Clonación terapéutica

Abstract

 The ethical judgment on the matter dealing with producing a human clone for it to thrive and be born (reproductive cloning), or merely develop up to the blastocyst condition in order to use its embryonic mother cells in the benefit of the nucleus donor’s health (therapeutic cloning) demands rigorous scientific knowledge and precision. From science itself, it is necessary to know and determine accurately what natural biological fact is being manipulated (in this case the transmission of life in mammals, which is intrinsically sexual), and what kind of process is being artificially attempted: skipping a natural condition and circumventing the barrier to achieve asexual mammal reproduction. The illegitimacy of its application in human beings is obvious, since such a monstrous manipulation of the origin of an individual materializes the most serious aggression ever opposed against human dignity and the procreating nature of life transmission. The character of the individual of the species who owns the zygote is independent from the process by which it is obtained. That the origin of the genetic legacy comes from the haploid pronucleus of a germinal female cell and another male cell is not decisive; or, on the contrary, from the diploid nucleus of a somatic cell obtained from a single individual. What is determinant and decisive to obtain an individual is the suitability of the initial or starting cell (or cells) to convey the genetic message from the beginning and,   therefore, with the capacity to evolve, to develop itself as a new member of the species. The nucleus being transferred comes from a somatic cell and it is necessary to “rejuvenate” its genetic information in order to make it able to start conveying the message from its beginning. The more complex the species to which the individual belongs is, the harder this reprogramming. Such reprogramming is not a “subsequent manipulation” of a zygote already obtained: without it, cell division and a more or less chaotic or orderly germination can be produced, but never the sophisticated synchronized and harmonic growth that gives origin to an organism. This is precisely what differentiates a developing organism from a simple and more or less embryonoid cell growth. Knowledge of the reprogramming process of the nucleus of an adult primate’s cell into an ovule evidences that succeeding in human cloning is very unlikely today. At the same time, this knowledge may allow, while acting with sufficient caution, to obtain embryonoid cell structures with some cells having the features of the embryonic mothers. In any case, and even with full guarantees that no authentic human embryo is produced, the need to start from human ovules, as well as the lack of need and the no therapeutic utility of this material for research make [that] the means to obtain the cells [become] disproportionate for the end pursued.