Stem Cells Created Through Human Cloning

Technology and science may be on the cutting edge of creating stem cells through human cloning. Stemagen Corporation, based in La Jolla, California, claims that it used cloning technology to make five human embryos. This means that hope is on the horizon that they will be able to make matched stem cells for patients.

Stemagen developed the embryos by using skin cells from two adult men who work at the IVF center. By using SCNT, or somatic cell nuclear transfer, Stemagen was able to hollow out an egg cell and inject the nucleus of a cell from the donor. This is the same process by which Dolly - the famous cloned sheep - was created in 1996. When the process was complete, scientists verified that the embryos were exact clones.

Robin Lovell-Badge of Britain's Medical Research Council's division of stem cell biology noted, "This is the most successful description so far of the use of the cloning techniques with purely human material. However, it is still a long way from achieving the goal of obtaining embryonic stem cells.

Some scientists and government officials, most prominently President George W. Bush in the United States, remain staunchly opposed to stem cell research or the federal funding of it. This has hampered but not entirely inhibited research in America.

In Britain, Parliament is pushing the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill through the ranks that would deny scientists access to tissue banks. While a group of 29 scientists, including three Nobel laureates, sent a letter to the government to protest the donor consent requirement for the use of cloned embryonic stem cells because most patients donated before it was possible to clone, the new law seems likely to pass. The bill would also make it illegal to use tissues from children in any type of stem cell research, even if they have illnesses that are likely to kill them in the first years of life and their parents give consent.

On the other hand, many scientists are committed to the research and propose that replicating stem cells may be lead to a cure for diseases like Alzheimer's, muscular dystrophy, Parkinson's, and diabetes. The research continues around the world, and some scientific laboratories - like Stemagen - appear to be close to cloning embryos and bringing the human race closer than ever to finding cures for deadly diseases.