WHAT ARE SOME ISSUES IN CLONING?

We saw in W hat are the Risks of Cloning? that the success rate in cloning is quite low. Even if we can increase the odds of success, problems can arise during the clone's development, both before and after pregnancy. Despite these risks, supporters of human reproductive cloning see it as a possible solution to infertility problems. Others support therapeutic cloning to create embryonic stem cells for research and medicine. What are the possible implications of cloning to society? All of us - researchers, policymakers and the public - have a responsibility to explore the potential effects of cloning technologies on our lives so that we can make informed decisions. For each new application of cloning technologies, we must consider:

What are the benefits? What are the risks? Whom will the technology help? Does it have the potential to hurt anyone? What does this mean for me? For my family? For others around me? Why might others not share my view? Ethical, legal and social issues. There are several types of issues to consider as we think about cloning.

Ethical issues are those that ask us to consider the potential moral outcomes of cloning technologies.

Legal issues require researchers and the public to help policymakers decide whether and how cloning technologies should be regulated by the government.

Social issues involve the impact of cloning technologies on society as a whole.

Some questions to ponder. The questions raised here have no clear right or wrong answer. Instead, your response will depend on your own set of values, as well as the opinions of those around you.

Who has the right to have children, no matter how they are created? Who doesn't? Why?

Is human cloning "playing with nature?" If so, how does that compare with other reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization or hormone treatments?

Does cloning to create stem cells, also called therapeutic cloning, justify destroying a human embryo? Why, or why not?

If a clone originates from an existing person, who is the parent? What are some of the social challenges a cloned child might face? Do the benefits of human cloning outweigh the costs of human dignity? Should cloning research be regulated? How, and by whom?

WHAT ARE THE RISKS OF CLONING?

When we hear of cloning successes, we learn about only the few attempts that worked. What we don't see are the many, many cloning experiments that failed! And even in the successful clones, problems tend to arise later, during the animal's development to adulthood. Cloning animals shows us what might happen if we try to clone humans. What have these animals taught us about the risks of cloning? 1. High failure rate Cloning animals through somatic cell nuclear transfer is simply inefficient. The success rate ranges from 0.1 percent to 3 percent, which means that for every 1000 tries, only one to 30 clones are made. Or you can look at it as 970 to 999 failures in 1000 tries. That's a lot of effort with only a speck of a return! Why is this? Here are some reasons:

The enucleated egg and the transferred nucleus may not be compatible An egg with a newly transferred nucleus may not begin to divide or develop properly Implantation of the embryo into the surrogate mother might fail The pregnancy itself might fail 2. Problems during later development Cloned animals that do survive tend to be much bigger at birth than their natural counterparts. Scientists call this "Large Offspring Syndrome" (LOS). Clones with LOS have abnormally large organs. This can lead to breathing, blood flow and other problems. Because LOS doesn't always occur, scientists cannot reliably predict whether it will happen in any given clone. Also, some clones without LOS have developed kidney or brain malformations and impaired immune systems, which can cause problems later in life.

3. Abnormal gene expression patterns Are the surviving clones really clones? The clones look like the originals, and their DNA sequences are identical. But will the clone express the right genes at the right time? In Click and Clone, we saw that one challenge is to re-program the transferred nucleus to behave as though it belongs in a very early embryonic cell. This mimics natural development, which starts when a sperm fertilizes an egg. In a naturally-created embryo, the DNA is programmed to express a certain set of genes. Later on, as the embryonic cells begin to differentiate, the program changes. For every type of differentiated cell - skin, blood, bone or nerve, for example - this program is different. In cloning, the transferred nucleus doesn't have the same program as a natural embryo. It is up to the scientist to reprogram the nucleus, like teaching an old dog new tricks. Complete reprogramming is needed for normal or nearnormal development. Incomplete programming will cause the embryo to develop abnormally or fail. 4. Telomeric differences As cells divide, their chromosomes get shorter. This is because the DNA sequences at both ends of a chromosome, called telomeres, shrink in length every time the DNA is copied. The older the animal is, the shorter its telomeres will be, because the cells have divided many, many times. This is a natural part of aging. So, what happens to the clone if its transferred nucleus is already pretty old? Will the shortened telomeres affect its development or lifespan? When scientists looked at the telomere lengths of cloned animals, they found no clear answers. Chromosomes from cloned cattle or mice had longer telomeres than normal. These cells showed other signs of youth and seemed to have an extended lifespan compared with cells from a naturally conceived cow. On the other hand, Dolly the sheep's chromosomes had shorter telomere lengths than normal. This means that Dolly's cells were aging faster than the cells from a normal sheep. To date, scientists aren't sure why cloned animals show differences in telomere length.

