your parents

Value: Honesty

Now, what danger does our society face when human cloning would become common?

To begin with, a brief summary of our current society and its views on science. Our current
society is very developed. The western sciences are one of the most advanced of the world and
constantly emerging. Nowadays, there is little criticism on the scientific methods we are familiar
with. For instance, only a minority of people will refuse to undergo surgery or take medication.
There is a minority who will refuse to participate in the sophisticated technologies we have
access to nowadays. These are mostly people who make their decisions out of their own
religious values and norms. In various societies and religions, such as Christianity, it is believed
that the ability to form human life should not be in our hands. Arguments like these can result in
long discussions on how human cloning would affect our values and norms.

One of the most common scenarios that are often discussed is how human cloning could form a
Brave New World1 like shift in society. In this case, it is important that we look at what our
purpose of human cloning will be. Will cloning be an option for infertile parents or will it be
possible for anyone to clone their selves or one another? Without regulations, a lot of these
scenarios could become reality. As cloning gives us the opportunity to design the ‘perfect’
human, one that’s immune to every disease and has multiple talents such as high intelligence,
these cloned organisms could form a certain superior group towards the ‘regular’ people. New
religions and groups could be formed with their own values and norms. As they grow, a
shapeshift in our values and norms will be a result. Another way cloning could divide our society,
is through therapeutic cloning. The embryos that are formed in this process have the purpose of
aiding living human beings as the embryos are destroyed after the stem cells are harvested. In
this way, embryos used in therapeutic cloning can be seen as a mas product or lower class in
society. In conclusion, human cloning could affect our equality by risking a division in our society
and giving us the possibility to create superior humans.

1 Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, 1932

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Public’s opinion

For this part of our PWS, we conducted a survey on 100 students and teachers at our school. In
this survey, we asked the public a couple of questions regarding ethicality and basic knowledge
of cloning. The results of the survey can be viewed in the annex. For now, a conclusion will be
made from the results and some of the questions will be discussed below:

The results of the first questions (Survey 1 and Survey 2) showed the following results: The
majority of the public that took our survey is female. What is more is that there is a slight
variation in the different age groups. However, the majority of the people are under the age of
25. These results will not influence the survey a lot. But, it is important to keep in mind that
young people may have a different view on technology and science in comparison to the older
ones.

In the third question (Survey 3), the public was asked if they are familiar with the concept of
cloning or not. The results are somewhat 50/50. It is clear that the majority of the people has
heard of cloning before. This is probably due to the rising popularity of research in cloning
methods and these being mentioned in the news. However, it is unclear how broad the
knowledge of those who are familiar with the concept is.

From the results of the fourth (Survey 4) question, it can be stated that at least 3/4th of the public
agrees with the prospect of cloning being commonly used in the future.

The fifth question is about the cloning of animals. From the results (Survey 5) it can be
concluded that the small section of the public agrees with animal cloning under special
circumstances such as cloning a dead pet or using cloning in the meat industry to reduce animal
suffering and increase the production of meat. The majority does find the idea of cloning an
animal frightening, but not necessarily unethical as only a small percentage chose this option.
The remaining group is totally okay with cloning animals under any circumstance.

24
In the sixth question (Survey 6), a question about therapeutic cloning was asked to the public.
From the results, it can be concluded that the majority of the people does agree with using
cloning for medical purposes. An explanation for this could be the following: contrary to the
cloning of organisms, only a few cells are needed in therapeutic cloning procedures. As there is
no case of a fully developed human, most people will find it ethical. What is more is that there is
a great shortage of donor organs, so cloning offers a great solution to this problem. The same
applies to the use of cloning in situations where there are maternity problems. Cloning could
open doors for those who wish to have children, but cannot conceive these in a natural way. Of
course, in this case, there would be a full cloned organism. However, this cloned organism does

have a clear purpose and is not part of some mass-produce that people find unethical.

There is still a small percentage of people who do not agree with this statement or have another
reasoning for this. The majority of the answers that were submitted in the ‘other’ section, said
that they did not have enough knowledge about these methods to agree or disagree with it. A
few other statements will be listed below:

‘’I am curious about what will happen with the extra material such as organ tissue or live cells.’’

‘’It should be possible, but with regulations. We do not want to create a society where babies can
be perfectly put together.’’

