Introduction
For the purposes of this report, the term “cloning” will refer to the production of genetically identical organisms via somatic cell nuclear transfer. “Somatic cell nuclear transfer” refers to the process in which the nucleus of a somatic cell of an existing (or previously existing) organism is transferred into an oocyte from which the nucleus has been removed. “Human cloning” will be used to refer to the application of somatic nuclear transfer technology to the creation of a human being that shares all of its nuclear genes with the person donating the implanted nucleus.
Cloning is distinct from techniques such as embryo splitting and twinning. Human cloning, as defined in this report, does not include the use of somatic cells to create a pluripotent cell line that could, for instance, also be used for extra-uterine production of transplantable tissues without the creation of an entire being. Nor does it include the use of cloning technology for the production of human tissues or human proteins from transgenic mammals (Jaenisch, Wilmut, 2001).
Recently the American Society for Reproductive Medicine declared that human cloning by artificial embryo splitting was an ethical procedure to increase the number of implantable human blastocysts used in certain infertility treatments. However, embryo splitting can produce only a limited number of cloned individuals as the early embryo can be separated only a limited number of times, and the procedure is not able to produce a ‘‘clone’’ of an adult that already exists. The other method for producing cloned humans, nuclear transfer, does not suffer from these limitations, and the rest of this article will focus on human cloning achieved via this technique (Pence, 1998).
Nuclear transfer (or more specifically somatic cell nuclear transfer) is a conceptually simple procedure. The nuclear material is removed from an egg, a somatic
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