The Issue of Human Cloning: A Review in Semitic Religions’ Context

Human cloning has emerged as a new and innovative technology in the reproductive and therapeutic science in the recent past. So far it has not been practiced over human beings but owing to its huge potential and possible scope, it has attracted the attention of not only the masses (particularly the infertile couples and LGBTQs etc) but the other stakeholders including the religious scholars from worlds’ prominent religions have given their views on this technology in order to guide their followers. This paper examines and reviews the religious points of view on human cloning. For this purpose, three Semitic religions in the world i-e Judaism, Christianity, and Islām have been examined. As far as Islam is concerned, this portion has been divided into two broad sections elaborating the Shī‘ah and Sunnī schools’ opinions. Being an innovative topic, the religious teachings do not address it directly hence the injunctions related to the reproduction are most relevant to it. Three Semitic religions have been examined from the perspective of admissibility or non-admissibility of human cloning, the rationale behind the verdict on human cloning and the possible solutions to the issues and problems faced by the followers in the case of acceptance or rejection of this biomedical technology. Most of the religions emphasize over adaptability of the natural mode of reproduction only, where male and female genders contribute to the reproductive cycle. The Semitic religions reject the reproductive cloning generally. The religious experts need to conduct more focused and updated research before coming to any conclusion about the permissibility or non-permissibility of this technique.

The Association Between Asymptomatic and Mild Neurocognitive Impairment and Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy Amongst People Living With Hiv

Background: HIV disease is associated with neurocognitive impairment which is one of the neurological complications of the viral infection. The spectrum of HIV Associated neurocognitive impairment has significantly changed since the advent of ART. The inclusion of the asymptomatic but cognitively impaired population of patients has changed the dynamics of this population, and requires further research to identify the impact it has on the progression of the disease as well as on any other aspects. Poor adherence to ART is one of the main causes of treatment failure and studies done previously point towards the milder forms of Neurocognitive Impairment as being a cause of poor adherence, among other aspects. Primary Objective: To assess the association between the milder forms of neurocognitive impairment and adherence to ART. Methods: The study was a cross-sectional survey, with consecutive sampling, with a total sample size of 218 patients. An association was sought between cognitive status and adherence as measured by objective means, self-reported means and last viral load value as a surrogate marker. The study utilised quantitative primary data on pre-defined baseline characteristics, neurocognitive assessment by MOCA, instrumental activities of daily living by Lawton score and objective and subjective adherence measures by medication possession ratio (MPR) and simplified medication adherence questionnaire (SMAQ) respectively. Univariate and bivariate analysis was conducted to determine the strengths of association between various predictor and the outcome variables. Results: A final sample size of 218 was selected out of all those eligible (500 patients). All study participants underwent a neurocognitive assessment, which revealed 69% minor neurocognitive impairment while 31% had no neurocognitive impairment. No patient was identified with HIV associated dementia on screening. Secondly, all study participants underwent adherence assessment which revealed optimal adherent rates of 66% and 77% by objective (by MPR) and subjective (SMAQ) measures respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in the baseline characteristics (age, gender, education, marital status, living arrangements, employment status, level of income) between the group of participants with cognitive impairment and those without impairment (p-value > 0.05). Similarly, when the same group were compared on characteristics related to their HIV diagnosis and treatment, no statistically significant differences were observed (p-value > 0.05). Discussion: Even though the rate of cognitive impairment in this study was high, it corresponds to some of the studies earlier carried out (CHARTER study = 53%), the majority of which were asymptomatic and Mild Cognitive Disorders, while only