The Ethical Validity of Using Nuclear Transfer in Human Transplantation
- Robert P. Lanza, MD;
- Arthur L. Caplan, PhD;
- Lee M. Silver, PhD;
- Jose B. Cibelli, PhD;
- Michael D. West, PhD;
- Ronald M. Green, PhD
- Author Affiliations: Advanced Cell Technology, Worcester, Mass (Drs Lanza, Cibelli, and West); Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadelphia (Dr Caplan); Department of Molecular Biology and Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ (Dr Silver); and Ethics Institute, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (Dr Green).
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- cell transplantation
- controversies (fontanarosa pb, ed)
- ethics, medical
- hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
- legislation
- stem cell transplantation
Therapeutic cloning (or cell replacement by means of nuclear transfer) is a new biomedical technology that has the potential to transform medicine. Therapeutic cloning involves the transfer of the nucleus from one of the patient's cells into an enucleated donor oocyte for the purpose of making medically useful and immunologically compatible cells and tissues (Figure 1).1 Although the phrase "therapeutic cloning" has been most widely used in this context, we believe that it is misleading. "Cloning" brings to mind images of the replication of a single genome for reproductive purposes. In therapeutic cloning, however, no such replication is involved. For this reason, we prefer the term "cell replacement through nuclear transfer" (CRNT). In this article, we use both terms so that readers may become accustomed to the more technically accurate terminology. Moreover, because therapeutic cloning requires the creation and disaggregation ex utero of blastocyst stage embryos, this technique …