Survey 5 Survey 7

In the seventh question, the same as question number five was asked, only this time about
humans. Results from both questions are presented in the figures above (Survey 5 and Survey
25
7). Several statements can be concluded from these results: First of all, there is only a slight
difference between those who find it peculiar in both questions. The same applies to those who
are totally okay with it. However, there is a slight decrease of 4% when it comes to humans.
There are two great differences. Firstly, the results indicate that twice as much people agree with
special forms of cloning (therapeutic, meat industry etc.) with animals in comparison to the
usage of these methods with humans. This is a surprising result as there is no fully developed
organism in these special cases within human cloning, but in the cloning of animals, there is.
Other than that, there is also a much bigger percentage of people who find human cloning
unethical when it is compared to the results of animal cloning.

In the eighth question (Survey 8), the public was asked to elaborate on their answer to the
previous question by selecting the reason why they did or did not agree with human cloning.
Based on the answer of the previous question, 38% of the people chose for the answer n/a,
because they did not oppose to human cloning, thus this question did not apply to them. This is
a surprising result since only 8% claimed that they do not have a problem with human cloning. It
is only fair to expect these percentages to be the same, or at least similar. There are two
possible explanations for this: people misinterpreted the question, or did not have a valid reason
to support their previous answer.

About 27% of the public does not agree with human cloning because of the unknown risks that
come along with the method. Our present-day technologies are not sophisticated enough to put
human cloning into practice. Multiple years of research are needed before men can use these
technologies with minimum risks. About 23% of the public does not agree with human cloning
because they believe that life should not be in the hands of humanity. There are many ethical or
religious reasons to use this as an argument against human cloning.

Several people submitted their own argument to support their option. Some of these are listed
below:

‘’It is unnecessary to clone a human being when you could just clone an organ.’’

This answer could be explained by mentioning the fear of humans being able to create their own
‘organ donators’ meaning that each person would have access to a donated organ from a clone,
meaning that men would clone a human being just to harvest their organs. This may be
practical, but there are too many ethical debates to put this theory into practice.

‘’It affects the uniqueness of a human being.’’

‘’There would be a gap between those who are cloned and those who are not.’’

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These answers could be explained by the debate of identity, and to what extent a cloned human
would be similar to the ‘original’. This debate will be discussed in the following chapter.

‘’To me, there still is no reason to legalize cloning.’’

‘’Human cloning still has no clear goal to me. It seems useless.’’

These answers indicate that there is still some ignorance around the subject. If science ever
makes human cloning possible, there should be further education on the topic for those who are
still unfamiliar with it.

In the ninth question (Survey 9) the public was asked whether they would clone themselves/and
or their pet. It is clear that the vast majority does not want to clone themselves or their pets for
any reason. Looking back at previous questions, this percentage is no surprise. Only 12% of the
public would use cloning for medical purposes. This is an unexpected outcome compared to the
results of question six, where 85% claimed to have to problems with therapeutic cloning. This
may have to do with a certain type of fear. People tend to form a different opinion when the
statement is about themselves. Only 4% of the public would clone themselves alongside their
pets, and only 2% would clone themselves for no particular reason. These results come as no
surprise when compared to the previously chosen answers.

In the final question (Survey 10) the public was asked to pick the cloning methods they agree
with from a list. These answers corresponded with those from questions six and five. The results
are shown below:

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Survey 10

From this survey, it can be concluded that a majority of the participants agreed on that despite
the fact that cloning will be more commonly used in the future, cloning of humans and animals is
unethical. The cloning of animals is less unethical to the participants compared to human
cloning. The majority of the participants did agree on using therapeutic cloning methods for
medical and research purposes. It is also clear that many people need to be more well-informed
about cloning methods before these can be put into practice.

