Whats the difference between reproductive cloning and embryonic stem cell cloning?
News that a lab in the US cloned a human embryo has been hailed by some as a medical breakthrough that will soon allow cloned embryonic stem cells to cure diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Other people believe that it is a dangerous step towards the realisation of full reproductive cloning ie living, breathing human clones. The basic technique used for embryonic stem cell cloning is the same as for reproductive cloning. The nucleus of a donor egg is removed and replaced with the nucleus from the person being cloned. After being treated with a chemical cocktail the embryo starts to divide. It is at this point that the differences arise. In reproductive cloning, the embryo is then implanted into a womb. It has to be implanted before the embryo has reached the blastocyst stage the point where it has divided into around 100 cells. The embryo has to be implanted at this stage to allow the cells to specialise into all the different tissues necessary for life, including the placen