Recombinant DNA (or rDNA) is made by combining DNA from two or more sources. In practice, the process often involves combining the DNA of different organisms. The process depends on the ability to cut and re-join DNA molecules at points which are identified by specific sequences of nucleotide bases called restriction sites. DNA fragments are cut out of their normal position in the chromosome using restriction enzymes (also called restriction endonucleases) and then inserted into other chromosomes or DNA molecules using enzymes called ligases.

Gene Cloning
This describes the process of copying fragments of DNA which can then be used for many different purposes, such as creating GM crops, or finding a cure for disease. There are two types of gene cloning: in vivo, which involves the use of restriction enzymes and ligases using vectors and cloning the fragments into host cells (as can be seen in the image above). The other type is in vitro which is using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method to create copies of fragments of DNA.

For in vivo cloning a fragment of DNA, containing a single gene or a number of genes, is inserted into a vector that can be amplified within another host cell. A vector is a section of DNA that can incorporate another DNA fragment without losing the capacity for self-replication, and a vector containing an additional DNA fragment is known as a hybrid vector. If the fragment of DNA includes one or more genes the process is referred to as gene cloning.

Cloning DNA in Plasmids Contributor: Genome Management Information System, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy Genome Programs http://genomics.energy.gov

There are 4 different type of vectors: Plasmid vectors Lamda () phage vectors Cosmids Expression vectors The host cell copies the cloned DNA using its own replication mechanisms. A variety of cell types are used as hosts, including bacteria, yeast cells and mammalian cells.

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)

Source: Andy Vierstraete http://users.ugent.be/~avierstr/principles/pcr.html This is an in vitro method for making many copies of a specific section of DNA, without the need for vectors or host cells. The DNA to be copied the template DNA is mixed with forward and reverse primers complementary to the end of the template DNA, nucleotides, and a version of DNA polymerase known as Taq polymerase. (This enzyme is stable under high temperatures, and is obtained from the thermophilic bacterium Thermus aquaticus.) The process involves the repetition of three steps: denaturation, which separates the two nucleotide strands of the DNA molecule primer annealing, in which the primers bind to the single-stranded DNA extension, in which nucleotides are added to the primers in the 5' to 3' direction to form a double-stranded copy of the target DNA.

Each cycle takes a few minutes, and repeated cycles can produce large amounts of a specific DNA sequence in a matter of hours rather than days. However, this cloning method does require knowledge of some details about the nucleotide sequence to be copied, and the technique is very sensitive to small amounts of contamination.

Gene Libraries

Source: http://www.emunix.emich.edu/~rwinning/genetics/index.htm A gene library is a large collection of cloned DNA sequences from a single genome. A genomic library, (as can be seen above) in theory, would contain at least one copy of every sequence in an organisms genome. These are used to investigate the structure of a given chromosome, or to clone specific genes. These types of libraries may be prepared from a subset of the entire genome (for example, a single chromosome). The first step in creating a genomic library is to break up, or fractionate, the genome using physical methods or restriction enzymes. The fragments are then linked to appropriate vectors and cloned in a suitable host cell population. A cDNA library (complementary DNA) contains DNA present in a given cell population which is prepared from the mRNA (messenger RNA) using the enzyme reverse transcriptase. The resulting cDNA represents the genes expressed in the cell population as a subset of the entire genome, and can be cloned using a vector and suitable host cell (as seen in the diagram above). The cDNA will not include introns or regulatory sequences as these are removed from the RNA during processing, and this makes a cDNA library easier to maintain. A cDNA library can also be prepared using reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR).