Nature vs. Nurture

The concept of nature and nurture plays a major role when it comes to cloning. When we
discuss the cloning of human beings, there are many questions we should ask ourselves. How
would these clones influence our society, and how does the idea of individuality change when
we are able to make exact copies of ourselves. The nature-nurture debate discusses which one
of the two, or both, have the greatest influence on one person's identity: nature on one side, and
nurture on the other. Nature includes all your genetics. Several types of researches on identical
twins have shown that your genetics do play a certain role in forming your identity. However,
nurture plays a major part as well. Nurture is everything you experience. For example, where
you grow up, who your friends are, how you were raised etc. This theory can also be applied to
clones. When we are able to clone ourselves and each other, to what extent will they have their
own identity? There are several examples of the nature-nurture debate in the media, philosophy
and science. In order to elaborate more on the concept of individualism and the nature-nurture
debate some of these will be listed below:

Nature-nurture in philosophy

Empiricism and nurture

Empiricism is a philosophic theory which states that knowledge comes only from experiences
one has throughout life. Meaning that humans are born without any knowledge; tabula rasa. The
classical formulation of an empirical attitude comes from Aristotle. He said that there is nothing in
the consciousness that was not first in the senses. That vision was a pronounced criticism of
Plato, who said that a man with a number of ideas came from the world of ideas. The theory
states that we have no inborn ideas or representations of the world. We do not know anything
28
about the world we end up in before we have seen it. If we have an idea or representation that
we cannot relate to something that we have experienced, it is a false idea.

•
John Locke and the memory theory - John Locke, born in 1632,
was a famous English philosopher. He had great influence on
several subjects in philosophy such as the Enlightenment and
liberalism. He was one of the philosophers who was related to
the English empiricism. In his memory theory, Locke stated that
all knowledge is based on experience derived from the senses.
John Locke's blank state theory was adapted into empiricism. The
term of a blank slate is also known as tabula rasa. Both definitions imply that
human beings are born blank and that their identity is formed throughout their lives based on
John Locke
their experiences and perceptions of the outside world. Even if the
exact circumstances or details of that moment cannot be fully remembered, the brain holds
together a memory chain which creates a connection with you at that time. The term tabula
rasa originates from Roman times and was used by various philosophers such as Aristotle.
The theory supports the nurture theory by saying that identity is formed throughout one's life
by 'filling in' their tabula rasa. Locke repeats the words of Aristotle. A problem with the memory
theory is that no one remembers being born, or even the first years of your life. This would
mean that we were not ourselves until the first memory we have. And how do we apply this
theory to people with memory loss in cases such as dementia? According to the memory
theory, someone who cannot remember events from their life have a broken memory chain.
Would this mean that the person is not the same anymore? If we apply John Locke’s theory to
human cloning, it would mean that a cloned human would only be genetically identical to the
person they were cloned from. Some cloning purposes would not be as useful as there is
believed in the beginning. For example, if a talented musician is cloned, their clone has the
potential to achieve the same level as the original musician through the same training but
could end up with completely different talents without these proper training.

29
•
David Hume and the bundle theory – David Hume, born in 1711, was
a very important Scottish philosopher in empiricism. He lived
during the period of enlightenment. He was a great inspiration for
philosophers like Immanuel Kant. His biggest work was ‘A
Treatise of Human Nature’, which was published when he was
only 28 years old, although he stated that the book had already
been on his mind during his teenage years. Humes's views on
personal identity are doubtful. He sees no reason to assume the
existence of a permanent and independent 'self'. To begin with,
David Hume
according to Hume, nobody has an idea of a 'self'. An impression of
a 'self' would, however, be impossible, because the impression of a 'self' should be
unchangeable. This is not possible, because conditions such as pain, pleasure, joy, sadness,
passions and sensations follow each other and never exist at the same time. So, there is no
question of one compact 'self'. Second, a man is nothing more than a collection of perceptions.
We cannot contain ourselves without these perceptions, for example when we sleep, because
then we do not notice anything of ourselves. Hume compares our minds to a theater in which
different perceptions constantly come and depart in endless variations. When elaborating on
Hume’s theory, the metaphor of the box would be a good example: Imagine if you had an
empty box. The box is filled with components that fit your identity, such as your knowledge,
relationships, mannerisms etc. But when that current box is compared to the one that
belonged to you when you were a child, the content will not be the same. Now, think of your
body as the box that holds all these things together. In conclusion, we believe that we are the
same person due to the constant box that holds all the components that form your identity
together, although those components are changing constantly, meaning that our minds are
fooled in thinking that we are constant. When applying Hume’s bundle theory to the identity of
human clones, it is very comparable to Locke’s tabula rasa. The cloned human is only
genetically identical to the person they were cloned from, but forms their own identity
throughout their lives and experiences. This theory would be advantageous to infertile parents
who conceive a child through cloning because the child would not be completely identical to
the parent it was cloned from.

