Biomedicine: How many steps to clone?
There are more than three million "test tube people" living on Earth, who were born with the help of reproductive biomedicine technologies. This fact was announced from the rostrum of the International Congress "Reproductive Health of the Family", held in Moscow at the end of January and attracted the attention of scientists from 18 countries.
The first in a series of "unusually born" was the Englishwoman Louise Brown, who will celebrate her thirtieth birthday in July this year. Her birth was shocking news for the world. But very soon a similar method of assisted reproduction began to be used in many countries.
The Church protested, warning that this "interference in the holy of holies" could have serious consequences for humanity. Surrogacy was also rejected by the majority of society. But, despite everything, the ideas of biotechnologies matured and developed.
There are fewer enthusiasts for the development of this branch of science today than there are opponents. The arguments "against" are mainly of an ethical nature. Biomedicine is accused of encroaching on "God's providence." But the Church, which left no room for compromise 30 years ago when Louise Brown was born, is now increasingly inclined to tolerance: where to put children born not according to "God's" rules, how not to bless? They are not to blame for anything and should not feel like outcasts in society.
Commenting on the thesis about the "unethicality" of biotechnologies, Director of the Scientific Center of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Perinatology, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor Gennady Sukhoi stressed that "in the most unethical issue, one can find "ethically justified" and "state-necessary". "Talking about the problem of cloning, they often put their trust in God. I think that if there is such a substance as the Universal Mind, then against its background cloning – or the organization of biological matter – looks too small a page of evolution to cause an effect of a global, galactic scale," the scientist believes. – And if you only think that you can create a "terrible" clone, then you would not need to use the effect of nuclear fission or the theory of vacuum in physics, but it would be better to stay in the Stone Age."
Biomedicine defeats public opinion in silence, because its success is determined by the problems acquired by civilization. Wasn't she the one who created and brought to the point of absurdity the cult of sensual pleasures? Men and women (especially!) crippling "freedom of morals", early and promiscuous sexual life. All this depletes the natural nature, and it malfunctions when performing the function of procreation.
Today, every sixth married couple in the world has problems with childbirth. Russian statistics are not happy either: there are more than 8 million infertile married couples in the country, meanwhile, the demographic situation is not the best. Having accepted the current reality 15 years ago, the authorities introduced a new provision in the Fundamentals of the legislation of the Russian Federation on the protection of citizens' health: "Every adult woman of childbearing age has the right to artificial insemination and embryo implantation."
The evil-tongued press dubbed Louise Brown and others like her "test tube babies." I peer into the face of Louise, smiling from the screen in the conference hall of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where the Congress was held: a woman as a woman. With maternal tenderness, she presses to her breast a child born, I note, in the usual way, in a legal marriage.
The highlight of the scientific forum program was the reports on the latest developments in the field of cellular engineering. Scientists called for combining the efforts of different countries in this direction. However, even the most impressive scientific result in the field of biotechnology has a chance to get stuck in clonophobia – mass fear of the prospect of cloning a human being.
Tomorrow, of course, this will not happen – everywhere in the world it is forbidden to engage in human reproductive cloning. But cellular technologies that can work wonders can be of great benefit today, in another, very popular area – in healthcare. Academician Gennady Sukhoi points out this: "We must not forget that stem cells have a number of interesting features even without the cloning position. They can help medicine find a way to cure fatal diseases – myocardial infarction, stroke, multiple sclerosis, cancer, senile dementia and others."
It is irrational to prohibit scientific ideas and research – this is the position of the scientist. He sees the desire to develop biomedicine and reproductive technologies as an attempt to learn more about living systems. At least because the problems of tumor growth do not disappear, the possibility of prolonging life, as well as the cure of incurable diseases, is fascinating.
Scientists dream of creating "spare parts" for the human body in order to be able to overhaul it, just as cars, airplanes and other technical systems are repaired. There are already serious results on this path: organs are being prostheticized with the help of stem cells, a human heart has already been created (in the USA). The famous cardiac surgeon Valery Shumakov, who recently passed away, dreamed of such a "spare part".
It remains for the creators of the living heart to solve the issue of immune compatibility: how best to implant a new "detail" to the body? The most rational idea is to create a kind of "genetic bank", where a person could, being at a "blooming" age, lay his cellular material, for subsequent use if necessary – in case of illness, injury, loss of any organ. Perhaps, in the future, it will be so.
So far, the most famous result of biomedicine remains "test tube babies". However, the IVF (in vitro fertilization) method cannot be called perfect. Academician Sukhoi advocates a new promising direction – cellular technologies that can influence fertility, increase the number of healthy children. It is these technologies that make it possible to correct fetal genetic disorders. Such work is already underway in Russia.
And yet the main subject of universal interest and excitement remains the question – is it possible to reproduce human cloning? At the Congress, this question received a clear answer: "Yes." It was also stressed that "such a step should be carried out by responsible countries and for the sake of noble goals, only it is necessary to work out the ethical side more deeply and create a legal framework." And most importantly, scientists believe, it is necessary to destroy the hypnosis of dogmas. They preserve scientific research in this direction, but not the thought of scientists...
And in fact, it's scary to think that a "new kind" of people may appear, deprived of the usual set of values, the historical memory of the human race, incomprehensible and, perhaps, even hostile to us, now living. But optimists think differently: what if the giants of thought who created such a phenomenon as "test tube babies" will be able to create a type of person of the highest order - physically ideal, a great intellectual, an impeccable humanist and moral?
Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru04.02.2008