Dolly And Other Cloned Animals example essay topic

What does it mean to be a clone? It could mean that you are one of a group of genetically identical individuals, the group itself more properly called the clone. All of the members of the group were likely produced in a fertility clinic by splitting a fertilized embryo into a number of pieces. Is this act of cloning ethical, or is science destroying the beauty of natural birth? Human reproductive cloning is an assisted reproductive technology that would be carried out with the goal of creating a newborn genetically identical to another human being.

The method used to initiate the reproductive cloning procedure is called either nuclear transplantation or somatic cell nuclear transfer. The initial step involved removing the nucleus of an egg cell and replacing it with the nucleus of a cell from an adult. The reconstructed egg is then stimulated to begin dividing. If the procedure is successful, the cell will divide several times to produce a pre-implantation embryo- (blastocyst) that is composed of about 150 cells.

If the blastocyst is placed in a uterus, it can implant and form a fetus, which then may develop further and result in a newborn. Individuals created in this way would have the same nuclear genes as the original adult cells, but they would not be exact copies of the adults because of different prenatal and postnatal environments, as well as experiences. The possibility of human cloning raised when Scottish scientist's at Roslin Institute created the much-celebrated sheep "Dolly". In February of 1997, Ian Wilmut and his colleagues in Scotland reported an amazing achievement; the production of an organism using the DNA from an adult cell.

"Dolly" was the result. Dolly has the exact same genetic material as an adult sheep, from which the DNA was taken; essentially, a twin delayed in time, an achievement which scientists were previously not certain was possible. The technique used to clone Dolly is called nuclear transfer. This process begins with an egg being removed form a sheep that will be the surrogate mother. The nucleus is removed from the egg, to prepare it to receive new genetic material. The result is an enucleated egg.

Meanwhile, adult cells removed from another sheep are cultured under special conditions. The enucleated egg and the adult cell are fused by the application of an electric current. The current also activates development of the egg in the absence of a sperm. The egg, now containing the genetic material from an adult cell, will develop into a new organism. Using the same technique that produced Dolly, researchers have cloned a number of large and small animals including sheep, goats, mice and cows.

The technique used to produced Dolly and other cloned animals is an extension of 40 years of research using DNA from nonhuman embryonic and fetal cells. However, scientists remain uncertain about whether genetic changes in the cell used to obtain nuclei will lead to adverse effects on the health of the cloned animals. Scientific and medical research is a long and labor-intensive process. In order for a new development to be accepted, the result must be repeated multiple times under carefully controlled conditions.

While Dolly received all the media attention, it was not until the process of cloning from an adult mammalian cell was reproduced, in mice, that the technique was truly validated. Even with the replication of the cloning process, the technique is still experimental and not yet optimized for general use. Wilmut and his colleagues made 277 attempts, with only one success. In other cases, the cells died before implantation, or the developing animals suffered from developmental defects and did not survive to birth. Dolly and other animals cloned from adult cells allow researchers to address about genetics and developments that were not possible before. Dolly has opened the doors to a new world of possibilities.

For example, most mammalian genetic research is currently conducted in mice, because their embryos are the easiest to manipulate. However, the findings in mice are not always applicable to humans, because of their biological differences. Sheep are biologically similar to humans, so the prospect of engineering sheep may lead the way to better animal models of human diseases, and other progress in research. According to the Human Cloning Foundation, there are many ways in which human cloning is expected to benefit mankind. Dr. Richard Seed, one of the leading proponents of human cloning technology, suggests that it may someday be possible to reverse the aging process due to what we learn from cloning.

Scientists believe that they may be able to treat heart attack victims by cloning their healthy heart cells and injecting them into the areas of the heart that have been damaged. Heart disease is the number one killer in the United States and several other countries. Embryonic stem cells can be grown to produce organs or tissues to repair or replace damaged ones. Skin for burn victims, brain cells for the brain damages, spinal cord cells for quadriplegics and paraplegics, hearts, lungs, livers, and kidneys could be produced.

By combining this technology with human cloning technology it may be possible to produce needed tissue for suffering people that will be free of rejection by their immune systems. Conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, diabetes, heart failure, degenerative joint disease, and other problems may be made curable if human cloning and its technology are not banned. With cloning, infertile couples could have children. Despite getting a fair amount of publicity in the news, current treatments for infertility, in terms of percentages, are not very successful. One estimate is that current infertility treatments are less than 10 percent successful. Couples go through physically and emotionally painful procedures for a small change of having children.

Many couples run out of time and money without even successfully having children. Human cloning would make it possible for many more infertile couples to have children than ever before possible. Cloning is definitely an astounding breakthrough and discovery biologically, however, human cloning is an unethical act. Given the high rate of embryo defects and deaths with this technique, any attempts to clone humans would be costly, as well as raise moral objections.

Although there may appear to be several benefits, if human cloning is perfected, scientists will be playing the role of GOD. New life of children should occur naturally and should not be produced or altered genetically. Scientists should concentrate on more pressing issues such as curing diseases, whether than trying to perfect cloning.