Cloning Informative Speech. As the technology used to clone mammals improves, it becomes more and more likely that humans could one day be clones as well.

Cloning Speech

Have you ever wished you could have a clone of yourself? Someone to do your homework, tidy your room or go to school for you when you just can’t be bothered. Imagine if you had a clone. What would you do?

As the technology used to clone mammals improves, it becomes more and more likely that humans could one day be clones as well. Clones are genetically identical organisms. This, in simpler terms, means that every single piece of DNA is exactly the same between the ‘clones’ which causes them to have exactly the same features. Clones are completely possible and the study of animal clones can lead to greater understanding of age and age-related disorders. Also, cloning could be used in future to preserve endangered species, which is an ever increasing threat to some populations in our world.

The first cloned mammal was Dolly the sheep, cloned in 1996. This experiment is probably one of the most controversial in the science of cloning. The procedure involved implanting a nucleus from one sheep into the egg cell of another, and therefore cloning the sheep from which the nucleus was from. This was a major development in this particular field of science, however with it, it carried many ethical issues.

During the experiment there were 277 attempts, with only 1 being successful – that success was Dolly. There was a high rate of still born and abnormal sheep, this ...

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During the experiment there were 277 attempts, with only 1 being successful – that success was Dolly. There was a high rate of still born and abnormal sheep, this news caused anger amongst many animal rights campaigners with Sarah Kite, research and information director at the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection saying: "Scientists seem to think that they can mix and match animals' genes in a controlled way, but actually the control is an illusion. No-one yet understands exactly how genes work or what the effects will be on the innocent animals who are subjected to biotechnology.” People feel it is unnecessary for scientists to use innocent animals in these experiments as it is cruel and unjust. Should we be putting innocent animals through this amount of pain for our benefit?

There are not only ethical issues either, there are many risks with this type of cloning: There is some evidence that cloned animals may not be as healthy as normal ones and this was obvious in the cloning of Dolly: Dolly died and was put to sleep in 2003 after doctors detected progressive lung disease, even though she had only reached half the life span of a typical sheep. A post mortem examination confirmed the cause of Dolly's lung problems was a lung tumour brought on by a virus. The examination also confirmed that she had arthritis in her legs. Dr Ian Wilmut, who cloned Dolly, said “It took two hundred and seventy seven attempts to get a perfect animal. The first two hundred and seventy six attempts resulted in many malformed animals”.

There are still enormous difficulties to overcome concerning cloning, with the probability of high rates of miscarriages and still births. The problems scientists have had with other mammals have shown that the human clones produced could well be unhealthy and die prematurely. There are also worries that if we clone humans we will be ‘playing God’ and meddling with things that we don’t fully understand. Even if a healthy clone were produced, it might be psychologically damaged by the knowledge that it’s just a clone of another human being. With this knowledge ask yourself; is it really worth having a clone just to carry out your meaningless tasks?

Peer Reviews

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sydneyhopcroft

21st of Mar 2012

Quality of writing

The Quality of Written Communication is also very good, though there is always room for improvement. A wider range of more complex punctuation could have been used, as well as more challenging terminology as the answer was at it's most convincingly intelligent when field-specific lexes were used to describe cloning procedures and such.

Level of analysis

There has clearly been a very in-depth amount of research conducted in order to produce this answer. The attention to detail is very good and the candidate has done well to cover all opinions towards this highly controversial topic. The commentary on the ethical issues of cloning as well and the social reactions possible, this answer covers a very good range of opinions, and this is something that is imperative for Writing to Inform tasks - whilst their needs to be a primarily objective viewpoint, there is room for subjective views as well, and this feature of informational writing has stood the candidate in good stead. The candidate uses a variety of linguistic devices such as rhetoric, Second Person Address and repetition, to colour in their informative writing style. This is highly effective as it shows a good level of understanding with regards to constructing a well-informed response.

Response to question

This is a Writing to Inform task, and as such requires a good understanding of the information being given to the audience. There is a very profound level of knowledge shown by this candidate, with plenty of quotes from professional sources that suggests that the candidate has done their independent, external research in order to fortify their coursework response. This is a highly focused answer, which used many linguistic features to thoroughly engage the reader and give the impression the candidate bears sufficient knowledge to successfully inform the reader of the delicate and controversial procedure of cloning.

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