• Question: Would it be possible to create a clone using embryonic stem cells?

    Asked by skywombat2000 to Alberto, Chris, Emmanuel, Jennie, Michelle on 24 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Chris Whittle

      Chris Whittle answered on 24 Jun 2013:


      It might be possible to create a clone from a stem cell by taking the DNA inside that stem cell and putting it into an egg. A stem cell cannot be grown into a baby because it does not have the machinery to be able to do that.

      There are also laws preventing you from doing that, as it would be wrong to create a human clone for science, especially as there is no scientific reason for doing so. Cloned animals are often born with many problems.

    • Photo: Alberto Lapedriza

      Alberto Lapedriza answered on 24 Jun 2013:


      Very recently, a group of scientists managed to transform a skin cell of an adult man into a embryonic stem cell, which can develop all the different cell types needed to create a man. This embryonic stem cells has the same DNA than the adult man from which the skin cell was taken. Therefore, the baby that could develop from that embryonic stem cell would be a clone of the adult man. However, we´ll still need many years of research to get to that point.

    • Photo: Emmanuel Amabebe

      Emmanuel Amabebe answered on 24 Jun 2013:


      Yes, it’s a possibility. This is because what is needed to make a clone is the gene (DNA) which is present in the embryonic stem cell. However this requires a lot of technology and we are yet to get there. Hopefully we will.

    • Photo: Michelle Taylor

      Michelle Taylor answered on 25 Jun 2013:


      Yes I agree with Chris – embryonic stem cells are taken from an embryo that is very early in its development and are useful because they have the ability to become any type of cell but they cannot grow into a clone on their own because the original embryo with all of the necessary machinery was destroyed. This also raises serious questions about what we ‘can’ do and what we ‘should’ do. Do you think that we should destroy one embryo to create another?

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