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The first thing that must be cleared up is what is cloning, and what is a clone. A clone is an organism derived asexually from a single individual by cutting, bulbs, tubers, fission or parthenogenesis reproduction. Parthenogenesis reproduction is the development of an organism from an unfertilized ovum, seed or a spore. Hence, cloning, biologically speaking, is any process in which production of a clone is successful.
Thus, the biological term cloning is the production of genetically identical duplicate of an organism. In the world of scientific technology, cloning is the artificial production of organisms with the same genetic material. Scientists actually call the transferring of nucleus from the cell of one organism to an enucleated egg cell, nuclear transfer. This will produce an organism that has the exact genetic material as that of the donor cell. Having said all this, we can say that cloning occurs with all plants, some insects, algae, unicellular organisms that conduct mitosis and binary fissions and occasionally by all multicellular organisms, including humans. (Ramsey, 1970, p. 30) Unknown to much of the public, cloning has been going on for several decades now.
However, it has recently become a hot topic since the emergence of Dolly (the first ever cloned mammal) nevertheless, it has been in research since the 1950. Not everyone knows this because the scientists were not successful then as they are now. Today, cloning has become a very big issue since it has been learned that many things can be gained such as; genetic engineering and gene replacement and diseases cured and also having humans cloned. The issue of cloning is difficult to discuss, it is in the same league as abortion, or euthanasia. It is an emotionally and morally charged issue. With the cloning of an adult sheep, a line has been crossed, and reproductive technology will never be the same.
Cloning experiments began in the 1950 s with a group of scientist in Cambridge, England. These scientists attempted to clone frogs. However, the success rate was only about nine percent, and of the ones that were successful, they had many defects and abnormalities. The next attempt was in the early 1980 s, like the prior scientists, they also faced the same problems. Those scientists set today s scientists down the right track. (Madeleine, 1997) Without question, this exotic form of reproductive engineering could become an extremely useful tool. The ability to clone adult mammals, in particular, opens up myriad exciting possibilities; from propagating endangered animal species to producing replacement organs for transplant patients and even helping the agriculture.
The benefits to cloning plants, such as apples can produce uniform and high quality products. Scientists hoped that cloning healthy, mature sheep, rather than just creating lambs from embryonic cells, could produce a highly specialized sheep with large quantities of proteins in its milk. In turn, proteins are believed to help treat diseases such as emphysema, hemophilia and cystic fibrosis. For years, scientist could not synchronize the growth of the egg and the cell.
It was off-synch; abnormal chromosomes would soon transform in the nucleus and thereby kill of the embryo. (1997) In 1997, researchers at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh, Scotland had indeed pulled off what many experts thought might be a scientific impossibility. From a cell in an adult ewe s mammary gland, embryologist Ian Wilmut and his colleagues managed to create a frisky lamb named Dolly, scoring an advance in reproductive technology as unsettling as it was startling. Unlike offspring produced in the usual fashion, Dolly does not merely take after her biological mother. She is a carbon copy, a laboratory counterfeit so exact that she is in essence her mother s identical twin. It took the Roslin researchers more than 10 yrs to achieve their breakthrough. Scientists accomplished this by using frozen mammary cells taken from a six-year-old-pregnant ewe and fusing them with an enucleated egg.
The trick to fusing the cells is giving a small electric current to the petri dish on which the egg cell is. This stimulates the egg much like a sperm would, and usually takes the genetic material from the cell and becomes a zygote. They let this zygote grow into an embryo, and then transplanted the embryo in a recipient ewe, acting as a surrogate mother. After a gestation period, the pregnant Blackface ewe gives birth to a baby Finn Dorset lamb, named Dolly, which is a genetically identical to the original donor. (1) HUMAN CLONING The question shakes us all to our very souls. For humans to consider the cloning of one another forces them all to question the very concepts of right and wrong that make them all human. A Time/CNN poll (March 10, 1997) reported that 74 % of those asked believe it is against God s will to clone human beings.
In addition, in the poll, most Americans think it is morally unacceptable to clone either animals or humans, moreover they think that new cloning techniques will create more problems than they solve. When asked if they were willing to eat cloned products such as fruits or vegetables 49 % said yes, and when asked about meat from the cloned animals 56 % said no. Since the cloning of animals has been done, apparently scientists seem to be heading toward cloning of humans. (2) However, President Clinton has banned federal funds from being used for human cloning research, stating that: Any discovery that touches upon human creating is not simply a matter of scientific inquiry, it is a matter of morality and spirituality as well Each human life is unique, born of a miracle that reaches beyond laboratory science. Even if governments ban human cloning outright, it will not be so easy to police what goes on in private laboratories that do not receive public money or in pirate ones offshore. After all, we do not know where the secret volcano layers are. Recently, South Korean scientists claim they have a human embryo and would have been able to develop a human clone, but abandoned their efforts after much international concern.
