Highlighted by the birth of Dolly the cloned sheep in 1997, nuclear replacement technology has opened up a wide range of possibilities for animal cloning and personalized stem cell research, but its application to human cloning could lead to serious ethical issues and social disruption. There is a risk that cloned humans will be denied the right to life and treated as expendable, and it has been argued that human cloning research should be limited to prevent abuse of the technology.
In 1997, the announcement of Dolly the cloned sheep caused a lot of controversy. Dolly made a big deal because she was the first mammal to be cloned using adult somatic cells. The success of this experiment led many scientists to discuss the applications of the nuclear replacement technology that created Dolly, and the most discussed topic was how it should be used in humans. Ian Wolmut, the scientist involved in Dolly’s creation, argued that the technology could be useful in a number of areas, including laboratory animal cloning, stem cell research, and precision gene editing. While this technology has the potential to be used for a wide range of research, some of the research could raise bioethical issues. In particular, if it is applied to humans and used to clone humans, it will face serious ethical issues. Therefore, even if it is applied to humans, it should only be used in limited areas such as stem cell research.
In this article, we will review the history and current status of nuclear transfer technology and the problems that may arise if it is applied to human cloning.
Nuclear transfer is a technique that replaces the nucleus of an egg with the nucleus of a somatic cell, and was designed to study animal development. Initially, the technique was developed to test the theory that a miniaturized adult exists inside a sperm, and that when the sperm meets an egg, it grows into an individual, but as science progressed, its applications expanded to include animal cloning. Scientists have since confirmed that the technique can be used to clone amphibians and, eventually, mammals. It was also predicted that nuclear transfer could be used to create personalized stem cells with differentiation potential for therapeutic applications. However, the ability to create somatic cloned embryonic stem cells with differentiation potential could also be interpreted as an indication that human cloning is possible. For this reason, the debate about nuclear transfer technology and human cloning continues to this day.
Given that the application of nuclear transfer has moved from animal embryology to animal cloning, it is likely that if nuclear transfer is applied to humans, it will also be used in research involving human cloning. However, this should not be the case. Human cloning research raises a variety of ethical issues. Proponents of human cloning argue that advances in science will solve the ethical problems, or that the limited use of the technology will not cause any problems. However, even in the real world, there are many examples of human-to-human relationships that have led to problems such as personality disorders. This suggests that it is unlikely that cloned humans will be treated as human equals, meaning that they will be treated as expendable. For example, just as animal cloning uses the somatic cell nuclei of superior livestock for mass reproduction, there is a risk that physically superior humans could be cloned by substituting their somatic cell nuclei and used for illegal military operations or dangerous jobs. This could lead to an increase in the scale and quality of crime, as well as a disregard for the human rights of cloned humans. There is also the potential for cloned humans to be used for organ transplants, as depicted in the movie Ireland. If cloned humans were used for organ transplants, their lives would not be guaranteed. This may be different if the organs being transplanted come in pairs, such as kidneys, where removing one is not a big deal, or if the organs are non-vital, but if they are vital to life, the clone’s life would not be guaranteed.
There is also the possibility that cloned humans could be used as test subjects. It could be argued that testing on cloned humans could lead to safer products, just as we currently test the side effects of chemicals for human use on animals. However, this treats them as expendable rather than as human beings, and much like the current ethical controversy over animal testing, it is likely that bio-testing on cloned humans will continue unofficially despite fierce opposition. If this technology were to become commercially available, the perception of cloned humans as expendable could lead to a number of problems.
Admittedly, these arguments may seem a bit extreme. We could treat them as equals, or we could understand them as hierarchical, like the relationship between a boss and a worker. However, if you look back at human history, there have only been a few times when everyone was treated equally. As recently as 200 years ago, people of different skin colors were bought, sold, and disinherited in the United States. Even in the modern era, racism still exists. Given our past inability to stop discriminating against our fellow human beings, it’s highly unlikely that we would treat them as equals if they were to appear in real life, given the current portrayals of replicants in the media. This suggests that it’s not unlikely that cloned humans would be in a similar situation to slaves in the 19th century.
In addition, proponents of limited human cloning may argue that human cloning should be allowed to replace loved ones, especially parents who have lost a child. However, this is not a reasonable alternative for several reasons. While a cloned human being would be genetically identical, it is not only genetics that play a role in the formation of the self, but also mental factors such as upbringing, memories, and experiences. It would be disrespectful of their individuality to completely identify them with the original person. Taken together, these potential problems suggest that human cloning using nuclear replacement technology is likely to cause more social disruption and loss than gain. Therefore, human cloning research and experimentation should not proceed.
Technology can lead humanity to prosperity or disruption, depending on how it is used. Nuclear replacement technology could become the centerpiece of stem cell research in the future, contributing to the widespread availability of stem cells at low cost. This would mean more conquerable diseases and fewer people suffering. However, if this technology is used for human cloning, humanity will face serious ethical problems. Therefore, nuclear transfer should never be used for human cloning, and no research should be planned.
