On The Governance Mechanisms Of Therapeutic Cloning In Ethical Crisis

Therapeutic cloning is one of the most valuable therapeutic applications of human stemcells (ESC). In vitro generation of patient specific tissues or organs using ESC is consideredas the most promising strategy for curing human diseases. Recently, many scientists suggestthe government to ban experiments related to human cloning, while for the therapeuticcloning, it is still under debate. In fact, more scientists are supporting experiments ontherapeutic cloning, as it can solve the problem of xenograft rejection, as well as the shortageof donor organs. However, due to technical similarity between therapeutic cloning andreproductive cloning, ethical concerns are still raised for the process of therapeutic cloning. Inthis thesis, we are not focus on the practical details of therapeutic cloning. We focus onclarifying some basic aspects involved in the debate and discuss the preliminary ethicalcontroversy on "therapeutic cloning". Firstly, we provided an overview of the therapeuticcloning, the difference between reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning, and whytherapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning have quite different technical difficulties in theirapplications. Then, we described the technical development and the advantages of therapeuticcloning for treatments of human diseases, and how can the use of therapeutic cloning bringbenefits to the community. Conflicts among science, technology and ethics have also evolvedalong with its application. It is hard to conclude that whether the use of human embryonicstem cells as well as the technical means destroying human embryos and other related issuesin science and technology. Therefore, ESC research is inevitably criticized by different ethicalpopulations and organizations. It is common that in every advance made by science andtechnology have controversy. The more progressive advance, the more intensified thecontroversy will be. Yet, the paper argues that it is possible, even from an ethical aspect,especially from a bioethical perspective on therapeutic cloning, to improve the relevantregulatory mechanism by clarifying different ethical positions. Thus, this thesis suggests asolution on how to solve the ethical issues of therapeutic cloning technology. Finally, wesuggested that any ethical governance guidelines should consider the current developmentsituation in therapeutic cloning of human embryonic stem cell in our country. No guidelinecan be achieved without the knowledge of social jurisprudence.