In this blog post, we will look at the possibilities that adult somatic cell cloning technology will bring to humanity, as well as the ethical issues and social repercussions of human cloning.
In 1997, the announcement of Dolly the sheep’s cloning caused a lot of controversy. Dolly became a big issue because she was the first mammal to be cloned using somatic cells from an adult. This was an example of how somatic cell nuclei in adults can have the ability to differentiate. Following the success of this experiment, many scientists discussed the application of the nuclear replacement technology that created Dolly. The most discussed topic was “How should nuclear replacement technology be used on humans?” Ian Walmuth, a scientist involved in Dolly’s creation, argued that the technology could be useful in various fields, including the cloning of experimental animals, stem cell research, and precision gene editing. While nuclear replacement technology has the potential to be used in various research, some research may raise issues related to bioethics. In particular, if nuclear replacement technology is applied to humans and used for human cloning, it will face serious ethical issues. Therefore, even if nuclear replacement technology is applied to humans, it should only be used in limited fields such as stem cell research.
This article will examine the history and current status of nuclear replacement technology, and the problems that may arise when this technology is applied to human cloning.
Nuclear replacement technology is a technology that replaces the nucleus of an egg with the nucleus of a somatic cell, and was designed to study the development of animals. This technology was developed to verify the theory that an adult exists in a sperm, and that when the sperm meets an egg, it grows into an individual, but as science has advanced, the technology has expanded its field of application to animal cloning research. Since then, scientists have confirmed that this technology can be used to clone amphibians and, furthermore, mammals. It has also been predicted that it is possible to create personalized stem cells with the power to differentiate into any cell type and use them for treatment through nuclear replacement. However, the ability to create somatic cell-cloned embryonic stem cells with the power to differentiate into any cell type could also be interpreted as meaning that human cloning is possible. For this reason, discussions on nuclear replacement technology and human cloning continue to this day.
Given the fact that the scope of nuclear replacement technology has shifted from animal development research to animal cloning, it is highly likely that nuclear replacement technology will be used in research related to human cloning if it is applied to humans. However, this should never happen. This is because human cloning could lead to various ethical issues. Those who are in favor of human cloning argue that scientific progress will solve ethical problems, or that if the technology is used in a limited way, there will be no major problems. However, even in reality, there are many cases where there is an upper-lower relationship between people, and this relationship leads to problems such as insulting personality. From this, it can be said that it is unlikely that cloned humans will be treated as equal to humans. In other words, there is a possibility that cloned humans will be treated like consumables. For example, there is a concern that cloned humans with physically superior somatic cell nuclei will be mass-produced by replacing them with somatic cell nuclei from superior livestock, which are mass-produced using the somatic cell nuclei of superior livestock, and that they will be used for illegal military operations or dangerous tasks. This not only disregards the human rights of cloned humans, but can also lead to an increase in the scale of crime and a deterioration in the quality of crime. There is also the possibility of using cloned humans for organ transplants, as depicted in the movie “The Island.” If cloned humans are used for organ transplants, their lives will not be guaranteed. This may be different if the organ to be transplanted is a kidney, which exists in a pair and removing one does not pose a major problem, or if it is an organ that is not vital to life, but if it is an organ essential for life support, the life of the cloned human will not be guaranteed.
There is also the possibility that cloned humans will be used as test subjects for biological experiments. It could be argued that by experimenting on cloned humans, just as we currently experiment on animals to test the side effects of chemicals that will be used on humans, we can develop safer products. However, this is an act of treating cloned humans as consumables rather than as persons, and, like the ethical controversy surrounding existing animal testing, there is a high probability that bio-experiments on cloned humans will continue unofficially despite fierce opposition. If the technology for creating cloned humans is commercialized in this way, it is possible that various problems will arise as a result of the perception of cloned humans as consumables.
Of course, this argument may seem a bit extreme. It may be possible to treat a cloned human being as an equal person or to understand it as a hierarchical relationship like that between a boss and an employee. However, looking back at the history of mankind, there have been only a few periods when all people were treated equally. Just over 200 years ago, in the United States, people were bought and sold like objects and treated as the objects of inheritance because of their different skin colors. Even in the modern era, the issue of racial discrimination still exists. When we look back on the past when we couldn’t stop discrimination even against our fellow human beings, it is highly unlikely that we will treat cloned humans equally if they actually appear in the mass media. This suggests that cloned humans are likely to be in a similar situation to slaves in the 19th century.
In addition, some argue that, in the limited case of allowing cloned humans, human cloning should be allowed to replace existing children, especially for parents who have lost a child. However, this is not an appropriate alternative when considering various factors. Although cloned humans will be genetically identical, the mental factors such as growth environment, memory, and experience, as well as genetic factors, play an important role in the formation of the self. To completely identify a cloned human with an existing person is also a disregard for their personality. Considering the problems that can be expected in this way, human cloning using nuclear substitution technology is more likely to cause social chaos and loss than gain. Therefore, research and experiments on human cloning should not be conducted.
Technology can lead humanity to prosperity or plunge it into chaos, depending on how it is used. Nuclear replacement technology will become the core of stem cell research in the future, and it will contribute to the widespread distribution of stem cells at low cost. In this case, the number of treatable diseases will increase and the number of people suffering will decrease. However, if this technology is used for human cloning, humanity will face serious ethical issues. Therefore, nuclear replacement technology should never be used for human cloning, and no related research should be planned.
