Done. Thanks.

actually it is religion that always stops scientific progression.

if during the dark ages, where the church did not persecute scientist and label them as fanatics. humankind would be on a whole new level.

neways i am always pro cloning. not because of saving lives but because to answer questions. like

if i were to clone my self. will my clone have the same consciousness as me or will my clone be a whole different individual.

will my clone retain my memories and skills.?

^ hmm... You mean out of curiosity/pushing the limit as in you never try you will never know that kind of concept?

strongly disagree even it's with animals.

Hi there!

As much complexities as in a human anatomy, the complexities of therapeutic cloning has yield different proportions.

Okie...Let's start off with, for an example, I got some tissues/organs damage resulting from mountain biking in the wilderness. In order to get a quick fix or to accelerate this "healing" of the said damaged tissues/organs, I need the whole tissue to be transplanted in my damage area of tissues/organs. (Let's just say I'm using the possibility of therapeutic cloning in stem cells)

However, there's alwaiz a catch! (I hate this part but it's unavoidable, so pardon me, eh?). Let's say I got the cloned tissues/organs in place,prior to my unfortunate incident. Before I could transplanted it in, I need to make sure the cells are functioning and grow "coordinately in term of "signals" sending. (Synapses? Per se) This needs not the cloned embryos, it can all be done with the existing OR newly created cell lines.

As mentioned, this requires the stem cell MUST "coordinate in parallel with the "existing cells as it is required for the body to function properly and "naturally". With the surrounding tissues/organs influencing the stem cell to "work in tandem" properly and "naturally", it is remained as questionable as yu and me.

As much as I hate it, the process is numb minded and the whole ~!@#$%^&* delicate processes MUST BE TAKEN into consideration. I'd hate to be in the shoes of the scientists/researchers involved in therapeutic cloning. It has yet to be answered and hopefully with the advancement of Bio Technology we will able to achieve a breakthrough in this area.

It is very well known that Therapeutic Cloning is the next step in Bio Technology and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for it. As the time comes, I said it as it presumably would, it will be used in reproductive cloning.

Furthermore, from this breakthrough, the potential for abuse and exploitation are just too great to ignore. (IVF to create babies? Anyone?) It's up for grabs and it is the responsibility of HUMANS to address the implementations accordingly.

Regards, Joey

p.s: The SCIENTISTS are equivalent to creeps in DotA and they are being farmed by capitalists/capital dogs a.k.a Heroes in DotA. What says yu regarding this particular issue?

This post has been edited by Joey Christensen: Jun 22 2009, 05:31 PM

skip the chicken/cow, clone lots and lots of drumsticks and rib eye steak instead.

i agree with human cloning and modification done on the genes to create a better type of human beings.

anyways it is very hard to clone a human being. i tried cloning a stupid banana and to no avail.

but i should not fret because banana is one of the most hardest plants to clone after oil palm

I remember few years back there was a korean scientist/biologist who claimed he successfully clone an animal, I think its a goat or something. But later on, he admitted that he make that claim to get more funds into his research.. No source..I read it from thestar if not mistaken.

Reminds me of 'The Island(movie)' where they clone people and isolate them into a facility from outer world then dissect them to obtain their vital organs

Wouldn't it be great if we could just clone the needed organ?

This post has been edited by NicJolin: Jun 22 2009, 11:34 PM

i remember they grow a heart in a lab....i think tats the stem cell reasearch?

Truthfully, cloning is very exciting for medical application. You could replace damaged organs that are unrepairable with a clone from the same person. It could definitely eliminates the severe complications that transplant patients had.

It will take more than a few hundred years to clone a real human. They need to take physiological, psychological and anatomical evaluation to redeem the clone is a human. Humans can't copy a being but it can copy cells that imitates the original being.

I'm ok 100% with the research. Being a muslim is not an issue to say that cloning is unethical. Its unethical to put a stop into development that can save you and other's life. Putting a halt in it is the same as promoting avoidable death among mankind.

BTW, Fiction stays fiction.