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 Rationalism and nature

Rationalism is a movement in philosophy that states that knowledge and the

truth can only be found through reason. According to rationalists, the reality
is built from a logical structure, through which the truth can be interpreted
by the mind. Rationalism as a philosophical movement dates back to
Ancient Greece. Especially Plato is known for his rationalistic ideas, which
were developed in the very famous Allegory of the cave. Plato was one of
the first and most well- known philosophers to ever exist. He was born in
427 B.C. as a member of a wealthy Athenian family. Even though he was
meant to follow in the footsteps of his family in politics, he decided to
dedicate his life to philosophy. He became a student of Socrates and formed
The Academy, a school for philosophy. During his life, Plato wrote numerous Plato

works such as Phadeo or the Symposium. Many of his works included conversations with his
teacher Socrates, which is remarkable since Socrates did not write any of his ideas down.
Plato had several ideas based on rationalism. As a rationalist, he stated that the conclusion is
just as true as the thesis. Rationalism must be associated with deductive reasoning. Plato
spent a big part of his life asking himself all sorts of questions. Plato’s reasoning can be
adapted to support the nature theory by saying that knowledge is already present at birth.
Plato did believe that the environment plays a role in our development, but not in the same
way as Locke for example. Plato believed that our environment does not teach us something
new, but only reminds us of something that we already know. Another well-known philosopher
who spreads rationalistic ideas is Descartes. The starting point of rationalism is that
knowledge and truth are not based on experiences, but on reason. Knowledge can not only
originate from what one sees, hears, smells or feels, but precisely by thinking and logical
reasoning. A doctor who has to determine whether a patient suffers from the flu, bases this on
the knowledge that the doctor has about the flu. Without his or her knowledge of the symptoms
of the flu, the doctor can never determine on the basis of sensory perceptions whether the
patient actually has the flu. In other words, only the mind or reason can lead to the truth and in
this example lead to the diagnosis of the flu.

• J
ean-Jacques Rousseau, born in 1712, was a French philosopher who lived during the years of

31

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
 the Enlightenment. He fled from home during his teenage years and
ended up living with a Baroness, who later offered him the
education to become a philosopher. He later joined an
intellectual society in Paris named the 'Philosophers'.
Rousseau published multiple works, such as the social
contract. Therefore, he was also the founder of the French
constitution. In 1762, Rousseau published a book called
Émile, ou De l’éducation. The book discusses the relationship
between individuality and society. Rousseau questioned the
influence parents had on their children during their upbringing.
Contrary to John Locke, Rousseau did not believe in the Tabula Rasa. He
stated that children are naturally perfectly formed and learn to adapt to and learn from its
surroundings. This curiosity originates from a child's nature and is not formed through a child's
desire to learn, as the nurture theory would state. Thus, he did support the nature theory.
What's more is that Rousseau was convinced that children should grow up without their
parents or guardians. The goal in this way of upbringing would be that the child would learn
from its own behavior rather than being corrected by an adult. He even sent his own children
away to an orphanage. According to Rosseau’s reasoning, a cloned human would be identical
to the human they were cloned from because the child was born already perfectly formed.
Thus, the child already has the same abilities as the person they were cloned from and can
only learn more in their lives.

Nature vs. nurture in the media

32
Because (human) cloning is interesting to many of us, there have been several movies/tv series
that have adapted the concept of cloning and/or nature vs. nurture. An example of a tv show that
focusses on cloning is Orphan Black.

For those unfamiliar with the series, Orphan Black is a show about a young woman named
Sarah Manning who discovers that she is a clone throughout a series of events. Being an
orphan, Sarah was raised by her foster mom and was not aware of her true origin. She later
discovers that she is part of a major cloning program called ‘Project Leda’ and that she has
about 140 cloned sisters. During the series, only about eighteen of these clones are portrayed
by lead actress Tatiana Maslany. Since human cloning has not occurred yet in our society, this tv
show might be the best example to illustrate multiple topics within the nature-nurture debate.

