Inheritance & EvolutionHigher Tier
Higher Therapeutic Cloning and Ethical Considerations
Part of Cloning — GCSE Biology
This higher tier covers Higher Therapeutic Cloning and Ethical Considerations within Cloning for GCSE Biology. Cloning techniques, applications, and ethical considerations It is section 9 of 12 in this topic. This section is most useful once the core foundation idea is secure, because it adds the detail that pushes answers higher.
Topic position
Section 9 of 12
Practice
25 questions
Recall
20 flashcards
Higher Therapeutic Cloning and Ethical Considerations
Therapeutic cloning involves creating a cloned embryo that is genetically matched to a patient, for the purpose of harvesting embryonic stem cells — not to produce a baby. The embryo is never implanted into a womb.
Why it matters medically:
- Stem cells from a cloned embryo would be genetically identical to the patient, so they would not be rejected by the immune system.
- These cells could theoretically be used to grow replacement tissue (e.g., heart muscle cells for a patient who had a heart attack, or neurons for Parkinson's disease).
- This approach would overcome the major problem in transplant medicine — rejection of foreign tissue.
Ethical debate:
- For: Could save millions of lives; uses spare embryos; embryo has not yet developed the characteristics of a person; scientifically promising.
- Against: Creating and destroying embryos raises serious moral questions about when human life begins; some religious traditions regard any human embryo as having full moral status; risks of cloning technology being misused for reproductive cloning; potential exploitation of egg donors.
- Current status: Reproductive cloning of humans is illegal in the UK and most countries. Therapeutic cloning research is permitted under strict regulation in some countries including the UK.