The Identification of Gene Products in a Gene Library

Restriction enzymes (to cut the DNA) and gel electrophoresis (to separate the resulting fragments) can be used to produce a physical map of DNA segments in a process known as restriction mapping. An example of what one of these may look like can be seen below.

Source: University of Leicester There are also a number of techniques that can be used to identify specific genes or gene products within a gene library and these are: Southern blotting, Northern blotting andWestern blotting. However, the most powerful experimental technique for investigating genetics at the molecular level is DNA sequencing, which allows the nucleotide sequences of genes even whole chromosomes to be determined. Automated sequencing technologies are now allowing us to sequence the entire genomes of organisms from bacteria to human beings.

Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology

The new techniques of molecular genetics, combined with developments in associated biotechnologies, have led to advances in a number of different fields. We can now analyse the genomes of species that make an important contribution to agriculture, fuel production or drug development. We can move specific genes from one organism to another to createtransgenic plants and animals, and use animal cloning techniques to produce animals that are genetically identical, such as Dolly the sheep, and more recently, cloned pets such as cats and dogs. The process of cloning is straightforward, but the results are not always predictable. It took many hundreds of attempts to get it to work and produce one live sheep, and cloning in itself raises many questions not only about benefits and risks but also many ethical questions.

Diagram of pigs to show how animal cloning is carried out. Source: National Human Genome Research Institute The technique of genetic fingerprinting, which enables the identification of individuals and the relationships between individuals has found many applications in science today. There is also ongoing research into gene therapy which examines the possibility of introducing cloned genes to compensate for defective, mutant genes. And other areas, for example,human cloning and stem cell research open up many ethical issues that must be addressed alongside the scientific developments.

Cloning
Christopher Thomas Scott and Irving L. Weissman

Highlights
Cloning technologies are essential tools of modern biology. Cloning has lead to important drugs and new therapies, such as human insulin and interferon to fight viral infections. Cloning also holds the promise of helping scientists understand the genetic basis of human development and disease. Cloning could produce a lifetime supply of therapeutic stem cells that are genetically matched to a patient and pose little risk of rejection. Cloning raises many ethical controversies. One of the greatest concerns the production and destruction of a two-to-four-day-old embryo to make a line of embryonic stem cells. Another concern is assuring that women donating eggs for research give proper informed consent. Some fear that a cloned embryo could be implanted into a woman, possibly resulting in a baby. Every major ethical scientific body around the world condemns human cloning.

The United States is the only nation conducting human embryonic stem cell research that does not have a law prohibiting human reproductive cloning.