The clones of Orphan Black

The five main characters are con-artist Sarah Manning, suburban house mom Alison Hendrix,
scientist Cosima Niehaus, businesswoman Rachel Duncan and psycho killer Helena. It is clear
that aside from physical appearance, they each have a completely different lifestyle. All of them
were raised in different households and in some cases even countries. The aspect of nurture
plays a major role in the characters’ personalities. A few examples from will be given below:

One of the clones, Rachel Duncan, was raised within the science institute that created her, being
the only self-aware clone of the group. Throughout her life, she has been indoctrinated about
how she is superior to her other sisters. She also participates in a clone elimination program
killing her own sisters. Even though they all share the same DNA, so are biologically identical,
Rachel feels a superiority due to her upbringing. Being self-aware has made her self-centered.

The theory of this show is mostly based on the nurture theory, as the clones have completely
different characteristics and lives despite being genetically identical.

Nature vs. nurture in science

33
As the nature-nurture debate is an interesting topic for many scientists, several studies have
been done in the past few years with identical twins. An example of this is The Minnesota Twin
Study2, a study by Thomas Bouchard that follows more than eight thousand identical twins born
in Minnesota between 1936 and 1955 and between 1961 and 1964. Another five hundred twins
were added to the study in 2000. The majority of the twins involved in this research were raised
together, but there were some twins that were separated at birth involved as well. The purpose
of this research was to find out to what extent identical twins would be alike as adults and if it
would influence them if they grew up apart or together. The domains in where this was
researched were romantic lives, academic ability, personality, personal interests and substance
abuse. The results of the study showed that half of the twins had the chance of being alike as
adults, and the other half did not. The results also showed that twins who grew up apart did
show to have different results. Thomas Bouchard concluded that nature and nurture play an
even role in forming our identity, and neither of them dominates.

Are there concerns about the scientific and ethical perspectives?

General explanation of ethicality

Ethics are about moral statements. Moral statements are our opinions about what is good and
what is evil. We each have our individual opinion about what we consider to be right. The
science of deciding what is good and what is wrong is called ethics. In short, ethicality is about
the study of different values and norms in society, and what they find right or wrong. Ethics can
be divided into two main questions:
 What are the goals we should strive for in our lives?
 By which moral principles should we be guided in making choices and in the
chase of these goals?

Each individual has its own reasoning to answer these questions, or use their ethical thinking to
answer other questions in their lives. When we discuss the ethicality of (human) cloning, the
second question plays a big role in the debate. The moral principles in the ethics of cloning
would be whether human life could be exploited in this way and to what extent we can produce
human life without regulations. The goals here is to put cloning techniques into practice to aid
humans with various problems such as disease or research. The rest of this chapter will be
aimed at elaborating on the thoughts we have when discussing the ethicality of cloning.
Ethical debates in religion and science

2 Science, New Series, Vol 250., No.4978 (Oct. 12, 1990), 223-228
34
Religious debates
Therapeutic cloning – as mentioned before, therapeutic cloning is a technique used to reproduce
organs or tissue for medical purposes. There is no case of forming a full human being or
functioning organism. The embryonic stem cells used to clone these organs/tissues are
harvested from an embryo. This embryo is destroyed once the embryonic stem cells are
harvested, so logically it cannot develop into a full organism. Still, there are some religious
arguments that debate this method of cloning. The view on whether the embryo is alive differs in
every religion. In Christianity for example, it is believed that an embryo is a form of life from the
moment of conception. Even though the embryo does not develop fully, it is still a living and
functioning organism, which is formed only so the embryonic stem cells can be taken away. In
other words, these forms of life’s only purpose will be to achieve the ends of others Every life is
a gift from God and we do not have the right to end it. However, in both Islam and Judaism, the
view on when the life of an embryo begins differs. In Islam, it is believed that a fertilized egg or
an embryo in a petri dish is not the same as an embryo in a woman’s womb. Islam also does not
oppose the therapeutic purpose of stem cells in stem cell therapy. In Judaism, life does not
begin entirely until birth. Thus, the embryo itself should be respected but is not considered as a
fully living being. Jews also agree on that therapeutic stem cell therapy should be used to heal a
defect, but not to improve Gods creations. 3

Reproductive cloning – contrary to therapeutic cloning, a fully developed human is the result of
reproductive cloning. From a religious point of view, humans are given the possibility to form new
human life through reproductive cloning. In other words, humans are able to ‘play God’ by
creating forms of life whenever they want to. Besides, genetic modification gives us the
possibility to form a human the way we desire. Due to these techniques, scientists are also able
to create flawless humans that form a superiority across from normal people. It goes against

