An Afraid New World
November 15, 2007
A New York Times headline today says;
SCIENTISTS USE MONKEY CLONES TO EXTRACT STEM CELLS
Not only is this the first time such cells have been produced in any animal other than a mouse, but the method, the researchers say, should also work in humans.
“We hope the technology will be useful for other labs that are working on human eggs and human cells,” the lead researcher of the group, Shoukhrat Mitalipov at Oregon Health and Science University in Beaverton, said in a telephone interview. “I am quite sure it will work in humans.”
Not everyone is happy about this development. Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, director of education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center said:
“I certainly think that this represents a new threshold in the entire discussion,” said the Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, director of education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center. “At this point, it becomes essential to ask a question as a society: Are there ever going to be circumstances where it is morally justifiable to clone human beings?”
What do you think?
