Cloning is the process of creating similar genetically identical cell, tissue or individual organisms such as insects, plants or bacteria in a lab that would otherwise naturally occur in nature. Cloning is a science that has been around since before Dolly the sheep was created in a lab in the 1997, a sea urchin was cloned in 1894, it ties into many different aspects in life and is soon to be a very common thing in society. Since, and even before, Dolly the sheep scientists have been able to clone genes, cells, food, and other organisms.
Three types of cloning include, gene cloning, a process that creates copies of genes or segments of DNA, reproductive cloning, creating copies of whole animals/organisms. The third type of cloning is therapeutic cloning, researchers use this to create embryonic stem cells in the hopes to grow these cells to create tissue to replace damaged tissues in human bodies. All three will be discussed in the following text along with different effects. Current/potential uses: One current use is artificial embryo twinning, a not-so-complicated way to make clones, contrary to popular belief. Mimicking Mother Nature this process is an artificial way to create identical twins only it is done inside a petri dish instead of a womb. They are split in two and left to divide and develop before being placed in a surrogate where they will finished the development process. Since the embryos are from the same egg, genetically they are identical (McCormick, 1994). Therapeutic cloning is when stem cells are produced from a cloned embryo, since they are in their richest form five days after the egg starts to divide. The data collected from this is used for a better understanding of diseases and development of cures for said disease. This process does destroy the embryo while it is still in the test tube, so it isn’t quite like the artificial embryo cloning. A potential use of this would be the ability to generate any type of cell in an organism and growing healthy tissues in laboratories (Allison, 2007). Pros and Cons: The pros of cloning are “savior siblings”. …show more content…
When an older sibling is ill or facing death, parents may conceive said savior sibling in order to provide bodily fluid, umbilical cord blood, or non-vital organs in order to save the eldest. Cloning would ensure that the unborn child would have the match for the existing child because they would be genetically identical. It is the least time consuming solution (others consisting of implanting into the womb only the ones that are a match and discarding the others, or making an embryo naturally and terminating it if it isn’t a match) (Robertson, 2006). A con would be “designer children” an idea that people could choose what their child was going to look like, choose traits they liked, create perfect children for their own selfish desires. It is a sad part of society, and the population would soon begin looking the same, since there is a very standard idea a beauty. Just the same idea is getting recreated, and then they reproduce and the genes go down the line. Soon there would be only a few genes in the entire gene pool and there would be no originality (Meilaender, 1997). Governmental Regulations: A good reason the government should regulate cloning may be health related issues with cloned cattle, poultry, and livestock in general. In 2006 the FDA conducted a safety study over the effects and risk eating cloned animals would have on the public, they found none and it was deemed low-risk. They update this study with all new research every time it comes out (FDA, 2008). Another reason would be the possibility of a defective embryo or a reproductive cloning …show more content…
The more scientists learn about one thing the more they can discovers about another, as all science is tied together making the earth work. The only problem here would be the rate of success, as stated before, many embryos are killed just to get one clone. 0.1 percent to 3 percent success rate is very low, on average that is 980 failures out of 1000. Now the 20 successful clones may teach scientist enough to perfect the process for later trials, but there will always be errors (SEPA,
Three types of cloning include, gene cloning, a process that creates copies of genes or segments of DNA, reproductive cloning, creating copies of whole animals/organisms. The third type of cloning is therapeutic cloning, researchers use this to create embryonic stem cells in the hopes to grow these cells to create tissue to replace damaged tissues in human bodies. All three will be discussed in the following text along with different effects. Current/potential uses: One current use is artificial embryo twinning, a not-so-complicated way to make clones, contrary to popular belief. Mimicking Mother Nature this process is an artificial way to create identical twins only it is done inside a petri dish instead of a womb. They are split in two and left to divide and develop before being placed in a surrogate where they will finished the development process. Since the embryos are from the same egg, genetically they are identical (McCormick, 1994). Therapeutic cloning is when stem cells are produced from a cloned embryo, since they are in their richest form five days after the egg starts to divide. The data collected from this is used for a better understanding of diseases and development of cures for said disease. This process does destroy the embryo while it is still in the test tube, so it isn’t quite like the artificial embryo cloning. A potential use of this would be the ability to generate any type of cell in an organism and growing healthy tissues in laboratories (Allison, 2007). Pros and Cons: The pros of cloning are “savior siblings”. …show more content…
When an older sibling is ill or facing death, parents may conceive said savior sibling in order to provide bodily fluid, umbilical cord blood, or non-vital organs in order to save the eldest. Cloning would ensure that the unborn child would have the match for the existing child because they would be genetically identical. It is the least time consuming solution (others consisting of implanting into the womb only the ones that are a match and discarding the others, or making an embryo naturally and terminating it if it isn’t a match) (Robertson, 2006). A con would be “designer children” an idea that people could choose what their child was going to look like, choose traits they liked, create perfect children for their own selfish desires. It is a sad part of society, and the population would soon begin looking the same, since there is a very standard idea a beauty. Just the same idea is getting recreated, and then they reproduce and the genes go down the line. Soon there would be only a few genes in the entire gene pool and there would be no originality (Meilaender, 1997). Governmental Regulations: A good reason the government should regulate cloning may be health related issues with cloned cattle, poultry, and livestock in general. In 2006 the FDA conducted a safety study over the effects and risk eating cloned animals would have on the public, they found none and it was deemed low-risk. They update this study with all new research every time it comes out (FDA, 2008). Another reason would be the possibility of a defective embryo or a reproductive cloning …show more content…
The more scientists learn about one thing the more they can discovers about another, as all science is tied together making the earth work. The only problem here would be the rate of success, as stated before, many embryos are killed just to get one clone. 0.1 percent to 3 percent success rate is very low, on average that is 980 failures out of 1000. Now the 20 successful clones may teach scientist enough to perfect the process for later trials, but there will always be errors (SEPA,