Framing the Issue

Most cloningthe process of making an exact genetic replica of a cell, a tissue, or an organism happens naturally. When the fertilized egg first divides, occasionally each daughter cell goes on to form separate embryos. The result: identical twins, each one a clone of the other. Organisms that reproduce asexually, such as aphids, brine shrimp, yeast, and bacteria, are clones. Horticulture uses the term clone for a form of propagation that involves cutting up one plant into pieces that are used to grow hundreds or thousands of identical seedlings. Scientific cloning takes up where nature leaves off. Genetic, or molecular, cloning makes copies of genes or segments of DNA. They can be used to create colonies of genetically modified bacteria or viruses, which can produce drugs and vaccines. Laboratory culture methods can clone a single cell into a population of cells, comprising a limitless number of identical progeny. Various techniques to make copies of whole animals are called reproductive cloning. Finally, there is reprogramming, in which the genes from adult cells are reset to an embryonic state. The hope is that these cells can help scientists understand genetic disease mechanisms and create stem cell-based therapies for diseases and injuries that are genetically matched to individual patients. As of this writing, no such therapies exist. Cloning technologies are essential tools; without them modern biology would still be the stuff of science fiction. Cloning has led to scores of important drugs and newly developed therapies, such as human insulin, interferon to fight viral infections, and blood growth factors such as erythropoietin to generate new red blood cells. The ethical debates surrounding cloning pivot on several issues. One controversial method of cloning somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT)involves the production of a two-to-four day-old blastocyst (a preimplantation embryo), whose cells are then removed to make a line of embryonic stem cellsa process that destroys the embryo. Another concern is over what might be done with these embryos prior to deriving a stem cell line. Because the technique employs some of the same culture methods used by in vitro fertilization clinics, some fear a cloned human embryo could be transferred to a woman, possibly resulting in a baby. And experience with animal reproductive cloning suggests more ethically troubling issues early implantation of these clones always results in their death and often causes maternal death or morbidity. With cloning that involves human embryos, still another concern is assuring that the process for obtaining human eggs for research involves proper informed consent from the donors.

Historical and Scientific Overview

How does the embryo control development by gene expression, the process by which genes turn on and off? Could a developmentally older or differentiated cell have its genes reset to an earlier version of itself by being put into an embryo? Researchers first addressed these questions in the 1950s (see box, Cloning and Stem Cell Milestones: A Timeline). A nucleus from an unfertilized frog egg cell was removed by sucking it out with a very fine, hollow needle called a micropipette. In the same fashion, a nucleus was removed from a cell inside a developing frog embryo. Injecting it into the empty egg began the process of embryogenesis. This process rarely resulted in tadpoles, a few of which grew into frogs. This was the earliest version of nuclear transfer, the cloning technique in which a nucleus without a cell is inserted into a cell without a nucleus. The evidence of the eggs power to reprogram genes was an important result, and the research moved to mammals. Until the appearance of Dolly, a cloned sheep, most animal clones resulted from nuclei taken directly from embryos. Ian Wilmut, a Scottish researcher, inserted a somatic cell taken from the udder of a six-year-old sheep into an unfertilized sheep egg whose chromosomes had been removed. After the procedure, the proteins in the eggs cytoplasm reprogrammed the developmental instructions contained in the DNA. The genes switched from their fully differentiated mammary cell program to a p rogram that

