Cloning and Human Growth Hormone

 

Scenario 1: When is Cloning an Option?

Newspaper headlines screamed it, and everyone talked about it - A SHEEP WAS CLONED! Scientists created an exact duplicate of a sheep from a body cell. No one could duplicate the work done in the Scott is h lab for some time. Then a mouse was cloned, and now a number of mice clones have been produced.

In the sheep and mouse cloning, a body cell was removed and its nucleus placed into another animal's egg cell. Then, an electrical current was sent through the cell, and it started dividing.

A p physicist t in Chicago has announced that he is setting up a laboratory to do human cloning. He says that if laws are passed against it, he will move his lab to another country. Anthony Luning was more than curious about cloning. Starting with one apartment building, he now owned enough land to make him the wealthiest man in Charlotte. Being rich, however, doesn't keep tragedy from happening to you. One day his five-year-old daughter, Lucy, was crossing the street and was hit by a drunk driver. By the time the ambulance came, she had suffered severe brain damage. Doctors put her on a respirator in the emergency room, and her heart was beating normally. Mr Luning was told, however, that she probably would never regain consciousness. He was devastated.

In Charlotte, a group of scientists was working on cloning a cow from the body cell of a cow that was a high milk producer. They used Mr Luning's property for their herd, and he had been following their progress. As a businessman, he saw the potential for the process. Now, as ap arent, he had another idea.

Dr Irene Smith was the head scientist on the project. Mr Luning called her several weeks after the accident. He told her he was willing to spend every cent he had to bring his daughter back. He wanted her to clone his daughter from one of her body cells. If the doctor in Chicago could do it, so could she. 

Scenario 2: Pumping Up With Drugs

Football has always been vital at Blackburn State University. The school is known for its aggressive, offensive team. The coach, Milton Smith, has been at the university for 15 years and has an impressive win/ loss record. This year there were some problems with the team. Coach Smith couldn't figure out what was wrong. The recruiting had gone very well, and he had a strong and well-trained team, but they weren't winning. Then he read an article about Human Growth Hormone (HGH) and its use in physical training.

The article said that recombinant DNA (rDNA) had been used for creating human hormones for years. Since the late 80s, Human Growth Hormone has been created by this process. The drug has made it possible to treat children born with a growth hormone deficiency and has been used very successfully.

But, parents of children without the hormone deficiency came to doctors asking for the drug to make their children taller. These children were not abnormally short, but they were on the short side of the standard curve.

At the end of the article was a small blurb about the effect of HG H on building muscle bulk in a training program. There were no side effects because HGH is a naturally occurring substance, and the body can metabolize it well. Coach Smith thought it might be good for his team.

Paper instructions:
The writer can choose whichever scenario they prefer.
Last week you learned about cloning and how recombinant DNA technologies can be applied in the medical and pharmaceutical industries. Cloning is undoubtedly not going away, and at times, depending on its purpose (and methods), it can become a controversial topic. The same is true for pharmaceutical genetic engineering. That's why we can't really discuss these topics without a severe consideration of bioethics and how much it should weigh on the decisions made. Answer all of the questions listed below.

Scenario 1:
1. What should Dr Smith do? Give three reasons why Dr Smith should not clone Lucy and three reasons why she
should.
2. If Mr Luning offers her not only money but future funding for her research, should this make a difference in Dr Smith's decision? Why or why not?
3. Dr Smith would be the first to clone a human, and she could have the most modern laboratory with everything that she could possibly need. Should this play a part in her decision? Defend your answer.
4. Should scientists do everything that they are technologically capable of doing? Give four arguments to support your answer.
5. Will there be a market for human cloning? Why or why not?

Scenario 2:
1. What should Coach Smith do? List three things.
2. Should the College be told if the coach suggests the hormone to his players? Why or why not?
3. The HGH has to be administered by injection. Who should perform the injections? Why?
4. If a player doesn't want to take the HGH, what should Coach Smith do? Why?
5. Coach Smith has already approached a drug company manufacturing HGH. The company will donate the drug and
test the players for side effects. Should the coach agree to this? Why or why not?
6. What are the legal ramifications of using HGH on his players?
7. What are the medical ramifications of using HGH on the players?

