Cloning is a technique of producing a genetically identical duplicate of an organism that’s derived A-Sexually from a single individual organism. As the single fertilized egg forms an embryo, its cells start to become specialized. Some become nerves, others skin, and others muscle. Causing those changes are the genes in each cell. But if even one gene fails to express a crucial protein at any point the result could be fatal. The idea of cloning has been around for about 200 years but we first started cloning animals in 1952. Dr.
John Gurdon first accomplished nuclear transfer later in the 1970’s. Then in 1984 Dr. Steene Walladsen announced that he had successfully transferred nuclei from embryos of sheep to produce clones. He also has transferred nuclei from cows and monkeys. In the summer of 1995 two lambs were born at the Roslin Institute they were Megan and Morgan. Then there is the biggest news of the year maybe even the century the lamb Dolly. Dolly was conceived not through the natural union of a sperm and egg, but when genetic material from an adult sheep cell was introduced into another sheep’s egg.
Until Dolly scientists had never succeeded in making an adult from and adult. One major question scientists are asking is will clones have a shorter life span? Since some clones are created from adult organisms then, in the case if Dolly, she may only be 7 months old her cells may think that they are 6 years old. Another question that scientists are asking is will clones be able to have offspring of their own? Scientists hope to use cloning for embryonic stem cell development. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that can develop into almost any type of cell in the body.
Stem cells can be used in treatments for brain and nervous system damage. Some of the advantages of cloning are: that we could use cloning to help increase the population of endangered species so that we have enough animals to have an opportunity to reproduce. Also cloning would make it possible to introduce precise genetic changes into any mammal and to create multiple individuals bearing the alteration like in the case of endangered species we could change their genetics so that they weren’t as prone to getting a certain disease so that they have a better chance at survival.
Also cloning can be used to research for the improvement of life for humans. We could produce exact copies of animals that carry genetic diseases, which would be giving scientists better models to watch human disease progress and test therapies on. Cloning could advance the understanding of the rapid cell growth of cancer because cancer cells develop at approximately the same phenomenal speed as embryonic cells do. So we may be able to use embryonic cells to fight cancer.
Cloning can also produce barnyard animals that are living factories of pharmaceuticals because, cloning produces a larger abundance of livestock to get the biological proteins that help people who have diseases including diabetes, Parkinson’s and cystic fibrosis from. Plus cloning could give researchers new clues to the aging process. It could teach scientists how to get many types of body cells into renewing themselves, which could lead to regenerating ailing tissue. Also cloning would provide copies of those who have deceased like if a couple’s child died cloning could provide them with another child.
Also it could provide children who need an organ transplant to have a clone born to donate organs. But this brings up ethical questions because scientists believe that clones would have identical genetic makeup but that their personalities wouldn’t be the same so it would be like killing a living person for their organs. And how right is that? Cloning can provide genetically modified animal organs that are suitable for transplantation into humans so we should use those.
For a owner of a champion horse for example it would be great if he could get a clone of that horse say if he breaks his leg in the prime of his career. But for right now the Jockey Club, which regulates the thorough, bred racing industry worldwide will not register a horse bred by artificial insemination or cloning or even a descendant of that animal. For every thing that has advantages there are also disadvantages and for cloning some of them are: if a whole population of organisms have the same genetic makeup one disease could wipe out the whole population.
And if all animals die of a disease because we are cloning them then we really wouldn’t be helping endangered species. Also if everyone has the same genetic material and we start to reproduce naturally again we would be inbreeding causing many birth defects after a while. Already zoologists are having trouble trying to find two animals to mate that aren’t cousins. Another disadvantage would be that the biggest problem with cloning is the decline in genetic diversity. Cloning would deprive organisms of uniqueness that naturally born organisms get.
Also cloned people would be subjected to limitations and expectations based on the knowledge that he/she is a clone. There for clones would be treated differently. Also scientists wonder what mental and emotional problems would result if a clone were to find out that he/she was a clone. Another disadvantage is even champion milk-giving cows have weaknesses like unpredictable vulnerabilities to disease. And many genes cause genetic diseases not just isolated ones so you wouldn’t really know if your cow was carrying those genes before you cloned it.
One of the major disadvantages I think is that many errors are occurring when scientists carry out cloning. I mean it took 277 tries to come up with Dolly and many lambs before her were produced with abnormalities. And how would you feel if you were a clone that was born with a deformity? But for now there is a U. S. ban on the use of federal money to support human embryo cloning research which I think is due to how many people are questioning us taking nature so far into our own hands. Who knows what people will use cloning for good or evil?