produced a baby sheep. This is an enormously inefficient method for producing offspring, presumably because there is not enough time for the eggs cytoplasm to correctly reprogram all the genes from the udder cell to a pluripotent state. Over 9 9% of such clones die after implantation. Also, animals made in this fashion are not true genetic clones. The egg contains genetic material outside the chromosomes in organelles called mitochondria. The resulting organism or cell line is a clone at the chromosomal level, but has a mixture of mitochondrial genes. The same method used to produce an animal cloneSCNTcould theoretically be used to make a cloned line of human cells with a near genetic match to any person who needed them. The nucleus from a donor cell would be inserted into an egg stripped of its nucleus. Then, just as in animal cloning, the egg would divide, and an embryo might be cultured to the blastocyst stage and have its stem cell line harvested. Another hope is that reprogrammed cell lines made by SCNT could be powerful tools for studying the genetic basis of human development and disease, as well as for drug discovery. In the most optimistic scenario, cloning could produce a lifetime supply of therapeutic stem cells genetically matched to a patient and, therefore, posing minimal risk of immune rejection. Unfortunately, the mitochondrial mismatches usually lead to immune rejection, albeit at a slower rate than when the chromosomal genes are also unmatched. As in other dimensions of stem cell research, the promise of therapeutic stem cells has proven difficult to realize due to moral and technical obstacles. These difficulties came into sharp focus with the South Korean stem cell scandal. A research team announced in 2004 and 2005 that, using somatic cell nuclear transfer, they had established the first patient-specific human embryonic stem cell lines. Moreover, the researchers claimed to have accomplished the cloning with astounding efficiencies, easing worries that hundreds or thousands of human eggs would be needed. It was later revealed that thousands of eggs were indeed used, and some were obtained under questionable circumstances from women working in the laboratories. The lines themselves were not made by SCNT; they were derived from parthenoteseggs treated in a way that causes them to divide without being fertilized or possibly directly from IVF embryos. This fraud fueled efforts to find uncontroversial substitutes for cloned human cells. First, experiments in which somatic and embryonic stem cells were fused successfully reprogrammed the genes in the somatic cell nucleus. This meant that genes expressed in embryonic cells keep them pluripotent, or able to make any cell or tissue in the body. More recently, researchers have reprogrammed skin cells with subsets of these embryonic genes by introducing them with mouse leukemia virus vectors. These experiments make cell lines with embryonic qualities (see chapter 34, Stem Cells ). These linescalled induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS)express markers and genes indicative of embryonic stem cells; they also possess the ability to redifferentiate into adult cell types. If they are found to be equivalent to embryonic cells, then they could in principlereplace nuclear transfer as a means of generating pluripotent lines that genetically match a patient. Since both the chromosomes and the mitochondria come from the induced cell, iPS cells are a better match than stem cells from SCNT. Though several labs have now made human iPS lines, experiments with mouse iPS cells show that the genes and the vectors that carry them cause cancer. Elimination of these oncogenes is a goal of many reprogramming labs.

Stem Cell Glossary

Blastocyst In humans, a two-to-four-day-old embryo, roughly the diameter of a human hair. Embryo An early stage of human development. Medical texts describe embryonic development as a gradual process, beginning when the blastocyst attaches to the uterus and ending eight weeks later, as the organs begin to form. Differentiation The process by which stem cells make other kinds of cells and tissue in the body.

Stem cell A cell that has the capacity to make new copies of itself and differentiate. Somatic cell A differentiated cell of the body, such as a skin or intestinal cell. Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells Stem cells derived from somatic cells following transfer of reprogramming genes taken from embryonic stem cells. The cells exhibit pluripotence, or the ability to copy themselves and change into different types of cells. Reprogramming The molecular and chemical mechanisms at work in SCNT and iPS cell experiments that reset genes in differentiated cells (such as skin cells) to an embryonic state. Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) Also called nuclear transfer. A technical step in which a somatic cell nucleus (containing the genetic material) is removed and transferred to an egg with no nucleus. Therapeutic cloning A popular term for the anticipated application of SCNT to make genetically-matched embryonic stem cell lines for therapies.

Bioethical Considerations
Nuclear transfer is a crude disruption of a delicate and barely understood biological process. Most cloned animals die during gestation and, because of abnormal placentas or abnormally large fetuses, can kill the surrogate mother. Of the few reproductive clones that survive, many are unhealthy, most likely due to failures of reprogramming. Skeletal abnormalities and arthritis are common, as are malformed organs, circulatory disorders, respiratory problems, and immune system dysfunction. Cloned animals often suffer from either abnormally high or low birth weight. For these reasons alone, attempting to clone a human being would be clearly unethical. As a result, every major national and international ethical and scientific body condemns human cloning. However, even if cloning humans could be done as safely as IVF, opinions on whether it should be allowed are divided. Would we deny an infertile couple a chance to have a cloned child? Are there other personal and private reasons for humans to clone a lost loved one, and should we deny them that possibility? Critics maintain that research cloning may lead to a slippery slope condoning the process for research purposes could eventually result in condoning it for reproductive purposes. Cloning babies also creates life without sexual reproduction, which some believe undermines a vital dimension of humanness. These arguments are based on an imagined world without societal checks or balances invoked by a moral consensus against the practice of cloning humansthe same pressures that condemn unethical treatment of human subjects in clinical research or payment for organs used in transplant procedures. Once it was clear that a stem cell line could make all tissues, we would certainly have a moral responsibility to use the line of cells to understand disease. These cells could also eventually provide therapies and cures. The moral justifications rest on the positive principle of beneficence: the research may reduce human suffering due to aging, injury, and disease, especially for those who may have a very short window of opportunity for treatment. Resource constraints join funding restrictions as major hurdles to producing human stem cell lines by somatic cell nuclear reprogramming. Current technology requires the use of thousands of surplus or donated human eggs. The egg retrieval procedure is invasive and not without risk to women, raising concerns about obtaining proper informed consent. Whether women should be paid for removal of their eggs is hotly debated among ethics and policy scholars; national and state guidelines prohibit paying women for eggs over and above reasonable expenses related to the clinical procedure. Others point out inconsistencies in social policy that permit women to sell their eggs for reproductive purposes. Nevertheless, research using human and primate eggs may dramatically improve the efficiency of reprogramming, and, unlike the creation of iPS cells, nuclear transfer does not involve introduction of cancer genes.

