Human Body Transplants Cloning As A Future Prospect Thesis

Human Body Transplants Cloning As A Future Prospect Thesis Human Body Transplants: Cloning As A Future Prospect â€" Thesis Example > Cloning (Introduction)32-33Term Implications in the Modern Sense33-34DNA Cloning34-36Reproductive Cloning36-39Therapeutic Cloning39-41Xenotransplantation42-44Stem Cells44-48Chapter 5: Conclusion48-49 IntroductionThe purpose of the paper, as set out in the abstract, is to investigate to what extent the recently-developing and progressive technology of cloning can be helpful in generating organs and tissues for transplantation to needy human recipients. Many disorders of the human body, such as certain congenital conditions, cancer, trauma, infection, inflammation and other conditions can lead to organ damage and failure and the need for reconstruction. As is stated later on in the paper the number of persons with such organ reconstruction needs exceed by a large margin the number of organs available. Consequently, this results in unnecessary deaths each year, both in the United States as well as elsewhere in the world. At a period in human history when it seems that most things are possible this is considered appalling. Regenerative medicine together with tissue engineering strives to return form and function of these failed organs. Therapeutic cloning, one of all the cloning technologies available today, has great potential to become a permanent part of regenerative medicine by becoming a constant source of transplantable cells that can restore both form and function of the original sets of cells that constituted the failed organ or tissue (Koh and Atala, 2004). Nevertheless, it must be noted here that therapeutic cloning in the true sense using human embryos is unallowable under ethical considerations now or in the future as it implies destruction of an embryo, constituted to be the destruction of a potential human life. Then how can therapeutic cloning be of any help in supplying organs and tissues to be used for transplantation? There is another possibility under therapeutic cloning. The same technique that can generate human transplantable cells and ti ssues by non-reproducibly creating human embryos can also be used to create other animals like, notably pigs, that are genetically compatible to humans, especially needy recipients, and requisite transplantable organs, tissues and cells can be harvested from these genetically engineered animals for human use. The paper investigates the traditional sources of organs and finds that there is potential to increase supply from cadaveric sources as these are not totally exhausted. It also finds that bioartificial organs, tissue engineered, may return form but are not so competent to restore functionality in whole. There must be more research on this part of regenerative medicine to make it efficient enough as an alternative source. Essentially, hereafter, the paper investigates thoroughly all aspects of organ transplantation acknowledging the fact that no single technology or source can be used as the only means of deriving transplantable body parts from. Instead, for the future, with it in mind that those who need these transplantable parts have to be supplied them on an imperative basis, the paper considers a number of alternatives, all of them inclusive, that have potential to solve this major human problem in the near future. The main strategy for the introduction is to emphasize the urgency in enabling supply of transplantable organs, tissues and cells to those who may die without them. The sub-section on illegal trade in organs also demonstrates the urgency because the illegal trade is there in part because the demand for such body parts far exceeds supply in these times. It is a blotch on human dignity and much has to be done to do away with it.