By Lubna Abdel-Aziz Cat lovers around the world rejoice! No longer will you know torment, grief or despair at the loss of your favourite feline. The time has come for you to have your cat cloned, provided you can spare $32,000 dollars. A new service in California will fulfil this humane and noble service to mankind and catkind. "Genetics Savings & Clone Inc" launched their "Nine Lives Extravaganza" February 2004, and by Christmas they were able to deliver their perfectly cloned kittens to deliriously happy customers, purring with joy. This has naturally received extensive media coverage and thousands of cat lovers are caterwauling for their services. If the result is not to their customer's complete satisfaction a total refund is guaranteed. The process takes an average of 160 days from acquisition of your cat's DNA to kitten delivery. Is there any reason to ask for anything more out of life? Where is this all going? How will this all end? Animal cloning is nothing new. It has been going on for nearly a century, when German embryologist Hans Spemann split a two-celled salamander embryo in 1902, and predicted the next step would be cloning organisms by extracting the nucleus of a differentiated cell and inserting it into an enucleated egg. His prediction was realised in 1997 when Dolly was born. The science of genetics is the favourite child of the 20th century. It started well before, but was wholly ignored for decades. Genetics, the study of heredity, was the idea of Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk, who in 1866 observed that garden peas inherited various traits in a predictable manner. His "laws" of heredity were based on the existence of particles or units that we now call genes. It was not until 1906 that the word "genetics" was coined by William Bateson and "genetics" became a recognised science. To make up for 40 years following Mendel's findings, the 20th century became dedicated to the science of genetics -- the code of life. Cell researchers embarked on a vigorous journey of discovery. Every human being starts as a single cell, packed with an enormous quantity of chemical information. As the cell divides it gives rise to thousands upon thousands of exact copies of new cells passing on the identical chemical information. In most cells, genetic data is carried on several separate "deoxyribonucleic acid", or DNA, molecules which reside in the cell's nucleus. A map of the three billion different letters in human DNA identifies the genes responsible for hereditary diseases. Once an abnormal gene has been mapped, gene therapy is possible. With this new science now called "Genetic Engineering", it became feasible to alter the genetic code and erase hundreds of inherited mental and physical defects, control cancer cells, and alter mature cells. Enter stem cells -- a breakthrough treatment for incurable diseases. Stem cells can be harvested from embryos, bone marrow, peripheral blood as well as umbilical cord blood. They can be directed to differentiate into the different cells of the body, and then injected to replace cells that are aging, dying or injured. One form of stem cell treatment has been termed "therapeutic cloning", which involves extracting a cell from the patient, removing its nucleus, and inserting this nucleus into an enucleated female egg. The stem cells derived from this cell, have the same genetic material as the patient and when injected back into the patient to cure a disease, carry no risk of rejection. A revised nomenclature has now been established to remove any confusion between this type of cloning and "reproductive cloning" which is the scientific procedure of creating a being that has the same genome as another being. Nuclear Transfer (NT) has now replaced the term "therapeutic cloning", and Nuclear Transfer Stem Cells (NTSC) is the name given to the stem cells derived from the new cell. The former nomenclature "therapeutic cloning" has created more than a few problems for this ground-breaking research, involving social religious and ethical objections. While the issue is still under debate there are several misconceptions that need to be corrected. It is widely believed that the United States has banned stem cell research. The fact is that the announcement of the birth of Dolly by the Roslin Institute in Scotland in 1997 so stunned the world, that the then US President Clinton was prompted to declare a moratorium on federal and privately funded human cloning research and later proposed a five-year ban on it. Thousands of biologists and physicians in the US signed on. Nineteen European nations followed suit. With the new administration, President Bush released the ban in 2001, but limited research to the some 69 stem cell lines already in existence. Private American corporations continue to work on stem cells, embryos, as well as umbilical cord blood, but they do not receive federal funding from the US government. The US actually has no laws against stem cell or embryo research as is generally believed, they are just not funded by federal grants. The aim of Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer is not to create babies that are the copies of their mothers. The objective is to create stem cells that can be used to treat the individual from whom the somatic cell was derived. Why do we wish to do that? Because we can! Why did George Mallory climb Mount Everest? "Because it is there", he said. Science has this opportunity. The ability to treat disease, alleviate pain and provide hope is within its reach. How can we not support it? Yet many do oppose such revolutionary treatment for millions of sufferers. They find it ethically troubling that using human embryos about to be discarded from infertility clinics, is equivalent to producing human life strictly for research. The question still unanswered to evryone's satisfaction is, when can an embryo be considered a human life? Creating an embryo outside the human body, through in-vitro fertilisation is still developing a human life. To harvest these embryos simply as a thing to use, even if the cause is a noble one is crossing a boundary. Or, are we creating human life strictly for humanitarian purposes. "Embryonic Stem Cells are the building-block cells that ultimately develop into all the cells and tissues of the body." With such hope, stem cell research can lead to miraculous treatments of a range of diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, diabetes, heart failure, etc. Many countries are already applying the NT treatment of humans successfully such as Japan and Korea. After 12 years of debate, England has passed legislation that would allow NT as well as research to be conducted on embryos during the first 14 days after fertilisation, while banning reproductive cloning. Does the wrong deed for the right reasons make it right or wrong? While the debate still continues, stem cell research marches on. It is a reality that will not be denied. "There is no evil in the atom, only in men's souls." If pets are allowed to be cloned as a humane and noble service for all loyal pet lovers, is it not as humane and noble to treat the infirmities of the human body, heal the sick, the decayed, the incurable, restore the gift of health and improve the quality of life to those who have been robbed of both hope and happiness, while harming no other living or breathing creature. Is it not ludicrous to create a flock of Dollys, or a bevy of Toms and Jerrys, while banning the help of humans? Is not helping man the supreme form of faith? What is the purpose of science? It is its duty to forge forwards, its challenge to seek the unknown. What has been done becomes irrelevant. What needs to be done becomes imperative. Science must struggle to produce the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people. Scientists have the ability to transform the world more than any artist, politician, or statesman. Does the end justify the means, you ask? Only if "the end is for the good of humankind!" MAN is Man's ABC. There is none that can Read GOD aright, unless he first spell MAN. -- Frances Quarles (1592 -- 1644)
