Scientists create first semi-cloned animal

Holly the semi-cloned fish

From NewsAsia.com:

A fish named Holly may have placed Singapore on the world map for being the birthplace of the very first semi-cloned animal.

By combining the stem cell of an embryo - one which is created to contain only one set of chromosomes - with an egg which provides the other set, three National University of Singapore (NUS) researchers were able to create a fish that is not an exact clone.

In traditional cloning, a baby is formed from a stem cell with two sets of chromosomes from one parent, making it an exact duplicate - and spawning great debate about the ethics of cloning since the world's first animal, Dolly the sheep, was cloned from an adult stem cell in 1996.

This begs the question: why would scientists want to create an animal that was only semi-cloned?  As with much crazy manipulations in creating life, scientists envision this technique being used to treat infertility in humans:

Now, the successful birth of the first semi-cloned animal, Holly the fish, means researchers can possibly use semi-cloning as a method to treat infertile couples....

His team of researchers will now look at semi-cloning mice, monkeys and, eventually, humans - if possible.

Scientists want to replace the sperm from infertile men and use a genetically modified stem cell from them for conception instead.  This would allow infertile men to have "genetically-related" offspring.

The Catholic Church would be soundly against using this technique in humans for many reasons.  First, it would require the creation of human life in a dish.  Second, it would result in a genetically modified embryo that could not but help passing that genetic modification on to its offspring.

Interestingly, this above article has a great quote on this technique from a Catholic priest:

Father James Yeo from St Anne's Church told MediaCorp: "The Catholic Church has no objection to the cloning of plants and animals as long as these technologies are not harmful to the environment and do not pose any disproportionate risks to human life."

But he reiterated that cloning of humans is not ethically acceptable, no matter what technology is used. "It (cloning) violates human dignity and dilutes the meaning of personhood. It could eventually blur the line of parentage and is open to all kinds of abuses," said Father James.