Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology

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Human Cloning- Scientific, Ethical and Legal Perspective - a World View


Affiliations
1 Department of Forensic Medicine, J.N. Medical College, A.M.U., Aligarh (U.P.) India, India
     

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Human cloning is defined as the asexual replication of an existing genome or individual, or a replica of a DNA sequence, such as a gene produced by genetic engineering. Human cloning which was a topic of science fiction until yesterday became a reality with the arrival of "Dolly" the cloned sheep in 1997. A large number of ethical issues regarding human reproductive cloning have been raised a) physical harm to mother and foetus (b) autonomy (c) conflicts of interest (d) psychological and social harm (e) cloning is contrary to human dignity etc. There are arguments in favour of human reproductive cloning (a) A new treatment option for infertile couples (b) people should be free (autonomous) in their reproductive decisions. There is no consensus among nations regarding cloning and stem cell research. India allows stem cell research but disallows human cloning. The debate regarding 'human cloning' continues. This article brings to light the current debate on human cloning and the future possibilities.

Keywords

Human Cloning, Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, Therapeutic Cloning
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  • WHO- A dozen questions (and answers)on human cloning. http://www.who.int/ethics/topics/cloning/em/print.html. 2. The History of cloning MSNBC.Com. http.//

  • www.msnbc.com/nes/wld/health brill/cloning timelinc.htm. United Nations Declaration on Human Cloning in the annex of General Assembly Resolution 59/ 280, 8 March 2005 prepared by the Sixth Committee of the UN.

  • The Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights Nov 1997, UNESCO.

  • AAAS Policy Brief: Human Cloning AAAS – Center for Science, Technology and Congress. http://www.aas.org/ spp/cstc/briefs/cloning/index shtml.

  • Human Cloning: The Times of India (Mangalore) 4th August 2005:1.

  • Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 (Act No. 34 of 1971), India

  • Ethical guidelines for biomedical research on human subjects. ICMR Bulletin 2000; 30:10.

  • ‘Cloning’s out, but stem cell R&D will have rules – India – The Times of India 17 Nov. 2006, 0.232 hrs Ist Kounteya ‘Sinha, TNN – page 1 -2.

  • Beanchamp T, Childress J. Principles of Biomedical Ethics. 5thEdn. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2001; 15-50.


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  • Human Cloning- Scientific, Ethical and Legal Perspective - a World View

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Authors

Saadiya Saeed
Department of Forensic Medicine, J.N. Medical College, A.M.U., Aligarh (U.P.) India, India
Shamim Jahan Rizvi
Department of Forensic Medicine, J.N. Medical College, A.M.U., Aligarh (U.P.) India, India

Abstract


Human cloning is defined as the asexual replication of an existing genome or individual, or a replica of a DNA sequence, such as a gene produced by genetic engineering. Human cloning which was a topic of science fiction until yesterday became a reality with the arrival of "Dolly" the cloned sheep in 1997. A large number of ethical issues regarding human reproductive cloning have been raised a) physical harm to mother and foetus (b) autonomy (c) conflicts of interest (d) psychological and social harm (e) cloning is contrary to human dignity etc. There are arguments in favour of human reproductive cloning (a) A new treatment option for infertile couples (b) people should be free (autonomous) in their reproductive decisions. There is no consensus among nations regarding cloning and stem cell research. India allows stem cell research but disallows human cloning. The debate regarding 'human cloning' continues. This article brings to light the current debate on human cloning and the future possibilities.

Keywords


Human Cloning, Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, Therapeutic Cloning

References