Legal and Policy Issues

The United States is the only nation conducting human embryonic stem cell research that does not have a federal law prohibiting human reproductive cloning. This incongruous fact springs from legislative wrangling in Congress since 2001. Opponents of human embryonic stem cell research introduced measures that would criminalize both human reproductive cloning and production of such lines by nuclear transfer. The tightly bound issues prevented a majority rule against reproductive cloning that would have carried easily in other countries. The vacuum in federal policy has led to a welter of state laws, some of which are permissive and others restrictive. It also leads to border dilemmas (by restricting the movement of eggs and cloned lines from permissive to restrictive states and vice versa) and, in South Dakota and Michigan, the threat of jail and other penalties for researchers. The regulatory environment is uncertain in the majority of states that are either silent on cloning or have laws that consider donated IVF embryos separately from embryos made for research purposes, including embryos made by nuclear transfer. What is lost in the discussion about human embryonic stem cell funding restrictions is a longstanding federal prohibition on funding of embryo research generally, a legislative action that swept essential questions about infertility, reproductive medicine, and prenatal diagnosis beyond the reach of many American clinicians and scientists. Just as political controversies surrounding abortion and assisted reproductive technologies are used as proxies for restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, lines made by nuclear transfer are presumably bound by the same prohibitions as frozen embryos, despite national ethics committees and advisory groups such as the National Academy of Sciences recommending that the research proceed.

Cloning and Stem Cell Milestones: A Timeline

What Lies Ahead?

The future of cloning research faces at least four major scientific and policy questions. What are the genetic differences among standard embryonic cell lines, cloned cell lines, and directly reprogrammed cell lines? Understanding these differences will help us understand the cause and progression of disease, developmental disorders, and reproductive failures. Will induced pluripotent stem cell lines free of cancer risk eclipse nuclear transfer as a method to generate disease-specific (and eventually patient-specific) lines?

Will political change in Washington lift funding restrictions for embryonic stem cell and cloning research, and will it impact long-standing restrictions on embryo research?

Technologies are disseminated across a flat landscape caused by globalization. Differences in law, policy, and normative ethical frameworks cause gradients in access to research materials, discovery, and treatments. In the future, where will the United States stand among nations that seek to realize the full research and therapeutic potential of cloning?

Christopher Thomas Scott is a senior research scholar at the Center for Biomedical Ethics at Stanford University and Irving L. Weissman, MD, is a professor at Stanford University.
Christopher Thomas Scott and Irving L. Weissman, Cloning, in From Birth to Death and Bench to Clinic: The Hastings Center Bioethics Briefing Book for Journalists, Policymakers, and Campaigns, ed. Mary Crowley (Garrison, NY: The Hastings Center, 2008), 25-30

Resources
Web sites The National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health. Includes an illustrated fact sheet on the science of cloning. The University of Utahs Genetic Leaning Center. Includes Cloning in Focus, an interactive learning module that explores the reasons for cloning, its history, its risks, myths concerning it, and ethical issues surrounding it. Also includes additional resources.

