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"Recent Accounts of advances in cloning technology, including the first successful cloning of an adult sheep, raise important questions.They potentially represent enormous scientific breakthroughs that could offer benefits in such areas as medicine and agriculture. But the new technology also raises profound ethical issues, particularly with respect to its possible use to clone humans."
- William J. Clinton. MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES, 4 March 1997A breakthrough and a warning signal of human cloning
Dolly, the lovely lamb opened her innocent eyes watching the agitated world. She could not imagine that her birth was a demonstration of the power of modern biotechnology and spurred such enormous concerns or responses from billions of human beings.
The birth of Dolly and the cloning technology which was used by Dr. Ian Wilmut and his colleagues of Roslin Institute and PPL Therapeutics in Edinburgh, was published in Nature (Volume 385, 27 February 1997).
"Prior to publishing the research, we notified many ethical,
advisory and religious groups" said Dr. Ian Wilmut. "Society needs to be able to
deal with and regulate breakthroughs in genetics and medical technologies that are being
made".
Ironically, however probably nobody could foresee precisely the scale and
depth of the worldwide shock induced by the announcement of this breakthrough.
Since then Dolly was happily standing up well in front of camera
flashes and filming crews. Her image and story occupied the headlines of most newspapers
and televisions.
During the first week after the publication, Roslin Institute, PPL
Therapeutics and its consultants De facto had answered more than 2000 telephone calls,
talked with 100 reporters and given access to Dolly to 16 film crews as well as more than
50 photographers.
However Dolly could not understand there were serious reasons and
considerations behind this storm of media interest.
Human society is worried about the near prospect of cloning humans - by
using the similar technology, the cloning of humans might be reachable in just a few years
?
Remarks by the President of the United States
In USA, President Bill Clinton has taken immediately actions.
First of all, he required the National Bioethics Advisory Commission,
headed by President Harold Shapiro of Princeton, to conduct a thorough review of the legal
and the ethical issues raised by this new cloning, and to recommend possible actions to
prevent its abuse. The Commission was required to report back in 3 months.
Then he signed a Memorandum on 4th March 1997 - Prohibition on Federal
Funding for Cloning of Human Beings - he also appealed for a voluntary moratorium on the
cloning of human beings from the entire scientific and medical community, every
foundation, university and industry that supports work in this area, until the Bioethics
Advisory Commission and the entire nation have gained a fuller understanding of this new
technology.
"Science often moves faster than our ability to understand its implications.That is why we have a responsibility to move with caution and care to harness the powerful forces of science and technology so that we can reap the benefits while minimizing the potential danger." Clinton said (Remarks by The President On Cloning. 4 March 1997).
The NBAC have reached a conclusion in May 1997, that at this time
attempting to create a child would pose great risks to the child and raise other ethical
issues needing further discussion.
"It is morally unacceptable for anyone in the public or private
sector, whether in a research or clinical setting, to attempt to create a child using
somatic cell nuclear transfer cloning." They wrote
in their report and recommended that Federal legislation be enacted to prohibit such
activities.
On 9 June 1997, Clinton formally received the NBAC's report on human cloning and transmitted to Congress the "Cloning Prohibition Act of 1997".
This legislation prohibits for 5 years the use of somatic cell nuclear transfer to create a human being. It does not prohibit the use of these techniques to clone DNA in cells and it does not ban the cloning of animals. The legislation requires the NBAC to continue its study amd report back in 4.5 years.
"The legislation will ensure that we continue the national
dialogue we began 3 months ago and will provide the nation and the Congress another
opportunity to take a look at this issue in 5 years." Clinton said on the Remarks
at Announcement of Cloning Legislation, 9 June 1997. "At that time, we will decide
how to proceed based on what has been accomplished and agreed upon and debated and
discovered in the intervening period."
To understand the implications of cloning technology
How to let the entire nation gain a fuller understanding of the new
cloning technology?
One of the best avenue might be to provide the scientific facts to the
public: What is exactly this new cloning technology? Why had it been developed? How did
they do it? Why does it look so powerful and "trouble"? What is the enormous
benefits or potential danger that our human society will gain from it?
Human body images sail in the Universe
Recently, after 22 years traveling in space, the spacecraft Pioneer 11
finally is leaving our solar system and is heading out into the interstellar space toward
the center of the Milky Way..
