Stem Cell Research and Human Cloning

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Stem Cell Researchand Human Cloning

• Ray Campbell
• Director, Queensland Bioethics Centre

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The Big Picture

• Human nature itself lies on the operating table,
  ready for alteration, for eugenic and
  neuropsychic enhancement, for wholesale
  redesign. In leading laboratories, academic and
  industrial, new creators are confidently amassing
  their powers and quietly honing their skills,
  while on the street their evangelists are
  zealously prophesying a posthuman future. For
  anyone who cares about preserving our humanity,
  the time has come to pay attention. (Leon Kass,
  Life, Liberty and the Defense of Dignity)

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Some Questions

• What does it mean to treat nascent human life as
  raw material to be exploited as a mere natural
  resource?
• What does it mean to blur the lines between
  procreation and manufacture?
• What are the likely future possibilities emerging
  from out current decisions?
• Can we control where this project is taking us,
  so as to reap the benefits without losing our
  humanity? If so, how? (Leon Kass)

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Stem cells

• A generic cell which can a) continue to
  proliferate and b) give rise to specialised cells
• Totipotent stem cells can give rise to every
  cell in the human body -- the single cell zygote
  and the very early embryo
• Pluripotent can give rise to many different
  specialised cells
• Multipotent generates cells for a particular
  type of tissue
• Unipotent able to form only one differentiated
  type

Differentiation
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Kinds of stem cells

• Adult stem cells (post natal)
• Able to produce exact copies of themselves and
  differentiated daughter cells
• Said to be multipotent
• More pliable than first believed -- possibility
  of transdifferentiation -- pluripotent
• Difficult to find, but more being identified
• www.stemcellreseach.org

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More recent developments with adult stem cells

• Baby teeth as source of stem cells
• Use of olfactory tissue
• Olfactory neurons
• Olfactory stem cells
• Olfactory ensheathing cells producing
  insulating myelin sheaths
• Therapies and clinical trials using them already
  exist cancers, autoimmune disease, stroke,
  heart attack, skin, bone and cartilage
  deformities, spinal injury(?)

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Kinds of stem cells

• Foetal stem cells
• Taken from foetal tissue
• Make up the bulk of the tissue
• Thought to be capable of generating whole organs
• Generally not rejected to the same extent as
  post-natal tissue
• Obtained from aborted or miscarried foetuses.

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Kinds of stem cells

• Umbilical cord blood and placenta tissue stem
  cells
• Good source of stem cells particularly for bone
  marrow
• Less chance of rejection
• Cord blood banks
• To date, limited application

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Kinds of stem cells

• Embryonic stem cells
• Cells which have not yet differentiated --
  pluripotent
• Hailed as possible source for many cures -- but
  none to date
• Obtained by destroying an embryo

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Developing embryo
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Obtaining embryonic stem cells
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From embryonic cell to specialised cell
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Obtaining embryonic stem cells

• from existing spare embryos from IVF process
  destroys the embryo
• through cloning and then destroying the embryo

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What is a clone?

• "one or a group of genetically identical cells,
  organisms, or plants derived by vegetative
  reproduction from a single parent." Dorland's
  Illustrated Medical Dictionary (29th edition)
• "member of group of organisms produced asexually
  from one individual, The Australian Pocket
  Oxford Dictionary

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Three types of human cloning

• Replicating genetic cellular material e.g. DNA
  fragments, particular cells

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Three types of human cloning

• Splitting of human embryo -- blastomere separation

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Three types of human cloning

• Somatic cell nuclear transfer

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Dolly

• February, 1997, the Roslin Institute, Scotland

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Human Cloning Possibilities

• Human somatic cell transfer to an enucleated
  human ovum (actually fusion of a human somatic
  cell with an enucleated human ovum)
• Human somatic cell nuclear transfer to an
  enucleated human embryo
• Human somatic cell transfer to an enucleated
  animal ovum
• Human somatic cell nuclear transfer to an
  enucleated animal embryo

• Transfer of chromosomes from more than one human
  individual to a human or animal enucleated ovum
  or embryo
• Fertilisation of a human ovum by chromosomes
  from a human somatic cell
• Fusion of ova from two different women or from
  the same woman
• Parthenogenesis

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When is a clone a clone?

• Most of Dollys mitochondria (99.5) came from
  the egg 37 genes
• In humans this would mean 1 of DNA would not be
  the same as the donor
• Nuclear genetic identity, not total

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Developmental problems with clones

• Inefficiency -- only 2 to 4 of mammalian clones
  are long term survivors
• Poor Imprinting -- molecular mechanism through
  which genes inside sperm and egg cells are turned
  on or off in preparation for early embryonic and
  fetal development
• Need for a large number of eggs hence some
  advocate the use of animal eggs for human cloning

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Reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning

• Reproductive cloning -- cloning for the sake of
  bringing a genetically identical person to birth
• Therapeutic cloning -- supposedly for some
  therapeutic purpose
• In what sense is this a valid distinction? -- a
  distinction based upon further purposes of the
  actual cloning

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Reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning

• Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and
  Human Rights, 1997 states that practices such as
  reproductive cloning of human beings shall not
  be permitted.
• The Declaration makes no reference to
  therapeutic cloning
• The relevant distinction was between cloning
  human beings and cloning parts.