Molecular Cloning Process

Bioengineering is perhaps one of the most remarkable technological developments that the humanity has witnessed in the last few decades. Nowadays specialists can use the development in bio engineering to do things that people have never dreamed of such as create better medication and better medical computers but also to clone organisms. Cloning is perhaps one of the most highly debated subjects in the history of bioengineering largely as a result of its ethical controversies. However, cloning is not only performed on animals and its fundamentals can be used for other purposes as well. Here one can learn more about one of the major parts of genetic cloning, molecular cloning. Molecular cloning is a process through which one molecule is multiplied into a certain number of molecules. Molecular cloning is used in various biological experiments and even in practical applications involving protein production or genetic fingerprinting, among others. Commonly the DNA of an organism or tissue as well as gene is what are actually being cloned and this process takes place into four main steps. Firstly, specialists need to carry on a different process through which they break apart a particular strand of the DNA, operation that is referred to as fragmentation. Then, the DNA is being placed or glued together in a desired sequence which is known under the name of ligation. Furthermore, specialists need to perform transfection which basically entails inserting the newly created DNA into cells. Lastly, the cells that have been successfully transfected are selected through a process of screening. In general, these are the four main steps that one needs to conclude in molecular cloning. However, specialists may choose different cloning strategies which all need to involve isolating the DNA of interest, a ligation procedure followed by transfection and then cultivation of the newly obtained DNA. The process, no matter the strategy chosen will then end in selecting the cells that have been successfully cloned.

Drug Discovery and Optimization

New drug discovery through Modern Bio engineering methods aims at dealing with new molecular targets, identifying

and developing healthier and safer therapeutic drugs, as well as introducing preventive and personalized medicinal alternatives. In the last decade or so, scientists have seen a substantial increase in the amount of biological information from such sources as the Human Genome Project, for instance, which has provided the scientific community with a treasure trove of data derived from 30,000 to 40,000 different genes and led to new drug discovery methods. This integrated approach to drug discovery and optimization has led to more specialized and personalized alternatives and solutions to health issues according to the specific demands made by specific segments of society, or group of individuals. In the future, it is expected that new drug discovery through bio engineering will develop customized medications perfectly fit for each one of us on an individual basis, specifically satisfying our most intimate and particular needs.

Cloning- Ethical Issues

The latest technological developments in the field of bio engineering has allowed specialist to proceed with the successful cloning of organisms. Bioengineering has certainly opened doors to science that people have never considered before but this has also come with attached controversy. There are many ethical issues of cloning that are being discussed nowadays and here one can learn more about them. Most of the ethical issues of cloning be it in animals or humans have been raised by the Catholic Church, as well as other religious organizations. They all strongly oppose cloning as according to the religious belief life begins at conception and that life cannot be created artificially but from the unity of a man and female. At the same time, the church together with the other religious organizations argue against therapeutic cloning as well because, as mentioned above, they are guided by the idea that life starts at the conception and once the embryo exists it must be treated as a person, and thus destroying embryos and using them only for the purpose of research is not consistent with the religious view on the issue. On the other hand, specialists are mostly arguing for genetic cloning and more openly for therapeutic cloning. Some, such as the bioethicist Gregory Pence claim that criminalizing attempts to clone humans is not a desirable thing in such a developed society. Another issue is however linked to the use of cloning of animals to produce meat. In 2006 the US government approved the consumption of meat from cloned animals, a decision that raised significant objections especially with regards to the potential risks associated with cloning and which could be transmitted through ingested animal products. Yet, despite all these arguments it is clear that specialists will at least continue to explore the possibilities that science can offer them.