On board the Pioneer 11 carries an engraved gold plaque bearing a picture
of our planet's position and the body images of a man and a woman.
The man waves a friendly hand. (Interestingly there was an argumant at
that time: why let the man but not the woman wave the hand? Well, if they both wave their
hands, it might cause a misunderstanding from the residents of other planets that the
shapes of human beings living on the Earth are always with a hand hanging in the air . . .
)
That was the message we attempted to send to other civilizations in the
universe - if they exist and are able to interpret it.
Pioneer 11 will pass the star Lambda Aquila in about 4 million years.
Looking at the images of the human bodies which are sailing in the universe, don't you think it was a logical movement for a highly civilized society like ours trying hard to understand and control our own bodies? What are the materials that made these beautiful bodies? What is the structure and functions of these bodies? How could it be developed and inherited?
The advances in the modern science and technology, particularly the rapid progress of molecular biology and genetic engineering during the last two decades, have dramatically accelerated our understanding - and controlling, if you like - of the secrets of life and human body.
Surfing on the secret sea
In this book, we would like to do a little surfing on the sea of the secrets of human beings.
We will start from the discoveries of the Nobel Prize 1995 laureates in
physiology or medicine : "the genetic control of early embryonic development".
To prove the correction of their theory, the Drosophila scientists did excellent
work.
By modifying or controlling certain master control genes, they had created
quite a number of "modern Frenkeleins" - the fruitflies with four wings instead
of two, with legs grewing on its head, or had as many as 14 eyes grewing everywhere on its
body, on the wings, legs and even on the ends of its antennae.
This was not sci-fi, it was the true fact. These fruitfly Frenkeleins were
created even before 1995.
In chapter 3, we will examining the tremendous efforts have been made
by international geneticists to master the secret of the human being - the Human Genome
Project.
The whole genome sequence of a human being, the secret of inherited
instructions for the development and functioning of a human being, will be completed in
2005.
In 1996, scientists achieved an excellent Human Gene Map, which showed you
the exact position of 16,000 genes (About one fifth of the total estimated 50,000 to
100,000 genes of human genome) on the 24 human chromosomes. and their sequences as well as
related informations.
If you have the Internet access facility, it is worth while to visit this
Human Gene Map:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/SCIENCE96/.
I must confess that I do love this map and feel proud of the demonstration
of the huge achievement of modern genetics.
From there our next step will be entering the kingdom of genetic
engineering. Being a molecular biologist, I did not feel surprised for ones capability of
handling genes: to clone it, modify it, or to design and make a new gene; to control its
expression, to put it into living cells, animals or even humans; to monitor its functions
and products . . .
However when by chance I did talk with non-scientific friends or relatives
about this type of work a little bit, they were stunned . . .
Genetic engineering has been the necessary practical procedure for ones
understanding of the secrets of life. The value of any theory only can be proved and
confirmed by practice.
In chapter 4 & 5, we will examine some basic techniques in this field and got the idea of how our industries and patients have been benefited by this new technology.
Chapter 6 would show how to combine the genetics, molecular biology and cloning tecnology to fight with human diseases, for instance, the new knowledge and strategies in treating Alzeheimer's disease, ADA, Cystic Fibrosis, Huntington's Disease, cancer and Aids etc.
Chapter 7 might sound like fantasy, but represents the common wishes of
millions of ordinary people :
Is it possible to utilize the new technology to help people gaining
happier lives? Will the studies of ageing gene, obesity genes and sex determine genes be
able to extend people's lives, to improve people's features or sexual characters, to
perfect the individual's body?
Finally we will go back to the most controversial issue, the baby
cloning.
To look into the exact scientific facts: the cloning of sheep by nuclear
transplantation, the cloning of the monkey by embryo transfer and another recent reports
of exchanging chicken's brain to make a chicken sing like a quail. The fact that human
beings have gained benefits from the organ transplantation, in vitro fertilization
and embryo transfer will be examined.
A very delicate and sensitive issue
We scientists usually wish our hard work would make contributions to
the human society and to improve people's health and their quality of life.
In the mean time, we would not forget that the nuclear energy could be
used in peace time or in war.
The power of new cloning technology is a natural consequence of the
progress of the modern sceince.
How to explore the benefits could be brought by its rapid progress and how
to regulate the possible danger will be a very delicate and sensitive issue.
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