Cloning Cloning is one of the most controversial topics in biotechnology and biomedical science today. Cloning is a technology that must be widely researched before any cloning takes place. In turn, governments take responsibility for what laws on cloning they enforce, and how these laws are enforced. The task of this paper is to explain the meaning of cloning and emphasize some important problems related to cloning process. In 1997 the first mammal, a sheep named Dolly was cloned by the group of scientists led by Dr. Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute in Scotland.
For cloning they used genetic material from a non-embryonic cell, an adult mammary gland cell (Wilmut, Schnieke, McWhir, Kind and Campbell 810-813).
After this first experiment a lot of mice, goats, mules, rats, monkeys, cows and pigs have been successfully cloned all over the world. This proves that human cloning is also possible. Cloning itself differs from natural fertilization which is “sexual” reproduction that takes place when a sperm fertilizes an egg (What is cloning?).
In normal fertilization embryo (and person) has the genetic makeup or, in other words, DNA of the parents – 23 chromosomes from the mother and 23 from the father. The embryo as the unique human organism has a new genetic makeup to develop successfully to adulthood. On the other hand, human cloning is an “asexual” reproduction. This reproduction is not caused by the union of egg and sperm. Cloning is achieved by a technique named “somatic cell nuclear transfer.” It means that the nucleus is taken from a body (somatic) cell and it is transferred into a female egg from which its nuclear material is deleted.
The Research paper on Ian Wilmut Cloning Cell Animals
The theory of being able to make a genetic copy (a clone) of another animal has been around for quite a while. In this section as the title reads I will show the history of cloning. 400 million years B. C. - Plants have been cloning themselves since not to long (as far as the Earth is concerned) after their introduction to our planet. They send out runners that create an identical copy of the ...
Then with the help of chemical stimulus or an electric current the cloned embryo divides as a fertilized embryo does. Of course, many scientists consider that animal and human cloning lead to serious problems. For example, most cloned animals do not survive to birth or die soon after (Pennisi and Vogel 1722-1726).
Cloned mice are inclined to fatness and die early. However, the cloning of a cat as first pet is perceived by many people as a first step to acceptance of cloning by general public (Cloning–A Webliography).
In turn, humans cloning is the developing technology. There are two types of cloning in relation to humans: therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning (Cloning–A Webliography).
Despite of the fact that some progressive groups decided to proceed with reproductive human cloning (creating a cloned human being), the majority of people as well as scientists who are engaged in animal cloning, do not support this idea. (“Scientists Prepare To Clone a Human: Experiment Aims to Help Infertile Couples”).
Therapeutic human cloning is even a more controversial topic. This cloning suggests that embryos are cloned to create stem cells for probable treatment of illness, but a plan to implant these embryos into a mother to allow them to develop is absent. Governments of many countries try to make proper legislation about reproductive and therapeutic human cloning. Religious groups are also interested and studying these issues. Many scientists believe that human cloning can be risky for cloning children who are stillborn, sick, strongly malformed or disabled. Other scientific problems with human cloning are the possibility for mutation, transmission of mitochondrial diseases, and the negative effects from the aging genetic material.
The Essay on Bush On Cloning Human Research Cloned
Human cloning is the laboratory production of individuals who are genetically identical to another human being. Cloning is achieved by putting the genetic material from a donor into a woman's egg, which has had its nucleus removed. As a result, the new or cloned embryo is an identical copy of only the donor. Human cloning has moved from science fiction into science. One biotech company has already ...
Some scientists such as Ian Wilmut and Rudolf Jaenisch believe that the most probable cause of abnormal clone development is faulty reprogramming of the genome (What is cloning?).
Genome reprogramming errors can not be detected by the prenatal screening used for detecting chromosomal or genetic abnormalities in a fetus. Therefore, most scientists are against of implanting cloned embryos and allowing any development toward childhood. The other important issues connected with cloning are the problem of immunological rejection and reprogramming errors. So, human and animal cloning, like many novel technologies can be used for good as well as can be misused. Unfortunately, many people are lack of true information about cloning. They receive misinformation through rumor and the Web.
In turn, politicians are also sometimes swayed by scientifically unproven researches. Thus, it is very important for everyone to educate themselves about cloning issue, its purpose of using and the ethical problems involved. That is the only way to make strong and correct decisions which may influence our future. Works cited: Cloning–A Webliography. Online. Internet.
15 Jan. 2004. E. Pennisi, and G. Vogel. Clones: a hard act to follow. Science 288 (2000): 1722-1726 I.
Wilmut, A E. Schnieke, J. McWhir, A. J. Kind, K. H. Campbell.
Viable offspring derived from fetal and adult mammalian cells. Nature 385 (1997): 810-813 “Scientists Prepare To Clone a Human: Experiment Aims to Help Infertile Couples” Washington Post. 10 March 2001. “What is cloning?” Online. Internet. .
