therapeutic cloning

The promise of therapeutic cloning is that someday doctors will be able to
harvest your cells, use your DNA to make totipotent cells, and then use those
cells to cure your life-threatening disease or restore your damaged spinal
cord to full working order. Creating totipotent cells from nullipotent cells to
treat injury or disease is difficult and triggers significant ethical debates (see
“Weighing Both Sides of the Cloning Debate” later in this chapter). Realizing
the potential of therapeutic cloning may be a very long way off. Meanwhile,
reproductive cloning — the process of creating offspring asexually — is
already causing quite a stir. For a taste of some of the excitement, see the
sidebar “Aclone in the universe?”.