杜心怡 Chi Blog #3

一。小朋, 我们一起开会！
二。是吗？我不知道！以后你有空吗？
三。今天五点以后才有空。我得考试。
四。你回来以后给我打打电话吧。
五。行，没问题。

As with the rest of the world, China has done many experiments with stem cell research and cloning, all the while raising international ethical questions. Chinese scientists are making fast progress; a group in the Central South University in Changsa is working on developing human embryo clones while a team in the Sun Yat-sen University of Medical Sciences in Guangzhou is trying to fuse human and rabbit cells together to make more tissue for research. In 2000, they successfully cloned their first animal, which was a goat. Now, Dr. Li Shangang, a researcher at the National Center for Molecular Genetics and Animal Breeding of the Beijing Institute of Animal Sciences, has lead an experiment to produce a rabbit clone from the back skin cells from a 20-year-old rabbit embryo. Malaysia has utilized cloning to maintain the population of leatherback turtles and try and save them from extinction. However, many people believe that Chinese scientists might be willing to challenge ethical boundaries so they can compete with the U.S. and Europe in areas like stem cell research. In response, individual institutions have strict guidelines in place clearly stating what type of work is acceptable and what should be discarded, not only for the sake of their own consciences, but to show the rest of their world that their scientific teams can adhere to internationally accepted standards.

Part of the reason why I wanted to write about this subject is because I'm interested in stem cell research and I was surprised to learn how truly advanced the scientific efforts of China had become. I don't know if I would be willing to accept it if anyone tried to clone an actual human being, but I do believe that stem cell research would help for replacing sick organs or curing illnesses. If China's research was brought into consideration, we could achieve even more progress.

Sources:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1931397.stm

http://www.scienceahead.com/entry/china-gets-success-in-cloning-worlds-first-rabbit/