In the near future, the possibility for advancement in medical science seems incredibly promising. We may be able to grow someone a new liver or heart, new neural tissue to combat degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, grow new kidneys, or even insulin producing cells to fight diabetes.
Since the cloning of Dolly the sheep in 1997 (although not a complete success) scientists were given extra motivation to develop the cloning phenomenon beyond the public's expectation and into an entirely new level, this new phenomenon is known as therapeutic cloning. The "cloning debate" has now been joined by the "stem cell debate," and it is imperative that people appreciate the difference between Adult DNA Cloning and Therapeutic Cloning.
Adult DNA cloning: (also known as somatic cell nuclear transfer) This process begins by removing an egg from a donor mother and extracting the nucleus, this creates an enucleated, essentially empty egg. Then, a somatic cell is taken from an individual to replace the existing nucleus and is electrically fused with the egg to start up its embryo making operation. (No matter how a somatic cell is obtained, it contains the DNA of the person, and thus contains all of the information required to produce a duplicate or cloned person) It is then placed in the womb of the mother and hopefully creating an embryo with the same genetic code as the individual that donated the DNA. .
Therapeutic cloning: This starts with the same procedure as is used in adult DNA cloning, although the resultant embryo is only allowed to grow for a maximum of 14 days. In this time the pre-embryo is allowed to develop and produce many stem cells. The next step is the major differentiation between Adult DNA Cloning and Therapeutic Cloning. The pre-embryo is not implanted in a woman's womb in order to try to produce a pregnancy, rather, the stem cells are removed from the pre-embryo, thus resulting in its death.
