Ethics in gene biotechnology

Sp13-bty-001 zohaibHUSSAIN (CIITATD )
Ethics in Gene Biotechnology
Introduction
All of us are well aware of the fact that Dr. Wilmut’s experiments in 1997, of cloning of sheep
using vegetative cells to derive embryo and the birth of “Dolly” triggered the discussion on
‘cloning’ and pros and cons of cloning. Discussion on cloning started at fundamental level.
Reactions were many-fold from all sections of society including those who understood what is
cloning? to those who did not understand even a little of it. Fear and feelings were reflected in
range of reactions including condemnation, resistance, ban on experiments, unthinkable
(France), unacceptable (Germany). Arrogance, misuse of power, and abuse of science was smelt
in cloning work overall. Slowly a status developed and while people react negatively to cloning
of humans, in an almost international consensus they agree that cloning of animals is good and
should continue. This support for animal cloning might be understandable and expected. Many
consider the creation, destruction and manipulation of animals to be a God given right. Given the
other things we do to animals, creating copies of them hardly seems evil. Furthermore using
science to choose or replicate the genes of animals for the benefit of humans is an occasion of
praise and not a condemnation, when compared to the production of replicas of persons
Cloning is the process by which a genetically identical copy of a certain bacteria, plant or animal
is produced by asexual reproduction. There are two types of human cloning. ‘Therapeutic’
cloning is where the embryo is only allowed to develop for a few days and ‘Reproductive’
cloning is where the intention is that a fully formed baby is produced. Therapeutic cloning may
be (i) procreative cloning or (ii) For other therapeutic applications. Therapeutic cloning is more
likely to achieve as technique is more accessible. Also, it is morally less problematic. Cloning

creates duplicate genes but does not produce Xerox of individual. Different environment,
different opportunities, different experiences make every individual a different personality.
Therapeutic cloning involves cloning cells from an adult for medicinal use and is an active
research area, while reproductive cloning would involve the creation of human clones.
Therapeutic cloning could provide unique ways to cure diseases until now considered incurable:
diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, heart disease. ‘Replacement’ cloning is the third type of
cloning is a combination of therapeutic and reproductive cloning and is a possibility in theory.
Reproductive cloning is also referred to as ‘ego-centric’ cloning. Parents or individuals, who
seek procreative cloning for logistical reasons, want any child who is biologically related to one
of them, whereas parents - or individuals, who want a specific child and no other, is an ego-
centric cloning and raise serious questions about their motivations. Parents in second case may
be interested to have a child who develops as famous athlete or renowned scientist etc.
Only 1% of animal cloning made so far has had a positive result, but most of them have
suffered serious disorders. The conclusion of experts is that the current level of technology,
human cloning is very dangerous.
The key ethical issue with therapeutic cloning is the moral status of the cloned embryo, which is
created solely for destruction. The ethical issues with reproductive cloning include genetic
damage to the clone, health risks to the mother, very low success rate meaning loss of large
numbers of embryos and fetuses, psychological harm to the clone, complex altered familial
relationships, and commodification (considering it as commodity) of human life.
In some countries animal cloning is allowed though human cloning is prohibited. Some advocacy
groups are seeking to ban therapeutic cloning, even if this could potentially save people from
many debilitating illnesses.

Animal cloning can be done both for reproductive and non-reproductive or therapeutic purposes.
In the second case, cloning is done to produce stem cells or other such cells that can be used for
therapeutic purposes, for example, for healing or recreating damaged organs; the intention is not
to duplicate the whole organism.
Process of cloning is considered to be against nature by many people.
Many ethical arguments against human cloning are based on misconceptions.
(1) Many people think that these clones will have the same characteristics / personalities as the
person cloned. Although clone and cloned individual have the same genes,traits and personalities
are different.
(2) People think that a clone is physically identical to the donor and her behavior, but this is not
true because although there is a physical identity, living environment shapes an individual's
ongoing behavior and psychology.
(3) Many people believe that cloning will lead to loss of individuality eventually, but people
have their own personality cloned which personality is similar to those in which they were
created.
Many of the ethical issues related to cloning are religious in origin. There is also secular
perspective in discussion on cloning. Animals are currently cloned in laboratory and in livestock
production but human cloning is more a theoretical since human therapeutic and reproductive
cloning are not commercially used. Advocates support development of therapeutic cloning in
order to generate tissues and whole organs to treat patients who otherwise cannot obtain
transplants, to avoid the need for immunosuppressive drugs, and to avoid the effects of aging.
Advocates for reproductive cloning believe that parents who cannot otherwise procreate should
have access to the technology.