Solutions: 

Scenario 1:

(1)

Dr Smith should clone Lucy to bring Lucy to her original health condition. Furthermore, cloning is crucial for Lucy to produce new organs to replace damaged organs due to the accident. Additionally, Dr Smith needs to conduct cloning for Lucy to improve cosmetic and reconstructive surgery (Aramvash et al., 2018). Some of the Lucy'sody parts were damaged. For this reason, they need to be rectified through cosmetic and reconstructive sugary, which can be successfully achieved through cloning, thus justifying the importance of carrying cloning for Lucy.

Even though cloning is necessary for LuLucy'sondition, it poses a threat to genetic diversity and evolution. For instance, the clones are the same, leading to gene diversity and change prevention. Performing cloning for Lucy may result in unacceptable behaviours in society. For example, a situation where lesbians have children through cloning (Lan et al., 2010). Again, it may lead to a divided community into two classes. When many individuals have been cloned, there will be people with enhanced genes and those who are not. Typically, individuals with improved genes have more advantages such as unique talents than people without improved genes.

(2)

Providing Dr Smith with money and funding for future research would not have changed her decision on the cloning of Lucy. As a professional, Dr Smith knows what ethics based on the cloning process is. Therefore, the ethics that guide the cloning process would dictate her decision on cloning Lucy or not.

(3)

Being a pioneer in cloning human beings would not have influenced Dr SmSmith'secision on the cloning process. Cloning human is unethical. As a result, Dr Smith is guided by medical ethical guidelines when conducting any research. Hence, she could not engage in corrupt activity since this would compromise her career as a doctor. Furthermore, cloning a human being requires a lot of resources, which is a barrier for Dr Smith to clone Lucy. Dr Smith would need to conduct several experiments before coming up with a successful cloning experiment. Thus, Dr Smith can't clone Lucy since the investigations would involve trial and error. Therefore, it is uncertain whether Dr Smith would be successful in cloning Lucy, which would devastate Mr Luning.  

(4)

Scientists should do anything that they can technically handle. However, any activity they engage in should be guided by ethical issues. Therefore, this implies that if scientists are involved in a mission of saving the world while considering ethical issues related to that activity, they proceed with such action (So-Young et al. 2020). On the other hand, when the activity is unethical, then scientists should stop participating in such activity. For example, any research that scientists conduct is based on ethical guidelines. In the case of the cloning of Lucy, the researcher (Dr Smith) had to conduct the consequences that might have resulted from performing the cloning process for Lucy. The ethical issues related to any research take centre stage to guide the researcher to do what is ethically correct.

(5)

The market for human cloning will be limited because of the religious and ethical issues associated with it. Many people consider it an unethical practice. Therefore, they cannot engage in it. Moreover, almost all religions do not support human cloning. This leaves a small market for human cloning.

References

Aramvash, A., Sabet, A., Mansurpur, M., Azizi, A., Bahrami, A., & Kamali, N. (2018). Comparison of purification processes for recombinant human growth hormone produced in E. coli. Iranian Journal of Science and Technology, 42(4), 1697-1705. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40995-017-0414-7

Lan, H., Nie, Z., Liu, Y., Lv, Z., Liu, Y., Quan, Y. . . . Zhang, Y. (2010). In vivo bioassay of recombinant human growth hormone synthesized in B. Mori pupae. Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, 2010, 306462.

So-Young, L., Joo-Hee, H., Lee, E., Kim, Y. K., Seo-Ah Hwang, Sung-Hyun, L. . . . Weon-Ki Cho. (2020). Structural and functional characterization of recombinant human growth hormone isolated from transgenic pig milk. PLoS One, 15(7) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236788.