Scientific debates
In scientific debates about ethicality, the safety of the participants, such as the egg donors,
play a big role. This is because human rights play a major role in our society. In addition to

3 The Status of the Human Embryo. (2018). Retrieved from https://embryo-ethics.smd.qmul.ac.uk/key-

facts/embryo-and-religion/

35
 this, the safety of the humans involved in cloning procedures is concerning for every party:
the scientists and the ‘regular’ people. Another important factor is the consent of the
participants. In 2005, Korean scientist Hwang-woo Suk claimed to have cloned several
successful embryos4. He declared that all the women that participated in the experiments
donated their eggs voluntarily. Later, he confessed that the women were paid to donate their
eggs and that they were not well informed about the risks and purposes of the experiments.
Dr. Hwang was later sued by The National Bioethics Committee and prohibited to do any
further research on human cloning. These scientific debates make us wonder why human
beings are unbreakable and what is different about us than for example animals.
When thinking about this, it is important to remember all the human subjects involved in the
procedure: the egg donor, the birth mother and the cloned child. What are the risks they will
face during the procedure, and to what extent will this be ethical? After the horrific and non-
ethical human experiments of the Second World War, The Nuremberg Code 5including rules
and ethical conducts regarding human experimentation were formed to avoid a likewise
situation to happen again. A copy of these rules can be found in the annexes. Another
number of rules that were formed to protect human rights are written down in The Belmont
Report6. The Belmont Report suggested three ethical principles on how to treat human
subjects who are involved in scientific projects. Firstly, the individuality and rights of the
human subject need to be respected by the scientists that carry out the research. Secondly,
the purpose of the research should not be to harm those involved, but to offer aid to those in
need. An example of this would be an experiment for medical purposes which uses the
technique of therapeutic cloning. The final principle is justice. This involves every benefit and
disadvantage the human subject may face during the procedure. All of these principles
combined form a base of consent and rights for the human subjects. When the principles of
The Belmont Report are applied, the subject should be fully informed about the experiment
and its risks as well. It is expected from scientists to respect these codes and put them into
practice to avoid any scientific disasters or harm human rights.

The scientific risks that come along with human cloning can be divided into three sorts: safety,
consent and exploitation. Each of these risks include several ethical debates:

4 The Embryo Project Encyclopedia. (2014, August 12th). Retrieved from

https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/hwang-woo-suks-use-human-eggs-research-2002-2005

5 The Nuremberg Code (1947) BMJ 1996; 313 :1448

6 United States. (1978). The Belmont report: Ethical principles and guidelines for the protection of human
subjects of research. Bethesda, Md.: The Commission.

36
Safety – our modern-day technologies are not well developed yet to put cloning methods into
practice safely. Years of research is needed to practice human cloning safely and successfully.
Unfortunately, these research projects involve several human subjects who are exposed to
several risks. As mentioned before, a cloning experiment involves an egg donor, a birth mom
and the child itself. All of these subjects have their own risks.

The cloned child - Firstly, the cloned child is the most vulnerable of these three. This is because
the purpose of the cloned child can vary from subject to subject, and thus the role the child is
supposed to play in society. For example, a child that is cloned to replace a deceased sibling is
born with an immediate purpose. The child is expected to replace someone else and has no way
to form a personal identity. In addition, it is up to research to know how the expectations the child
is put up to will influence their mental wellbeing. Scientifically speaking, earlier attempts of
cloning, such as Dolly the sheep, have shown that numerous attempts are needed to get a
successful birth. The cloned subjects that are born face various birth defects such as physical
abnormalities, organ defects and cardiovascular problems. Other animal cloning projects like the
cloned monkeys Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua showed that many of the cloned organisms have a
short lifespan and often die within the first weeks of their life7. This could be caused by the fact
that a cloned child is often cloned from an older human being. Scientifically, this means that the
cells of the cloned subject are older than usual at the moment of birth. Because of this, the cell
aging process of a cloned human is faster than normal. Although science has shown to be
successful after many failed attempts, experimenting with human lives to this extent is a difficult
subject to many of us.

