An Amazing Discovery That Could Change the Definition of Abortion

The anti-abortion movement has taken the position that human life begins at conception. This is when the newly combined sperm and egg form a zygote. The zygote contains 23 pairs of chromosomes with the genetic information necessary to produce a new human being capable of reproducing. The anti-abortion position is that killing this zygote, or any multicellular tissue that develops from it, is equivalent to killing a human being.

The achievement of a group of scientists may now turn this argument on its head.

Scientists have known for many decades that every cell in the human body possesses genetic information sufficient to produce a complete human being. Until now, it was not possible to convert a mature mammalian cell—a skin cell, for example—into a zygote capable of making another identical individual.

Things have changed.

Scientists have now successfully cloned a fully viable mammal from freeze-dried skin cells. This discovery is amazing because they produced a fully mature animal capable of producing offspring from somatic cells—the cells that make up our bodies—rather than mixing sperm with eggs. Scientists at the University of Yamanashi in Japan developed a chemical recipe that convinced these mature freeze-dried skin cells to revert to an immature form which then led to the successful cloning of 75 healthy mice. The skin cells were collected from both male and female donors. After these cloned animals grew to adulthood, they gave birth to healthy offspring of their own.

An unusual result occurred in one trial: The scientist used cells from male mice to clone the next generation. To their surprise, all of the offspring were female. Somehow the Y chromosome got lost during the process. The result demonstrated the well-known tenet that females are the default state.

The purpose of this research is not to clone humans. These scientists have a much more noble quest: the use of cloning as a way to preserve biodiversity. They intend to collect reproductive and somatic cells from animals on the brink of extinction and store these tissues in liquid nitrogen. The scientists reported that one key to their success was the addition of a chemical antifreeze to keep the cells from forming ice crystals during storage. Cells stored in this fashion are viable for many years. The scientists speculate that one day it might be possible to restore extinct animals using this approach: A visit to an actual Jurassic Park might be in our future.

The idea that humans can be successfully cloned to make other humans may soon no longer be just the grist for science-fiction movies—and the word abortion needs a new definition. Abortion may soon refer to the killing of any human cell, because the removal of cancerous tissues, appendectomies, dissection of skin flaps, etc., will abort a potential human being. This new discovery raises complicated legal and moral issues that could dramatically change how we view abortion legislation.