CGS-authored
One thing the recent cloning breakthroughs have highlighted is the lack of engagement with the issue from the bioethical perspective.
In the space of a year, three different teams have succeeded in deriving embryonic stem cells from cloned human embryos: embryos that were generated by somatic cell nuclear transfer.
From a therapeutic and research perspective, SCNT presents a valuable new tool to potentially treat various diseases in the clinic and to investigate at a patient specific level why such diseases (diabetes, Alzheimer’s, ALS) develop in the first place.
But the breakthrough also means that it is now just a matter of time before reproductive cloning is achieved. Probably within the next decade, as one scientist has told me.
Attack of the Clones?
While some U.S. states have outlawed reproductive cloning, the country still has no ban at the federal level.
And there’s been no discussion of what kind of oversight should be put in place, should cell therapies via SCNT become a reality.
Earlier this year, the FDA’s Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee [CTGTAC], took up...