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1、Human Cloning: A Scientists StoryI was extremely close with my mother all my life.She was a brilliant educator, writer and wonderful woman.Sadly, she developed complications related to diabetes.When she lost her eyesight and most of her ability to walk,it was absolutely horrifying for me.She passed
2、away from a fall seven or eight years ago.At her funeral,I swore that one day Id do something about conditions like hers.Years passed and I read about the work.the South Koreans had done with stem cells.In and Hwang Woo-Suk fraudulently reported that he had succeeded in creating human embryonic stem
3、 cells by cloning.Back then it wasnt known it was a fraud,so it was very exciting to think that a long list of diseases could be treated.I founded the stem cell research company Stemagen with another gentleman whose father had died of ALS.We went out for drinks one night and we started talking about
4、 our parents.We wanted to do something that would be a legacy for them.For Better Or Worse?The moment we decided to start Stemagen,I read all there was to read about the various cloning efforts in the past.The cloned sheep Dolly in was very interesting,but at that stage people were not focusing on t
5、he stem cell aspect of cloning;they were focusing on the reproductive possibilities of cloning.Human reproductive cloning is just simply wrong ethically from a medical standpoint and a scientific standpoint,even ignoring any religious issues associated with it.The reason is that the majority of repr
6、oductive clones in other species are actually abnormal,with very high miscarriage rates,very high stillbirth rates, fetal anomalies,death soon after birth, et cetera.It would just be absolutely wrong to take a human being and put them through what may well involve significant suffering for really no
7、 good end.Even though people could take the techniques that weve developed and attempt to do it(or perhaps even be successful doing it),we hope that they would not.On the other hand,therapeutic cloning does not involve any type of risk to human life and actually provides tremendous potential for the
8、 relief of suffering in real human beings who are going through some awful things.Im a pure scientist in some ways,and I know that many different studies or findings could be used for evil.Our job as scientists is to make the most of this technology and make it available to the greatest number of ot
9、her scientists who can help us do good things with it.Theres really no effective way for an individual scientist to stop someone else from using the knowledge for something they shouldnt.We need to be honest about the techniques that we used.They need to be able to be replicated by other people,and
10、so, we are providing a roadmap.I would hope that the legislation thats in place and the great public disapproval that would result from any attempt to clone a human would dissuade anyone from going down that path.What is it they say?There is no technology that hasnt been used for some evil purpose a
11、t some point.Quite honestly I do think that someone will attempt human reproductive cloning.I do think its inevitable,and its virtually impossible to legislate that away.Claim to Fame I am spoken of as the first man to clone himself.There are different types of cloning.At the cellular level, yes, it
12、s true I am the first man to clone himself.We thought a great deal about how to deal with the issue of whose cells we should use and whether we should let the world and the scientific community know who the first cellular clone was.In the end we decided that we wanted to put a human face on cloning.
13、I didnt anticipate it would create the firestorm of controversy that its created,but Im still glad we went down that path.We received thousands of e-mails and phone calls from people who need help.I think by coming forward and putting a face to it we made it very real,and now people around the world
14、 know that cloning is here.I believe that very soon it will be used therapeutically,so I think our purpose was served.Pure ScienceWhat happens is an informed and consenting woman donates an egg and we remove her genetic material from the egg.Then we place a single skin cell inside that egg.What were
15、 really interested in is creating disease-specific and person-specific stem cell lines.The procedure of taking cells from a person takes no more than a minute or two.You can take some skin cells from the arm, for example,and in one to two minutes,you can get the cells that you need to carry out this
16、 process.This process enables us to study the causes of specific diseases,such as Alzheimers Disease, ALS or Parkinsons Disease,and then research a variety of treatments for these diseases.If the stem cell lines are created for any given individual and are later transplanted back into the individual,they will not be rejected by the individual.Sweet Success I always thought that when our research was successful I would just be pleased that we had accomplished this when
