The Vorkosigan Companion - Lillian Stewart Carl [49]
What about current-day technology? Does the cloning of Dolly the sheep mean people can be cloned now? Cloning of humans is, understandably, a controversial subject. Reproductive cloning of humans, essentially creating a whole new person from the genetic material from one cell of a person, has been ruled illegal in many countries. Cloning of animals, on the other hand, has been taking place for as many as fifty years. However, the cloning of Dolly the sheep in 1996 was a huge advance in cloning technology—it was the first time a mammalian clone from an adult cell was successful (the adult cell was an udder cell, hence the sheep was named for Dolly Parton).
Since then, cloning of other mammals has been announced on a regular basis: goats, cows, mice, pigs, cats, dogs, horses, and rabbits. Though there have been no successful adult clones of non-human primates, macaque monkey embryos have been created by cloning, which implies that adult clones may yet be achievable. A report or two claim to have demonstrated successful human cloning, but those reports have never been substantiated. Because cloning is possible in many mammalian species and early stages have been demonstrated in non-human primates, the technology to clone humans is a distinct possibility for the near future.
Nevertheless, at the current level of technology, not only is cloning very expensive, but the resultant cloned animals are riddled with defects. To start with, there are on average only one or two offspring that survive out of a hundred, and those clones that do stay alive past birth have problems such as high rates of infection, tumor growth, poor health, and early death. The cause of these problems appears to be faulty reprogramming of the DNA of an adult cell to that of a developing new organism, but there may be other problems as well.
At the current state of technology, then, it would be irresponsible and unethical to attempt to clone humans, which is reflected in the law in most countries. However, as more is discovered about the technique and the ability to modify the DNA more directly is developed, cloning humans may become a more viable option.
Therapeutic cloning is somewhat less controversial, though any use of human tissue is highly regulated in most countries. If a tissue or organ can be created from a person's own genetic material by therapeutic cloning, that means it can be transplanted into that person without being rejected as are tissues or organs from other people. As stated earlier, macaque monkey clones have been created to develop as far as embryos and those embryos have been used to create primate embryonic stem cell lines. This may be one step on the way to creating primate clones, but it is also a step for therapeutic cloning.
If researchers can apply the techniques used in creating the primate-cloned-embryos for human cells, human therapeutic cloning may allow the production of individualized human embryonic stem cell lines in the same way. Also necessary for human therapeutic cloning is the ability to mold the embryonic stem cells into tissue, organs, and parts. Some of that research is taking place as this is written, but is mostly at early stages.
Reproductive cloning of humans, however, will hopefully not be attempted until the technology is hugely improved and shown to be much safer in animals. Even then, if it is scientifically possible to clone whole humans, we, like the inhabitants of the Vorkosiverse, will have to address the ethical and legal issues as to whether reproductive cloning should happen, and if so, what the legal status of the clones produced will be. Again, Bujold has managed to incorporate biological technologies that are still very current topics of research today.
A third feature of the Vorkosiverse that plays a