• Question: Do you think that cloning might become a standard medical procedure?

    Asked by to Amy, Anita, Daryl, Nimesh, Sandra on 18 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Anita Thomas

      Anita Thomas answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      Good question @u28milnerr!

      Yes, I think that cloning will become a standard medical procedure. Cloning could be used to provide a ‘bank’ of spare parts for transplantation (eg missing limbs, healthy pancreases). But, pushing the boundaries a bit more, cloning could also provide a healthy young body for the mind/spirit of a worn-out body to move into. This has major ethical implications, of course!
      Cheers,
      Anita.

    • Photo: Amy Monaghan

      Amy Monaghan answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      I think cloning will definitely become a part of standard medical practice, in fact it’s already happening in many research labs.

      I use cloning every day: I make new genes to examine different diseases by cloning important sequences of DNA. I also use cells which are clones of human cells, some which were taken over 30 years ago!

      Gene cloning as a medical treatment is now also being explored. This would allow faulty genes which cause diseases such as cystic fibrosis to be replaced with healthy working copies of the gene – curing the person!

      However there are also people who might abuse these types of techniques, such as athletes who want to improve their ability to carry oxygen by altering their DNA. This would be a big problem for sporting authorities as there is currently no way to detect this.

      As Anita has already said another use for cloning is growing new organs or making new synthetic blood. This would be great for people awaiting transplants who currently have to wait for a matching donor, however growing complete sets of organs in a lab does have some ethical implications that need to be explored.

      Amy

    • Photo: Daryl Jones

      Daryl Jones answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      Cloning is a standard scientific procedure, as Amy pointed out. We use cloning to make stem cells, and we can use it to make animals too (Dorothy the sheep!). But yes i do think it will become a standard medical procedure too- As Anita mentioned, we could use it to make body parts for transpantation…that would be cool! Right here at Mayo we are “making” hearts in the test tube. If you Google search “Mayo cell heart repair” you should find some cool videos on the work our scientists do here 🙂

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