Egg donor and birth mother – The egg donors and birth moms have a major role as the cloning
process cannot be continued without them. To meet the demands of an egg donor/birth mother,
hormonal treatments8 can cause several health risks. Hormonal treatments can cause fertility
problems to the donors, or other side effects like nausea, swelling or headaches. Animal cloning
projects have shown that fetal deaths and abortions occur more frequent with cloned organisms.
Fetal losses can cause maternal morbidity and psychological problems with the birth mother.
Another factor that should be considered with both the egg donor and the birth mother is the
number of cloned babies their bodies can take. Excessive use of the reproductive system can
cause health complications such as toxemia or infertility. All of these health risks and ethical
debates combined were enough reason for The National Bioethics Advisory Commission to

7 [ CITATION Eti18 \l 1043 ]

8 How the Egg Donation Process Works | CHR. (2018)

37
prohibit human cloning in 19979. It is unclear to us whether these risks are temporary while
research is still done or if they will remain. However, it is clear that there will be remaining ethical
difficulties if we aim to make human cloning accessible.

Consent – every research involving humans and their ethics requires to look at consent.
Because the most vulnerable human subject involved, the cloned child, is unable to consent to
their own birth in advance, human cloning could be considered unethical. Especially when we
discuss cloned children born for an abnormal purpose such as replacing family members or
preserving a talented child. Other than that, it has to be taken into account how the cloned child
is exposed to the earlier-mentioned risks. The scientists who do the cloning procedure are the
ones who have to make a difficult decision. As they are the ones who decide for the unborn
clone, who is unable to consent, practicing the experiments go against what we agreed on to be
ethical. But why is consent of an unborn clone necessary? This consent is meant to respect the
free will of a human being, and most important to protect a vulnerable being from the powerful.
Just because the scientists who produced the cloned child are the ones who granted it life, they
do not have the right to make decisions for its future and function in society, just as parents do
not make these decisions for their children in natural childbirth.

Exploitation – During human cloning and research projects, women are at risk of exploitation. As
mentioned before, a massive amount of donated eggs is needed for the cloning process, and
many of the eggs end up in failed attempts. Only a small percentage of the donated eggs will
result in a successfully cloned human. Women who donate their eggs receive financial
compensation which can lead up to thousands of euros. Because of this, women from low-
income environments are easily persuaded to participate. Science corporations are given the
possibility to exploit these vulnerable women through luring them with money and intensive
hormonal treatments to make the ovulation process easier.

Conclusion

The main motivation for writing our PWS was to answer the question: ‘Is the cloning of
organisms ethical?’. Our research to find the answer to this question consisted of collecting
information, trying to understand the reasoning behind different perspectives and rationalizing in

9 Cloning Human Beings, (1997, June) National Bioethics Advisory Commission

38
what ways individuals form their opinion about it. We followed through by assembling the right
data and conducting a survey on 100 people and analyzing the results.

Alas by finding out what the principle of cloning truly is -both naturally and artificially- for
eukaryotes, plants and bacteria, we were able to conclude the answer to our first sub-question.
The second sub-question ‘What possibilities do we have with cloning?’ was answered by putting
the main past events concerning cloning together, which gave a clear overview on how we
progressed further and gained more knowledge. This was also further analyzed by exploring to
what extent we can use cloning and how animals and endangered species play a role in the
cloning world.

In addition, we tried to explain ethicality and what the debates are people deal with when
deciding whether cloning is ethical or not. Our thesis statement “We assume that most
individuals will have some sort of objection against the cloning of humans, and less against the
cloning of animals, plants and bacteria.” turned out to be correct according to the survey results,
as the majority of people that took the survey agreed with it.

The last sub-questions ‘How will cloning influence our society?’ and ‘How will cloning effect our
values and norms?’ were answered through discussions of human’s values and norms, the
possible scenarios that could occur due to cloning and whether they will change our values and
norms.

Annexes

Survey 1

39
Survey 2

Survey 3

40
Survey 4

Survey 5
41
Survey 6

Survey 7

42
Survey 8

Survey 9

43
Survey 10

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The Nuremberg Code (1947) BMJ 1996; 313 :1448

49
United States. (1978). The Belmont report: Ethical principles and guidelines for the protection of human subjects
of research. Bethesda, Md.: The Commission.