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Reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning

• A false distinction
• All human cloning is embryo cloning
• All human cloning is experimental
• A misuse of the term therapeutic
• never used for research destructive of the
  subject
• Recent attempts to avoid use of word cloning by
  referring to somatic cell nuclear transfer
  (SCNT)
• SCNT is cloning!!

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The Issues

• The Current Legislation
• Research Involving Embryos Act and Prohibition
  of Human Cloning Act 2002

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Purpose of the Acts

• REAto address concerns, including ethical
  concerns, about scientific developments in
  relation to human reproduction and the
  utilisation of human embryos by regulating
  activities that involve the use of certain human
  embryos created by assisted reproductive
  technology.
• Notice it is use of human embryos not respect
  for or care of.

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Purposes of Acts

• PHCA to address concerns, including ethical
  concerns, about scientific developments in
  relation to human reproduction and the
  utilisation of human embryos by prohibiting
  certain practices.

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The Act and embryonic stem cells

• Nowhere in the Act is there mention of embryonic
  stem cells. The reference is in the explanatory
  memorandum
• The Act permits destructive research on human
  embryos providing certain conditions are met.
  Nowhere is this research limited to the
  harvesting of stem cells.
• The majority of approvals already granted are not
  for obtaining stem cells

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Current Situation

• Lockhart Review and Report and Patterson Bill
• While claiming that embryos from eggs and sperm
  should only be created for reproductive purposes,
  there is no mechanism to ensure this
• Want to redefine the embryo
• Want to allow cloning for research purposes
• Would permit many of the practices currently
  forbidden

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Senate Inquiry

• Senate Inquiry of the Community Affairs
  Legislation Committee into the Provisions of the
  Research Involving Human Embryos and Prohibition
  of Human Cloning Bill 2002

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Community Affairs Legislation Committee Chairs
Report

• The heart of the ethical debate before the
  Committee is the question of whether or not the
  embryo enjoys the same moral status as an adult
  or child, and hence whether it is an open
  question that it may be morally acceptable to
  destroy a human embryo for the sake of the
  benefit of others. (3.11) (References in
  brackets are to the Chairs Report)

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The Question

• Who is to count as a member of the human family?
• The new legislation seeks to put a different
  value on a cloned embryo than an embryo created
  by fertilisation
• It is still illegal to create an embryo by
  fertilisation for anything other than
  reproductive purposes.

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Embryos with different status

• A wanted embryo (and/or foetus) in the womb
• An unwanted embryo (and/or foetus) in the womb
• A wanted, unfrozen embryo outside the womb
• An unwanted, unfrozen embryo outside the womb
• A wanted frozen embryo
• An unwanted frozen embryo
• A cloned embryo

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Biologically and ontologically the same

• From the moment that the first cell is formed, a
  human embryo is an individual organism oriented
  to development to human adulthood, normally
  requiring only nutrition and a favourable
  environment for that development to occur, and
  whose inherited nature is formed by the human
  genome which carries the inherent radical
  capacity for rationality that is distinctive of
  human beings. (Senate Report, Comments by
  Senator Harradine, 1.13, p.185)

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The status of the embryoThe status of the
question

• It is reasonable to say that more false
  information, misrepresentations, half-truths and
  outright lies concerning human embryology have
  been stated since Roe v Wade than at any previous
  time in history, including ancient times. (C.
  Ward Kisher, The Media and Human Embryology
  Linacre Quarterly, May, 1998, p.34)

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Moral significance of being human

• "For us Christians, the human person is the apex
  of everything created. Their great dignity is
  like a reflection of the divine image, an
  indelible imprint on their very being, and as
  such ranks above all other things, so that human
  beings can never be considered mere instruments
  to be used for the benefit of others.

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Moral significance of being human

• Unfortunately, modern technological and political
  mentality sometimes seems to ignore this,
  forgetting the values and the rights of the human
  spirit. Since human beings are persons and the
  subjects of any action, there is no human reason
  or pretext in the scientific, social, political
  or economic order which could ever justify a
  change in their function or status from subjects
  to objects." (Pontifical Commission on Justice
  and Peace, The Church and Human Rights, 1974).

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Moral foundations

• Every human person to be valued of and for
  themselves not as a means to another end
• Wisdom to use knowledge in a way respectful of
  the good of every human person