Links Assigment 4

What is our government 's stance on the genetic engineering of humans

According to the links consulted , the government of the United States is cautiously allowing some genetic engineering research to proceed , such as gene transfer research seeking to correct or treat disease

There does not appear to be a coherent policy on permitting trait selection for reproduction purposes though ethical questions of this nature are starting to be asked . President Bush , has said Our children are gifts to be loved and protected , not products to be designed and manufactured , which

is certainly a more definitive stance than is present in regulation or law presently , and so appears opposed to genetic engineering for the purpose of selecting traits of offspring

HYPERLINK "http /www .whitehouse .gov /news /releases /2002 /04 /-4 .html http /www .whitehouse .gov /news /releases /2002 /04 /-4 .html

President Bush discusses genetic technology and human cloning

HYPERLINK "http /www .bioethics .gov /reports /reproductionandresponsibility /exec_sum mary .pdf http /www .bioethics .gov /reports /reproductionandresponsibility /exec_summ ary .pdf

Report on Various genetic technologies including gene transfer ( genetic engineering

HYPERLINK "http /www .dnapolicy .org /policy /humanGeneTransfer .jhtml http /www .dnapolicy .org /policy /humanGeneTransfer .jhtml

Summary of Regulatory environment

What is our government 's stance on cloning

At present , there isn 't any specific law banning Human cloning per se However , due to the extreme public response and with President Bush 's ban on federal funding for such research , it could be said that the government is hostile toward human cloning

This stance is based on the ethical consideration of Human Life , and was summed up by President Bush

I believe all human cloning is wrong , and both forms of cloning ought to be banned , for the following reasons . First , anything other than a ban on human cloning would be unethical . Research cloning would contradict the most fundamental principle of medical ethics , that no human life should be exploited or extinguished for the benefit of another (Applause

Yet a law permitting research cloning , while forbidding the birth of a cloned child , would require the destruction of nascent human life Secondly , anything other than a virtually impossible to enforce . Cloned human embryos created for research would be widely available in laboratories and embryo farms Once cloned embryos were available , implantation would take place . Even the tightest regulations and strict policing would not prevent or detect the birth of cloned babies

Third , the benefits of research cloning are highly speculative Advocates of research cloning argue that stem cells obtained from cloned embryos would be injected into a genetically identical individual without risk of tissue rejection . But there is evidence , based on animal studies , that cells derived from cloned embryos may indeed be rejected

Yet even if research cloning were medically effective , every person who wanted to benefit would need an embryonic clone of his or her own , to provide the designer tissues . This would create a massive national market for eggs and egg donors , and exploitation of women 's bodies that we cannot...