50
 Format Onderzoeksvoorstel en plan van aanpak
N.B. Bekijk de bijbehorende beoordelingsrubriek om te zien of je aan de eisen voldoet

Naam en klas: Guillaine Levenswaard V5B

Naam en klas: Arina Amma V5A

Vak(ken): Filosofie/Natuurkunde

Theoretisch kader van het onderzoek:

Nowadays, we do not have the advanced technologies to clone human beings.
However, animal cloning has been done for years and scientists have been
researching the possibilities of cloning and how it can advantage the human
life.

Hoofdvraag:
• Is the cloning of organisms ethical?

Deelvragen:

• What is the principle of cloning?

• Which possibilities do we have with cloning?

• To what extend can we use cloning (+examples of animals/ plants)

• How will cloning influence our society?

• How will cloning effect our morals and norms?

Hypothese/verwachtingen
We assume that most humans will have some sort of objection against the
cloning of humans, and less objection against the cloning of animals.

Werkwijze/methode
We plan to research how human beings feel about cloning in terms of morality
and ethicality. We could do this with a questionnaire.

51
 Registry

Week Activity Time Who Where Commentary

number
22 Discussion with 12:00 Mr. Lokaal 5
mentor Wielaard,
Arina and
Guillaine
24 Writing ‘plan van 12:00 Arina and Pc-classroom
aanpak’ Guillaine
30 Brainstorming 13:00 Arina and Guillaine’s
and writing index Guillaine home
page
36 PWS day 12:00 - Arina and Mediatheek Making survey
16:00 Guillaine
38 Working on PWS 17:00 - Arina At home
21:00
38 Working on PWS 12:00- Guillaine At home Types of cloning +
17:00 offspring and twins

39 Working on PWS 14:00- Arina and SWT

15:25 Guillaine
39 Working on PWS 9:00 - Arina SWT
10:25
39 Working on PWS 13:50 - Arina and SWT
15:20 Guillaine
40 Working on PWS 18:00 - Arina At home
20:00
40 Working on PWS 14:00 - Arina and SWT
15:25 Guillaine
40 Working on PWS 18:00 - Guillaine At home artificial cloning
20:00
41 PWS discussion 12:00 - Mr. Lokaal 5 Discussing
12:30 Wielaard, process and
Arina and progress
Guillaine
41 Notes from E. 19:00 - Arina At home
Pence book 19:30
42 Working on PWS 18:00 - Guillaine At home
21:00
42 Working on PWS 18:00 - Arina At home Pick a list of
21:00 philosophers

42 Working on PWS 19:00 - Guillaine At home

52
 22:00
42 Working on PWS 9:00 - Arina SWT
10:25
43 Working on PWS 20:00 - Guillaine At home
22:00
43 Working on PWS 10:00 - Arina At home
12:00
43 Working on PWS 16:00 - Guillaine At home
19:00
43 Working on PWS 20:00 - Arina At home
22:00
43 Working on PWS 11:00 - Arina At home
15:00
43 Working on PWS 13:00 - Arina and At home
18:00 Guillaine
43 Working on PWS 20:00 - Arina and At home
23:00 Guillaine
46 PWS-feedback 12:00- Mr. Lokaal 5
12:30 Wielaard,
Arina and
Guillaine
46 Making further 14:00 - Arina and SWt
planning 15:25 Guillaine
47 Working on PWS 12:00 - Arina At home
14:00
49 Working on PWS 12:00 - Guillaine At home
14:00
49 Working on PWS 9:00 - Arina At home
12:00
50 Working on PWS 19:00 - Guillaine At home
22:00
50 Working on PWS 18:00 - Arina At home
20:00
50 Working on PWS 12:00 - Guillaine At home
17:00
50 Working on PWS 19:00 - Guillaine At home
23:00
50 Working on PWS 10:00 - Arina At home
15:00
50 Working on PWS 15:00 - Guillaine At home
17:30

53
50 Working on PWS 19:00 - Guillaine At home
1:00
51 Working on PWS 19:00 - Arina At home
22:00
51 Working on PWS 9:00 - Guillaine SWT
10:25
51 Working on PWS 14:00 - Guillaine At school
20:00
51 Working on PWS 21:30 - Guillaine At home
1:00
51 Finishing touches 16:00 - Arina and At home
21:00 Guillaine

54