Human Cloning

During December 2005, there was an investigation that was
conducted at the Seoul National University (SNA), South Korea
had observed that the scientist named Hwang Woo Suk was
responsible for fabricating the results on the deriving of the
patient-matched stem cells out of the cloned embryos. This was
the major setback in this field. During May 2005, Hwang
made an announcement that a major advance in the creation
of the human embryos in using the various cloning methods as
well as in the isolation of human stem cells out of the cloned
embryos. The series of developments and the advancements
have contributed significantly to the existing debate during the
109
th Congress upon the ethical and moral implications of
cloning of the human beings. The medical scientists in various
other labs, like the University of California at San Francisco and
the Harvard University intended to produce the cloned embryos
of human beings such as for deriving the stem cells for several
medical researches on Parkinson's disease, diabetes and several
other diseases and illness.
President Bush had made an announcement during August
2001 that it was the first time that the federal funds will be
used for supporting the research on the human embryonic
stem cells. However, funding could be limited or restricted to
the existing human stem cell lines. The federal funds would not
be utilized for the human embryonic cloning for any kind of
purpose including the research of the stem cell. During July
2002, the Council on Bioethics of the President had unveiled its
report upon human cloning and its research that had
suggested a ban on reproductive ways of cloning and a 4 year
moratorium on human cloning for the purpose of medical
research. The ethical problems or issues that were surrounding
the reproductive cloning process including relief of suffering or
moral status of the embryos had impacted several proposals for
bans, regulation, restrictions, and various uses of funding.
During January 2002, National Academies had released the
"Scientific and Medical Aspects of Human Reproductive
Cloning". This proposal had suggested that the ban by the
United States on the human cloning was aimed at the creation
of a child. This also suggested that the ban should be enforced
and would carry substantial penalties. The panel had noted the
ban should be restated within a span of 5 years. However,
panel had decided that cloning for the production of stem cells
should be made permissible due to the presence of great
potential for the development of several therapies and the
advancement of the biomedical knowledge.