|By Rajesh Chaudhary
Just nearly a week ago, the entire scientific world wake up in a frenzy. It has been marked as one of the memorable day in the scientific world when the news about “human stem cell line through cloning” resurfaced throughout the world creating a huge buzz – the day was so significant and it holds meaning for its daring job. It has once again made it clear that the world of cloning is not fading away doesn’t matter how hard the religious sentiments are being crushed time and again and how many times they are being challenged for what they preach.
When you enter into a real scientific world, you will feel the need of knowledge in research ethics. When we entered into our research work, we were not allowed to start our lab and touch anything until and unless we were made sure through classes, seminars and other activities along with the exam on research ethics to make sure we were not going to bungle it up once we start our full-fledged lab work.
The fact of getting conversant with the ethical guidelines before getting into the research work can’t be discounted. But, the confusion arises on the way. There had been, and there are still, unattended issues of whether or not ethical guidelines has to be implemented as strictly as it has been suggested. The reason is ethical guidelines are still not clear and it leaves researchers in lurch thinking whether to proceed or to leave the work which took time, money and all those years of perseverance.
The news about the revolutionary cloning of sheep, The Dolly Sheep” in 1996 has long gone, but it has left a sense of apprehension and confusion pertaining to the fact that whether we are destined to doom our own existence while longing for our godly attempt – to create a new individual from the existing one – THE CLONE!
Recent groundbreaking discovery on “Human stem cell lines through cloning” is one of those buzzing news which has created a huge outcry in the scientific world not just because it has surpassed its limit to go beyond what is usually ethically permitted but also because of some of its errors that was crept in during its zipping attempt to publish paper in the journal Cell.
Though this groundbreaking discovery has its potential to turn the table to those who preach the strict laws governing ethical issues taking into account of its potentiality to find one of those desperate answers to the disease such as “Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy”, and to create perfectly match tissues that might be a answer for the disease ranging from diabetes to Parkinson’s disease along with and other “mitochondrial-related diseases”; there still have been comments from the critics calling it a “barbaric” attempt while other terming it as “terrible injustice”.
The reasons was that during this procedure one has to go through three steps: egg donation, embryo destruction and cloning – all of which is unethical because for egg donation a women has to pass through procedures which have uninvited consequences.
It is also quite understandable that for every big achievement of whatsoever kind have a price we have to pay. We must have to take the lead and challenge what is being discouraged. I think the ethics stymieing the progress of research work involving stem cells has to take a back seat at least for a while rather than making issues with each and every groundbreaking discovery. It’s a high time to think about it rationally and give some space to those who are really seriously attempting to salvage from the diseases engrossing the entire humanity.
A Walk To Remember 