Opponents of cloning have concerns that (i) technology is not yet developed enough to be safe,
(ii) it could be prone to abuse (leading to the generation of humans from whom organs and
tissues would be harvested), and (iii) have concerns about how cloned individuals could integrate
with families and with society at large.
Cloning of animals is opposed by animal-groups due to the number of cloned animals that suffer
from malformations before they die, and while food from cloned animals has been approved by
the US FDA, its use is opposed by some other groups concerned about food safety.
Social and Ethical Issues related to cloning -
Modern ethics are characterized by four main principles a) confidentiality b) do no harm c)
respect of autonomy and d) the principle of justice. Issues included in ‘Ethical Aspects of
Cloning’ are -
1. Do no harm
2. Individuality and human uniqueness
3. Rights to our own individual genes and fear of their manipulation
4. Personal identity and respect for human persons
5. Human dignity
6. Commitment to a flourishing family, and freedom and autonomy in procreation
Cloning may find several applications like development of human organs and replacement,
substitute for natural reproduction and solution for infertility, options for producing children, and
help in genetic research, obtain specific traits. Potential disadvantages of cloning are - cloning
will be detrimental to genetic diversity, deliberate reproduction of undesirable traits, if not cost-
effective its use will remain restricted to rich people only, value of human life will be reduced.

The cloning experiments have created an anxiety, fear in everybody’s mind. Because though
benefits are possible out of use of this technique, the potential for misuse is real. The history of
eugenic movement has repeatedly shown that the economic and social stress can lower our
sensitivity to each other and to moral and ethical issues. The creative antidote to this lies not in
mind-numbering uniformity, but in life-enhancing diversity which Dolly and her identikit sisters
threaten to undermine.
Questions?
1. Aldous Huxley , a visionary had foretold the possibilities of potential powers of such cloning
experiments “photocopier” technique, which when applied to humans, can banish sex and flood
the world with mass produced clones of single master image.
2. So far God was supposed to be creator of life but this success puts human being in God's
position. Belief of existence of God (super power) indirectly gives strength and confidence but
now if man becomes a creator of human being, the world will be of limited meaning.
3. Capacity to produce such human will change the very meaning of being human being. Cloning
of humans is inherently evil. The act is overwhelmingly self-centered. There are many moral,
ethical questions related to such experiments and their success.
4. Man's efforts to become immortal or to be in controlling seat will create a lot of confusion.
This is considered to be leading towards end of everything. Creation was considered to be right
of God Almighty but this kind of scientific efforts convert it to narcissism.

5. When man will be produced without mating of man and woman what will be the relations
between the two? What will be the future of the ‘family’ concept? Long term implications of use
of cloning can be cause of worry. Children will be only regarded as products. We are separating
reproduction from human relationships.
6. In this issue no one is bothered about the status of woman and a woman is brought down to the
level of an incubator available on rent to accept and grow anybody’s clone. Why assume that this
is acceptable to woman?
7. This is only the beginning of deterioration of humanity. Anyway this fear is too early and it
will not be so easy to produce a man (in vitro, identical) as it was possible in case of sheep or a
monkey. Dr. Wilmut had done the experiment on 300 embryos out of which 299 failed to give a
healthy product. In case of man, experiments show that out of 100embryos only 5 are able to
take up foreign DNA and only one out of these may fertilize successfully. Thus it is time taking
and costly experiment.
8. Clones will have molecular signatures same, but further development may not occur the same
way, as it much depends on external factors. And even if identical clone is made, its further
development so much depends on the upbringing by the parents, influence of friends, teachers;
that whatever the source of clone; may be even of ‘Einstein’, but there is no guarantee that it
would turn out to be a scientist. We will not be able to to do cloning of same experiences and
memories. Thus perhaps, an identical body may be made but not the complete human. We may
be able to produce a human which looks very much like some cricketer or singer but when
grown there is no guarantee that he or she will have those skills of the game or singing.
9. Thus the intention of producing similar human will become meaningless and will be injustice
on new identical one. There is one interesting novel named ‘Anna to the infinite power’ in which

