In recent years, there has been and still is much debate over stem cell cloning and its applications. The topics of embryonic stem cells and human cloning are very large and very controversial issues that have many facets to them, and these also tend to be the issues that overshadow the smaller, less heated topics of therapeutic cloning and animal reproductive cloning. Both therapeutic cloning with its hypothetical use in medicine and animal reproductive cloning with its potential to revive extinct species are gallant undertakings, yet both sides also have their share of fallacies and drawbacks.
Therapeutic cloning, or somatic cell nuclear transfer, is in essence the process of substituting the nucleus of an egg for that of the genetic material of the organism being cloned. This type of cloning is used to create stem cells – cells that can, in theory, develop into any kind of cell. Such cells are essential in the medical field, for they will hopefully come be used “to study chromosome abnormalities . . . to provide tissues for testing experimental drugs . . . or to create replacements for faulty organs and tissues” (The Use). However, there is a big problem with these “blank canvas” stem cells. As Austin Smith of the University of Cambridge explains, when stem cells are created, they “[…]still carry genetic baggage from their
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This means that it is next to impossible to completely