Human Cloning Debate Raises Pro-Life Issues The use of cloning
to produce "Dolly" the sheep has prompted a public debate about
cloning humans. This issue has quickly become linked with the
issues of abortion and embryo research. What is cloning?Cloning
is a way of producing a genetic twin of an organism, without
sexual reproduction. The method used to produce Dolly the sheep
is called "somatic cell nuclear transfer": the nucleus of a body
cell ("somatic cell") is transferred into an unfertilized egg
whose nucleus has been removed or rendered inactive. A tiny
electric pulse may then stimulate development of the resulting
embryo, which is an almost exact genetic twin of the creature
that supplied the nucleus. It may be technically possible to use
this procedure to reproduce human beings. What does cloning have
to do with embryo research?A great deal. Cloning a human being
or other large organism begins by artificially producing an
embryo of that species. To produce one live sheep, "Dolly,"
scientists created 27