Do you have an answer?
The following are questions asked by members of the Angelou Centre on the subject of stem cells, cloning and the meaning of life.
ON STEM CELLS… the science
- “Where do you get stem cells?”
- “Why do they want to make them?”
- “Why do our bodies not make more stem cells?”
- “Are the stem cells of human and animals different?”
- “How many stem cells are there in our bodies?”
- “How did stem cells evolve?”
- “Who started research into stem cells?”
- “Why don’t they just use the stem cells they have already, clone them and make lots more (for research purposes)?”
- “Will cloned stem cells work?”
RIGHTS and WRONGS
- “Will they only use stem cells (to find cures) for disease?”
- “Will only rich people benefit from stem cell technology in the future?”
- “Should we test on humans?”
- “If a baby is cloned, then whose baby is it and who is it?”
- “If someone wanted to commit suicide, could we use them for testing?”
- “What’s the point in killing a baby to make a new one…you are not winning anything? What's the point?"[On considering the affect of extracting stem cells from embryos.]
- “What is a designer baby?”
- “Why do they want to make designer babies?
I think it’s wrong because you should appreciate a baby whatever it’s like.”
ON DOLLY THE SHEEP and CLONING
- “Why did they just clone a sheep?”
- What was the aim behind making her?”
- “How long did it take for them to make Dolly?
- “Why did Dolly the sheep live a shorter life than the original?”
- “Why did everyone believe the doctor in South Korea [who claimed to have cloned the first human baby], when there was no proof?”
SCIENCE or FICTION?
- “Will humans be able to photosynthesise?”
- “In movies, people are put through a machine and cloned. Could this happen in real life?”
- “Would a cloned person be the same as a dead person?”
- “If you add lots of different animal cells together would a new species be born?”