What is the difference between therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning?
A. Therapeutic cloning is the process by which an embryo is created through nuclear transfer in order to obtain stem cells from it for therapeutic purposes. Reproductive cloning is the process by which an embryo is created by nuclear transfer and implanted into a surrogate mother in the hope of bringing it to term. Therapeutic cloning, or somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) uses cloning technology to develop stem cells for research, and ultimately for therapy. The nucleus of an unfertilised egg cell is replaced with the nucleus of another cell from the body, such as a skin cell, and the egg cell is allowed to grow for about 4-5 days and develop to the blastocyst stage. The inner cell mass of the blastocyst is then removed and used for the creation of an embryonic stem cell line that has the genetic makeup of the donated nucleus. The goal of SCNT is to produce human stem cells, and subsequent tissues and organs, which can be used to replace damaged tissue. It is an application of the c
Reproductive cloning is the process by which an embryo is created by nuclear transfer and implanted into a surrogate mother in the hope of bringing it to term. Therapeutic cloning is the process by which an embryo is created through nuclear transfer in order to obtain stem cells from it for therapeutic purposes.