a story is given of the large efforts to make a copy of a powerful woman, which fail every time
and a woman with different mind (heart) is produced. The ill-effects of cloning are othewvise
also important as explained by biotechnologists.
10. Since the original cell used for cloning experiment is old (as in case of Dolly it was from six
year old parent), it might have accumulated many mutations in these years.
11. Also we do not know whether the animal born will have life which is shorter than the parent,
because it started from parent cell which was already six years old.
12. Human being will try to produce a clone of most powerful human, which ultimately will have
some defects when considered from point of view of survival, making it indirectly weak and
vulnerable and leading to ultimate end.
13. Potential threat to diversity is one of the most concerning issue. Today crops and livestock
has already lost diversity to a considerable extent. The intense economic pressure has already
damaged the large varieties of crops and livestocks as uniform varieties with certain good traits
are the only one which is mass produced. Same may happen to man. Today’s human is formed
by various mixtures of a man and woman and this has created a huge repository of human genes
which has diversity and is product of evolution. Natural selection process has worked on it and
hence it is most fit from survival point of view. If this diversity is lost and if only genes of
particular type become ample, after a time it can vanish as there will be no more scope for
natural selection.
According to Karl Feldbalm, an industrialist, as many as 700 institutes and companies have
opposed to cloning experiments saying that, no medicinal development and genetic studies are
dependent on these cloning experiments.

There are also ethical objections.
Article 11 of UNESCO's Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights
asserts that the reproductive cloning of human beings is contrary to human dignity, that a
potential life represented by the embryo is destroyed when embryonic cells are used, and there is
a significant likelihood that cloned individuals would be biologically damaged, due to the
inherent unreliability of cloning technology.
Ethicists have speculated on difficulties that might arise in a world where human clones exist. (i)
For example, human cloning might change the shape of family structure by complicating the role
of parenting within a family of convoluted kinship relations. (ii) For example, a female DNA
donor would be the clone's genetic twin, rather than mother, complicating the genetic and social
relationships between mother and child as well as the relationships between other family
members and the clone. (iii) In another example, there may be expectations that the cloned
individuals would act identically to the human from which they were cloned, which could
infringe on the right to self-determination.
Questions
 Should a body such as the UN push for an international ban on human cloning?
 Should a distinction be made between ‘therapeutic’ cloning (where the embryo is only
allowed to develop for a few days) and ‘reproductive’ cloning (where the intention is that a
fully formed baby is produced)?
 Would human cloning always be wrong? Could there ever be a reason to allow people to be
cloned?

 ls cloning people any different from cloning animals such as cows or dogs?
 We are all unique in God’s eyes’; ‘People are more than simply their genes’. We know from
work with animals that clones often have different temperaments or ‘personalities’, so would
a clone really be just a ‘carbon copy’ of their ‘parent’?
Responses of Different Countries
Statements opposing cloning human beings have issued from numerous national and
international organisations, including the UN, the Council of Europe, the European Parliament,
the European Commission’s ethical advisors, the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology
Authority, many professional medical bodies, and also the scientists at Roslin who cloned Dolly.
But what exactly is wrong with human cloning? It is not enough to say that it is unnatural; much
medical treatment is also unnatural. The key question is should we respect a biological
distinction or celebrate our God-given capacity to override it? Four basic reasons have emerged:
control, instrumental use of other humans, risk and relationships
Questions appeared on the social status of any clone. What will be their status in society?
1. In the U.S. House of Representatives issued a ruling that human cloning is illegal, but the
Senate has yet to rule on the matter. The opinions are still leaning toward accepting only
therapeutic cloning. Legalization of therapeutic cloning has been proposed as the only way to
investigate, the chances of success, the basic criterion for funding such programs as the primary
objective should be finding cures for incurable diseases.
2. A coalition of states, including Spain, Italy, Philippines, USA, Costa Rica and the "Holy
Land" have tried to expand the debate on all forms of human cloning, noting that in their view,

therapeutic cloning violates human dignity. Costa Rica proposed the adoption of an international
convention to combat any form of cloning.
3. Australia has banned human cloning in December 2006, but therapeutic cloning is now legal
in some parts of Australia.
4. European Union - European Convention on Human Rights prohibits human cloning in an
additional protocol, but the protocol has been ratified only by Greece, Spain, Portugal and
England
5. The British government introduced legislation to allow therapeutic cloning in a debate on
January 14, 2001. Hope that parliament will pass the law was prohibitive. The UK and many
other Governments have now banned reproductive cloning.
6. Roman Catholic Church under Pope Benedict XVI has condemned the practice of human
cloning, saying it represents "a grave offense against human dignity and equality among the
people."
7. Human cloning is prohibited in Islam at the Tenth Conference in Jeddah.
8. Saudi Arabia has decided on June 28, 1997-July 3, 1997 as the beginning of human cloning is
"haraam" (forbidden by the faith-sin).
Reference book:
Ethical Issues in Biotechnology and Related areas 2015.
http://www.slideshare.net/snjogdand/ethical-issues-in-biotechnology-and-related-
areas?qid=5b61532b-836a-4804-b288-42637327ac9d&v=default&b=&from_search=6

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