In a Scientific Symposium on Cloning held in KACST
Specialists present their points of view about Cloning animals with human features

A scientific symposium was held in KACST today comprising specialists and  concerned personalities interested in issues related to Cloning and Genetic Modification and related moral ethics. The symposium extended for three main sessions round the day.
Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Swylam, the supervisor of the Institute of Natural and Environmental Research and the President of the National Committee of Bio and Medical Ethics, emphasized, in the opening speech. the importance of presenting such a vital topic, stressing that the symposium concentrates on discussing issues of cloning animals with human makeup from all points of view. He referred to some international research centers where they cloned a lamb capable of producing an amount of developing hormone adequate for one third of the world population.
Dr. Al-Swylam highlighted that the National Committee of Bio and Medical Ethics would take a number of decisions in its coming meeting based on discussions, points of view and proposals presented in this symposium.
The symposium, held under the title of “Animals Cloning and Genetic Modification: Ethics”, tackled  a number of related issues including defining cellular cloning, applications on pharmacology, pathology and reproduction sciences in addition to related international regulations and ethics. 
Dr. Mohammed Brogueh El-Fakieh, the researcher in the Research Institute in KACST, started the first session presenting work paper through which he defined cloning in a simplified scientific way as producing genetically identical numbers of particles, cells and animals. He stated on the reverse of human cloning and its drawbacks, points of view about animals cloning and genetic modifications ranged between con and pro. He hinted that quite a good number believe that the human benefits of using such technologies on animals exceed the potential drawbacks.
El-Fakieh indicated that technologies of animal cloning and genetic modifications are considered among the most complicated bio experiments and depends on collaborated efforts of a number of sciences such as zoology, microbiology, genetic engineering, embryology and veterinary.
The second paper presented by Dr. Aly Sayed El-Shnaqueety from King Fahd Medical City, dealt with application of such technologies in pharmacology. The paper presented definition of the term cloning in biotechnology where cloning refers to processes of producing copies of the DNA or its molecules (Molecular Cloning), copies of cells ( Cellular Cloning or Tissue Cloning) or copies of living creatures (Reproductive Cloning).
 El-Shnaqueety stressed that producing large quantities of proteins for therapeutic purposes  is considered one of the maim applications of cloning technologies stating that, for example,  there are 140 approved proteins for therapeutic purposes in Europe and USA. He also gave a presentation on the other application of cloning technology that is genes therapy: advantages and drawbacks besides another presentation on the latest developments in this area.
In the second session, Dr. Mohamed Ali El-Balawi from King Saud University for Health Sciences presented differences between cloning and offspring. He explained that offspring deals with producing an animal or entire organism for the same genetic origin of this organism while cloning means isolating an identical copy of gene existing in the genome of a whole living creature.
El-Balawi indicated that cloning is more common and more applied in medicine and therapeutic research, as it is easier for researchers to isolate healthy or diseased genes that they wish to study their role and function. He added that genetic therapy is one of the foremost studies in cloning that mainly depends on inserting a wholesome copy of the diseased gene or trying to stop the activity of a gene that produces protein level higher than the normal one.
Dr. Mossa’ed Ahmed El-Dhabeeb from Kasseem University gave the second presentation in the same session on Applications in Animal Production. He stressed the importance of biotechnology and its effective role in genetic enhancement in animal production and overcoming a number of difficulties in animal breeding and production out of which are lengthy generation period and selection intense.
El-Dhabeeb pointed that genetic modification of lab animals such as mice and rabbits are deemed very important in biological research. He added that genetic modification could be applied on farm animals to get animals with better qualities such as resisting certain diseases and yielding more milk. However, genetic modification on farm animals is considered as one of the bio-applications that contradict nature and are refused by many countries and subjected to strict monitoring and control.
In the third session, Dr. Ameen Saleh Kashmeeri, from King Abdul Aziz Medical City in Jeddah, discussed international regulations and ethical aspects and dimensions resulting from cellular cloning. He also dealt with potential future developments and their reflections on both man and environment.
It is worth mentioning the National Committee of Bio and Medical Ethics supervised and run by KACST has been established by kind consent of king Abdullah with the aim of setting, applying and following up criteria and moral ethics of bio and medical research. These criteria and ethics include research and applications performed by medical institutions such as hospitals and affiliated research centers besides all biological research performed in universities and related research centers in general.