IMMEDIATELY prior to the “strike against terror”, the attention of the world was actually focused on another fight – “against human cloning”.
Last July, the US Congress passed the Human Cloning Prohibition Act.
This was in view of the insistence of several doctors and scientists on providing services to couples who are unable to conceive.
The prospect of human cloning is becoming apparent as stem cell research gains momentum.
Stem cells, the early stage cells created when a sperm fertilises an egg, are generalised mother cells whose descendants specialise in different directions.
But only certain types of stem cells can develop into a new being. Research on them is vital to understand the mechanics of human development in the earliest stage.
Scientists wish to know how genes direct the synthesis of proteins for carrying out the different cellular functions during development, and why some fail to do their prescribed jobs, leading to defective embryos.
How do scientists obtain supplies of stem cells for research? First, stem cells may be isolated directly from human embryos obtained, with proper consent of the couples concerned, from in vitro fertilization clinics.
The second source of these cells is foetal tissue of terminated pregnancies.
Cells from the region of the foetus destined to develop into the testes or the ovaries are collected.
The third avenue is through the cloning of matured cells, also known as “somatic cell nuclear transfer” method.
In this method, researchers extract a normal egg cell from the ovary of a volunteer and remove the nucleus. The material left behind in the egg cell contains nutrients and other energy-producing materials that are essential for embryo development.
Then, a somatic cell – any cell other than an egg or a sperm cell – is placed next to the egg from which the nucleus had been removed, and the two are fused.
Through special techniques, these stem cells can be reprogrammed to grow into specific tissues or organs.
For a long time, this strategy was possible only in animals, such as Dolly the ewe from Scotland, who was successfully cloned several years ago. But this all changed last week.
A paper by scientists at the Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) published in the on-line Journal of Regenerative Medicine last Sunday claimed the successful development of early stage human embryos using matured cells from the region of the skin.
The team also managed to clone embryos developed by stimulating the egg cells alone. This process where an egg develops into an embryo without being fertilised by a sperm is referred to as parthenogenesis or “virgin birth”.
The motivation for scientists to carry out this type of experiments is to generate cells, tissues and perhaps organs, that may be used for so- called “cell therapies” in the form of transplants.
Many diseases and disorders result from disruption of cellular function or destruction of tissues. Today, donated organs and tissues are often used to replace ailing or destroyed tissue.
For example, end-stage heart or kidney disease have no definitive treatment. Although dialysis may provide temporary relief in kidney failures, the only truly useful method is a transplant.
Unfortunately, there is always a huge demand versus very short supply, as far as tissues and organs are concerned.
Embryonic stem cells, stimulated to develop into specialised cells, offer the possibility of a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat a myriad of diseases and disabilities.
An example is in the treatment of diabetes. Individuals suffer from Type I diabetes when the production of insulin by specialised pancreatic cells, called islet cells, is disrupted.
There is evidence that a transplant of either the entire pancreas or isolated islet cells can help mitigate the need for insulin injections.
However, before we can use stem cell-derived new tissues for transplant, we must overcome the problem of immune rejection. Because human stem cells derived from embryos or foetal tissue are genetically different from the recipient, research is on tissue minimising incompatibility.
Enter the ACT team. The use of somatic cell nuclear transfer from matured cells is a possible way to overcome the problem of tissue incompatibility for some patients.
For example, consider a person with end-stage heart failure. If his own heart muscle cells can be cloned, then the rejection risk of transplanting these into his hearts is almost zero.
Stem cell research is still in its infancy.
In addition, ethical dilemmas associated with the use of stem cells are equally complex.
One of the issues constantly brought up is: What is the moral status of the organisms created by cloning?
Theoretically, if the embryos developed by somatic cell nuclear transfer were deposited in the womb, this would possibly lead to conception of clones.
But it has been argued that unlike an embryo, a cloned organism is not the result of fertilisation of an egg by a sperm.
It is a new type of biological entity never before seen in nature.
Although it possesses some potential for developing into a full human being, this capacity is very limited.
At the blastocyst stage, when the organism is typically disaggregated to create an embryonic stem cell line, it is a ball of cells no bigger than the full stop at the end of this sentence.
It has no organs, it cannot possibly think or feel, and it has none of the attributes thought of as human. It should not be likened to an embryo, as it is only “activated egg”.
Ibn Al Qayim who lived in the 14th century raised a similar question in his book Medicine in the Laws of the Quran; “If it is asked: Does the embryo before ensoulment posses life “It is answered that it has the life of growth and nourishment like a plant. But once the soul enters the body then it has the sense of perception and volition, which constitute the basis of human life”.
Similarly, Ibn Hajar Al Asqalani argues that the liver is the first organ formed in the embryo, as it is important for growth and nourishment. The formation of the brain, in his opinion, comes at a later stage when the soul enters the foetus.
It is intriguing to find the great Islamic religious leaders linking “ensoulment” to the formation and integration of the nervous system, where the centres of perception and volition are found.
A recent study of multiple sections of different aborted foetuses showed that synapses or nerve junctions in the brain did not propagate impulses except at the beginning of the 20th week of conception computed from the last menstrual period, equivalent to 120 days from fertilisation.
The 120th day is also the time when, according to the saying of Prophet Muhammad, human life begins. Prior to that moment the embryo has sanctity, but not reaching that of a full human being.