Quotation of the Day “The Ramones don’t jam.” — Jerry Harrison

About our schedule MARCH 21: NO CLASS MARCH 26: NO CLASS The next time we meet: MARCH 28: QUIZ #4 ON SINGER

CLONING

How babies are made (PG version) Sperm fertilizes ovum. This takes place in fallopian tube. Fertilized ovum is a single cell. It divides a few times. The cell-cluster travels down tube, into uterus. The cell-cluster attaches to the uterus wall. Nine months later, a baby is born.

But... The process of fertilization and cell- division is very delicate, and things can go wrong. About 40% of the time, the cell-cluster never implants in the uterine wall. It is washed out with the monthly menstrual flow, and the woman never knows that she almost got pregnant.

But... 1 in 12 couples is infertile, and today this is treated as a medical problem. Treatments include: scheduled sex fertility drugs IVF

In vitro fertilization

Some facts about in vitro fertilization Current cost: $10,000 per try Chances of success: 25% Chances of birth defects: same as in “normal” pregnancy In U.S., since 1981, about 45,000 children have been born in this way.

Leon Kass President Bush’s Ethics Adviser Leading opponents of IVF Pope John Paul II

Ethical Objections: It’s unnatural--we are “tampering with sacred things.” the problem of the discarded embryos the slippery slope

Cystic Fibrosis a genetically transmitted disease 1 in 22 caucasians are carriers if both parents are carriers, 25% chance the baby will actually have the disease

What can be done? Genetic screening instead of beginning pregnancy in the “normal” way, use IVF techniques after fertilization occurs, when zygote is 4-8 cells, see if zygote will have CF implant only zygotes without CF so far there have been about 200 successful screenings of this sort

Cloning?

CloningSomatic Cell Transfer

The Three Most Important Facts About Human Cloning 1.A clone would be a baby just like any other baby. 2.There is no important difference between a clone and an identical twin. 3.You cannot duplicate yourself.

Would cloning be unethical? The most popular arguments: A clone would not have a soul. A clone would have no mother or father. Clones could be used for “spare parts.” Rich people would want to make copies of themselves. If we cloned Michael Jordan five times, we would have a hell of a basketball them.

Would cloning serve any good purpose? A couple has a child, call him Bobby. Bobby is killed. They want to have another child, but the man is sterile. Bobby’s tissue samples still exist. They can use SCT techniques to have a child with Bobby’s DNA. Would this be wrong?

But there’s a good reason why human cloning should not be done at the present time: Our techniques are not yet good enough to ensure that the baby would be OK.