Science, in the past few years has made great strides in the field of mammal reproduction. Theyve worked for years to find out exactly what happens during a pregnancy, and also how it works. Weve come so far in these stages as to gain the knowledge needed to make oral contraceptives. However, I am not writing this report to enlighten you on these subjects, or to debate the ethical issues of them. This report is focusing on the creation of life, not the destruction of one.
Up until a few years ago, weve only known one way to reproduce, but now, thanks to the research and endless hours of experiments by those dedicated to finding out if it really is possible another way, there is a new method of reproduction called cloning. Im not going to debate the moral issues of this subject, but rather tell you how its achieved. There are two methods of cloning. The first, called embryo cloning, has been achieved years before in frogs, other amphibians, mammals, and once it was tried with humans, however both attempts to do this with the humans failed.
The second method of cloning is achieved by using an adult cell, not an embryo. To do this scientists remove an egg cell from a female, and remove the chromosomes, nucleus, etc, leaving no way for the mother interfere with the genetic part of the reproduction. However, the parts of the egg cell needed for cell growth and development are left intact. The cell from an adult mammal is then taken away from its owner. Being placed in a cure dish, the cell is starved of nutrients, but is still kept alive. The reason for this: the cell must stop dividing in order for cloning to take place. The nucleus from this cell is removed.
The nucleus and the egg cell are placed next to each other, and electrical charges are emitted into them. These electrical charges make the two fuse, or combine together. After about 6 weeks, the egg cell, now artificially fertilized, is placed back into the uterus of another female of the same species. Allowed to grow and develop as normal, the baby is born after the normal amount of time needed to let a baby develop. The result: a physical clone of the animal. A friend of yours has an ingenious plan to take a cell from a dead person like Hitler, clone him, and try to take over the world, with his help.
First off, your friend needs adjustment. Secondly, you couldnt clone him to be the same person, with the same personality as before. Being placed in a different environment, with different situations, he would not develop emotionally as he had before. On the contrary, you could turn him into a little choirboy if placed into the right situations. So if its that easy, why doesnt a person like Bill Gates clone him self, just for fun’ or to have a living memoriam of himself when hes gone? It isnt that easy. The United States have taken steps to ban the cloning of people, passing the bill against it two years ago.
Its also expensive, and Dolly the sheep was successfully cloned after 276 unsuccessful tries. So does anybody own cloning? Yes, believe it or not. Although the creators of Dolly were the first to clone an adult mammal, the company that owns the patent is the Massachusetts company of Advanced Cell Technology (ACT). A common misconception: clones will NOT have the same DNA as the other animal. A type of DNA called mitochondrial DNA is not removed from the mother during the fertilization. This DNA is used for energy production cannot be transferred with the hosts nucleus.
So, it also is left intact in the egg cell for the fertilization. In the present and future of cloning What may we be expecting from cloning in the future? Try this for size: scientists recently made the news for cloning the first pigs. And pigs are one of the animals more closely related to humans. so, Ill let you make your own inference. Also, the team at the Roslin Institute has figured out how to make a starved cell able to reproduce again. Their patent is still pending. Have you wondered why the team used a sheep to clone?
The answer: sheep are closely related to humans, just as pigs are, and in Scotland, where Dolly was cloned, sheep are very very very very very cheap. Some have had ideas of using cloning to bring back extinct species, and, mainly, help the endangered species go back to how they once were. Also, there are teams in different places working on ways to clone just organs of mammals for transplants. However, this is expected to turn out with poor results, because it is likely that the body will reject these organs, as it would others.
While many believe cloning is an unnecessary evil, others believe it will become a chief way reproduce crops, or livestock that have favorable qualities about them. I believe that cloning can be useful in these ways, but very dangerous in others. What Im saying is that were meddling with technologies we dont know much about and further research should be done to discover what is needed to master this science before we go making our own species of animals. We are still like novices to this new science, and should respect it, not toy with it.