1 thing about cloning organs, it doesnt seem to me as easy as it sounds. say u want to clone a liver, how do you make the cell grow into a liver? usual sperm and egg when combined grow into a zygote which gradually grows into a human being where its cells undergo differentiation to form different working (sometimes not) organs to sustain life. the question is, how do you make the cloned cell turn into a liver, and how do u sustain the liver's growth without all other supporting organs of the human body?

read up on stem cells.

basically, during our embryo stage, all cells are the same, there is no brain cell/muscle cell/skin cell etc. there is just cell. with the correct signals, these cells undergo specialization to be come whatever cell needed. theoretically (practically??) all you need is to get some stem cells, put them in a lab environment, provide nutrient, input signal, and viola - new organ then put in patient

Is there any genetics counsellors in malaysia?

and whic degree holders normally qualified to be a genetics counsellor?

that is all in theory. what signals? hormones? (i dont think hormones initiate differentiation though. how do u isolate these so called "signals" and do we even know what "signal" sparks what kind of organ differentiation?) there are alot of unanswered questions. how will the cloned organs develop in-vitro when fed with nutrients? will the blood vessels and nutrient transport system be the same (and as efficient) as the human body? will the size shape of the organ be totally the same as the one on the human? i'm in the opinion that the development of the body and thus organs is affected by nature as much as nurture. personally i dont think an organ grown in-vitro, despite cloned will be identical to the host's.

In my opinion, cloning for therapeutic purposes is bad.

First of all, there's a question on whether the clone should be treated as a human being or just an object. If one were to say that they're just objects, they look like humans, behave like humans, feel like humans. What makes them any less human than us? One the other hand, they are not special individuals, unlike all of us. Even one of a twin, the closest you can get to a clone, is special. However, clones are genetically identical to the person from whom they were cloned. For religionists who believe in the spiritual aspect of individuals, these clones are not created by God, but by humans are therefore are different. Would these clones have rights? Can they marry and have children? If they commit a crime are they bound by law? If they fall sick, can they get medical treatment?

Secondly, to have clones is to use more resources. Even if you'd want to grow these clones, you would need to feed them, house them and process their wastes. As it is now, humans are running short of naturals resources. If we have clones, we will need to use more resources. What will happen if due to these clones, our resources deplete faster? It would then be the survival of the fittest. If they're fitter than humans, considering the fact that they might be abused by humans (probable difference of upbringing would lead to different lifestyle), they would replace humans.

Thirdly, there could be the issue of identity theft. If you see a photo of a person doing something, can you tell whether that is the original person or his clone? How would the media and news reporting be affected by the rise of clones? How do you differentiate the real person from the clone since they have the same fingerprints, genetic fingerprints etc. In the event of a crime, who do you prosecute? Can the clone replace the person if the real person dies? If the clone had no rights previously, would he have rights when he replaces the original person?

Fourthly, by creating clones for therapeutic purposes, we're pushing the allowance of bad genes further. As it is now, with modern medical facilities, we as humans have already done everything we can to avoid the pressure from natural selection. When we are sick, we see the doctor, get the cure and we continue to live. In nature, an animal that suffers from a disease (and if it's antibody does cannot fight away the disease) will die and thus those genes that cannot tolerate that disease would not be passed on to the next generation. We, on the other hand, defy natural selection and continue to past those bad genes to the next generation. I'm not saying that we shouldn't do what we are doing. We as humans, are different from animals, because we are (or are supposed to be) morally higher than animals, and therefore, out of compassion, we save our fellow human being from death. But would it be right to go to that extent to avoid death? Should we do it until we risk overpopulation?

This post has been edited by Thinkingfox: Jun 27 2009, 03:16 PM

I'm no religious person, but I personally object to human cloning.

Each human is an individual in his/her own right. Everybody has a different sent of genes and DNA. As in the movie "Artificial Intelligence", everybody is 'unique'.

If somebody close to you dies, it is part of life. People are born, people age, and they die. If we continue cloning or "resurrecting" people, the world will never progress. A grandfather today will still be a grandfather 100 years later.

Plus, can you imagine a world with clones of the same person? What you thought was your family/friend/spouse/children is actually a clone. You can't differentiate who is real and who is not.

For medical purposes, I'm all for stem cells.

i disagree with the natural selection point. as it is, cloning (organs or whole humans -if it even is possible) is a highly costly operation which makes it only possible for the rich and affluent. this means that only successful people who are "strongest" or more "powerful" will be able to afford it. the "weaker" or less successful people will have no way of cloning themselves or a part of themselves and therefore will not survive in the event of a deadly disease. natural selection at work.

In the first place they wanted to clone humans to be armies so that they wouldn't get hurt in the first place in war. Think of this as you can go to war without having ur citizens getting butchered while the enemy suffer casuaties