Cloning is a method of reproduction used to copy a cell or an individual from their nuclear DNA. Except when there are errors or mutations during copying, a clone is, to a large extent, genetically identical to the original: it has the same DNA.
In April 2003, South Africa's first cloned animal, a calf, was born. Scientists from South Africa collaborated with scientists from Denmark to make the event possible. At present, the survival rate of cloned animals is lower than their normal counterparts, but the technology is improving. The prevailing ethical questions concerning cloning are: Does man have the right to use scientific technology to create life? What right does a human have to clone another human?
Doctors For Life opposes human cloning because the development of this technology will require the deliberate abortion of human embryos, of a human life that began at conception. Any single cell in the embryo contains all of the information needed for a complete human life.
Scientifically, we oppose human cloning based on the potential for additive mutations, transmission of mitochondrial diseases, and negative effects from aging genetic material. From society’s viewpoint, we oppose human cloning based upon the issues of parentage, lineage, family structure and the uniqueness of the individual.
We affirm the need for continued medical, scientific and moral scrutiny as research on animal cloning proceeds and proposals for the application of this technology to humans are advanced. DFL opposes all forms of human cloning and will continue to work through legal and governmental channels to bring it to an end.
Latest News Obama signs funding bill that prohibits embryonic stem cell research
On 9 August 2001 President Bush issued an Executive Order that stated that federal funds could be used for embryonic stem cell (ESC) research if:
1. The ESC lines were derived before 9 pm of the 9 August 2001.
2. The ESC lines must have been derived from an embryo not used or left over from a reproductive procedure ie. In vitro fertilization (IVF), and not a clone.
3. Informed consent must have been obtained for donation and no financial rewards may have been offered or received.
It was thought at the time that there were about 60 ESC lines that had been derived from individually genetic diverse blastocysts, of which only about 20 are still in use. (A blastocyst is a fertilized egg which is a few days old (5-7 days), where the single cell formed by the fusion of the male sperm and female egg has divided and grown to an organism of about 150 cells).
President Obama signed the Stem Cell Executive Order on 9 March 2009. This revoked President Bush’s 2001 Executive Order and replaced it with new directives allowing federal funding for the creation of new ESC lines and research using them.
Two days later President Obama signed a 465-page spending bill which has been used annually since 1996 by Congress to appropriate funding to most government departments. It will fund these government agencies until September, including the National Institutes of Health, which is responsible for managing and funding biomedical research in the USA. The NIH is made up of 27 different research institutes.
The thing is that in the spending bill there is a clause called the Dickey-Wicker amendment. The clause (also called a rider) receives its name from the name of the Congressman that originally introduced the amendment, Representative Jay Dickey. The clause prohibits:
"Research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death." This is the language that refers to the creation of new stem cell lines.
It seems that what this means is that federal funding will still only be available for stem cell research on the 20 or so ESC lines approved under the Bush Administration, or possibly on new ESC lines where the stem cell lines have been derived from procedures that have been privately funded. The only way to change this would be to repeal the Dicky-Weber amendment legislation
There are people in Congress that have tried to repeal it twice since 1996 but they were unsuccessful. It remains to be seen if they will succeed in the future. In the meantime, even though President Obama has issued an Executive Order allowing the creation of new ESC lines using federal funding, it is illegal to do because the Dicky-Weber amendment, which is law, prohibits it.
Cloning is a method of reproduction used to copy a cell or an individual from their nuclear DNA. Except when there are errors or mutations during copying, a clone is, to a large extent, genetically identical to the original: it has the same DNA.