In an article in Times (March 10, 1997), Kluger raises an important question on human cloning: If cloning had existed a few centuries ago, men with strong backs and women with pelvises would have been the first ones society would have wanted to reproduce. During the industrial age, however, brain power began to count for more than muscle power. (Kluger, 1997) Presumably cloning technology at that historical juncture would have faced the prospect of letting previous generation of clones die and replace them with a new population. Who are we, God? Kluger also goes further to point out that even if we would agree on which individuals would serve as humanity s templates of perfection, there is no guarantee that successive copies would be everything the originals were.
An innate genius is not always so innate it may come nothing even if the person born with the potential for excellence does not find the right environment and blossom in it. An innate genius is not always so innate it may come to nothing even if the person born with the potential for excellence does not find the right environment and blossom in it. A scientific genius that has been beaten as a child might become a mad genius, or being raised by parents than the ones you had, will change the personality. A thousand switches have to click in the exact same sequence for the child to wind up where the original is. However, doesn t that defeat the purpose after all? What would differentiate him from a friend or a relative?
The one true purpose, which seems obvious is for organs. This is the ultimate nightmare scenario. How does this affect you and me? Many things have been gained due to the creation of Dolly. One of those being the economic boom it has created. More and more money is going in the Biotechnology field, due to the possibilities, it represents.
Why are these companies so successful in the market? The answer is just as simple as the question. For example, consider Protein Design Labs, a company based in California develops monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases. Out of the 420 companies trading on the market they all promise some kind of cure (mostly the same one) for the future.
New venture capitalists have invested $ 2. 1 billion in biotech s. So in the not too distant future we could either have a cure for cancer or be rich trading these companies. (Hovenasian, 2000) Bringing back Species? In a recent cloning research done by Advanced Cell Technology of Worcester, Mass, the biotechnology company said that they had cloned an endangered Asian gaur and implanted the resulting embryo into a cow in Iowa. The baby gaur, an online creature that is native to India and Southeast Asia, is expected to be born within a month if the birth is successful, this would represent the first cloning of an endangered species.
The technique could not only help preserve endangered species but also revive species that have already become extinct. (Pollack, 2000) However, the technique which seems right out of Jurassic Park, is raising ethical questions. It seems we are crossing that line between man and nature, but it is because of man that these species are disappearing after all. I should also note that to clone an animal, or anything in particular, you would need live cells to do so, and apologize for breaking the dream to those who always wanted a T-rex for a pet. The recent news of successful cloning of an adult sheep, in which the sheep s DNA was inserted into an unfertilized sheep egg to produce a lamb with identical DNA, has generated an outpouring of Ethical concerns. These concerns are not about Dolly, the now famous sheep nor even considerable impact cloning may have on the animal breeding industry, but rather about the possibility of cloning humans. But is cloning all that different from genetically engineering an embryo to eliminate a genetic disease like cystic fibrosis.
Is it so far removed from in vitro fertilization? A fertility clinic for example will clone an embryo then test it for genetic disorders. If the embryo is tested negative for genetic disorders, then the clinic implants a clone of that embryo. As we see then its not that different from cloning. (Bander, 1998, p. 42) The possible physical damage that could be done if human cloning became a reality is obvious when one looks at the sheer loss of life that occurred before the birth of Dolly. Less than ten percent of the initial transfers survived to be healthy creatures. There were 277 trial implants of nuclei.
Nineteen of those 277 were deemed to be healthy while the other were discarded. Five of those nineteen survived, but four of them died within ten days of birth with severe abnormalities. Dolly was the only one to survive. If those nuclei were human, the body count would look like a sheer carnage. (Kluger, 1997) In conclusion, it will be up to science to determine if human cloning can be done, but it is up to people to determine if it should be done. Some observers claim to be shocked that anyone would contemplate such a thing. However, that is a na ve-and even disingenuous, its obvious that many people would be eager to clone themselves.
Nevertheless, if you were to ask anyone why not, he or she could simply answer, It is morally and ethically wrong but after all if society was based on morals and ethics, we would be looking at a different world. With the cloning of an adult sheep, a line has been crossed, and reproductive technology will never be the same. Once you cross that line its hard to go back, well actually impossible, time machines aren t in progress as of yet. References Bender, L. D. (1998). Biomedical Ethics.
San Diego: Green haven Press Inc. Hovanesian, D. M. (2000, Oct). Biotechs are cloning money. Business Week, pp. 142 - 144. Kluger, J. (1997, Mar).
Will we follow the sheep? Time, pp. 66 - 72 Madeleine, J. N. (1997, Mar). The age of cloning. Time, pp. 62 - 65 Pollack, A. (2000, Oct 9). Cloning used in an effort to preserve rare species.
The New York Times. pp. 16 - 18 Ramsey, P. (1970). Fabricated Man: The ethics of Genetic Control. New York: Yale University Press. (1) web (2) web
Free research essays on topics related to: cystic fibrosis, enucleated egg, genetically identical, genetic disorders, human cloning
Research essay sample on Cystic Fibrosis Enucleated Egg
