Natural cloning
Cloning is when an organism is genetically identical to one another, however is it unnatural? Well cloning has been done for many years, by plants and other animals, Natural has being cloning for nearly over a billon years, which, has just recently been acknowledged.
Cloning has been a natural occurrence when in plants as in the past may plants have been cloning through off shots, which is when the parent produces a off shot to identical to it’s own.
Twins are examples of natural cloning, identical twins are created by one egg cell being fertilised by one sperm which then splits in two genetically identical halves. This is an example of natural cloning as the parents have created two children with the same or identical genes.
An example of natural cloning.
(taken from http://www.i-am-pregnant.com/images/identicaltwins.jpg)
Single celled organisms have been reproducing for many years by using asexual reproduction, through splitting, or dividing some types of single celled organisms are protozoa and other types of germs and disease, producing clones exactly like them
This is an example of asexual reproduction, which is when a cell is able to grow big enough to split or divide to produce an exact clone.
Plants are also able to reproduce asexually through a process called vegetative propagation, which is when a stem or root produces an exact replica of it’s self, being a clone. As well as vegetative propagation, there are many other different ways plants produce clones of them selves, some maybe done by reproducing underground, such as some of our food sources for example onions and potatoes. Theses plants can be produced by off shots, which is when the plant produces a clone of and releases it next to it self. This gives us ideas of how successful cloning will be, and how it has been produced in the past and possible ways it may be produced in the future.
How are clones created?
As in the page above you should now know that there are different types of cloning, natural and unnatural.
Natural cloning is the process done by some animals and some plants; however scientists have generated new techniques to clone people to make our lives more efficient, by getting rid of some of our faulty genes perhaps and inherited disorders, and other problems.
Clones are created when two organisms are genetically identical to one another, however in natural cloning both organisms are produced from an fertilised cell or by a single celled creature. In cloning done by scientists the fertilised egg is substituted with a donor body cell.
The process is done by obtaining a donor cell, which is then turned into an embryo through a process of taking out a nucleus of an egg cell and then fussing it. Firstly, an egg cell is taken from the required animal, then the nucleus is taken from the egg cell, called an enucleated, a body cell is taken from the donor, which is then effused together with the egg cell and the body cell nucleus, it is then stimulated and put into a womb which then grows into an embryo. We can use this process to develop other clones of people and use it as a modified medicine in the future.
Unnatural cloning
Unnatural cloning is, when cloning does not occur naturally but it man made process as the scientist and doctor use a certain method to produce clones for certain purposes or for a certain reason. Unnatural cloning is the way we use cloning for our benefits and welfare, it can also be used in the future for other medical techniques. Unnatural has many reimbursement attached it giving us the opportunity to modify, create new ways of improving human medicine and removing faulty genes that many cause further damage to the body or disease.
Is cloning unnatural
Well as you may already know there are different types of cloning, such as natural and unnatural cloning that takes place, however, when we are talking about, clones done for certain purposes, here is a question that constantly appears as we are left with the question of cloning being unnatural?
Well I believe that cloning is not an unnatural process as, cloning has been carried out long ago with out any human consent and has been a regular occurrence, moreover we have been producing clones with out having it in mind as all identical twins are clones of one another. But it can be argued that cloning is unnatural as, certain types of cloning, such as cloning for medical needs may be questioned. People may believe that there are some ethnical issues or dilemma’s involved, causing some to protest.
These different views cause arguments to vary to either one side or the other.
However many argue that cloning is unnatural, and it should not be done, as some clones are just produced for the embryonic stem cells.
Many religious people have different views on cloning thinking that it is just wrong; they believe there are many ethnical dilemmas with making clones. The religious beliefs cause many to go against the fact of cloning becoming a future medicine.
Some religious perspectives of cloning are they believe that each human was made especially in God's image. When cloning another person, they are being made in that person's image, not in God's. This is what many Roman Catholics believe. Others have: mixed views, similar ideas and totally opposite concepts. Some Islamic people believe that it is can be good and bad in different situations, there should be no limits to research because God gave us the knowledge to do it.
These are the some beliefs of some religious varying from different religious ideas of cloning as this there are other, beliefs from adults, scientists and many more expressing their opinions.
On the other hand you many believe every scientist would be more all less for cloning, well you more or less right. Positive views accompanying, their backgrounds for cloning was made by Embryologist Dr Ian Wilmut, as he believes that cloning is a great way to as referred to genetics study and can enable further research on new disease, believing that cloning is an ideal method. Well as Dr Ian Wilmut, many other doctors believe cloning is a step forward to human medicine as in future faulty genes can be replaced without the doubt of them being rejected, as well as the above many scientists have been trying to find out ways of creating clones.
There are many debates going for and against cloning, which out weights the pros and cons of cloning, some of which are:
Pros
- Cloning will improve the overall quality of science and life.
- Cloning might produce a greater understanding of the causes of miscarriages.
- Cloning experience may add to the increased understanding of genetics.
- Cloning could be used for the parents who risk passing a genetic defect to a child.
- Damage to the nervous system could be treated through cloning.
- Cloning will allow a woman to have one set of identical twins
Cons
- Those that do not agree with cloning feel that is an affront to religious societies.
- Cloning may reduce genetic variabity.
- Cloning may cause people to settle for the best existing animals.
- Cloning is currently an expensive process.
- There is a risk of disease transfer.
- Any research into human cloning would eventually need to be tested on humans.
- Cloning might be used to create a “perfect human”.
- Cloning might have a detrimental effect family relationship.
However the debate over cloning has more pros out weighting the cons, giving us a over site of the many advantages cloning has and the effects of it as well.
Cloning has many ups and downs nevertheless there are many different ways in which it can be used to adapt and analyse new ways of medicine.
Dolly the Sheep:
Dolly the sheep was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, and successfully. Dolly was born on 5 July 1996 at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh.
She was cloned by scientists replaced the nucleus of the egg cell with the nucleus from the parent cell - in Dolly's case, an udder cell. Somehow, the egg cell reprogrammed the donated DNA contained within its new nucleus, and Dolly was the result.
The different types of cloning:
There are many different types of cloning but the two main types are reproductive and therapeutic cloning.
Reproductive cloning is the process of making natural humans being for example, twins as it is done for the purpose of making human beings. Reproductive cloning has a great effect on future cloning as, demonstrates ways of how we can adapt ideas of easier methods of cloning plus it also helps us analyse and research on the key accepts
Therapeutic cloning is when; a clone is created for a particular need or purpose. Therapeutic cloning is again a great adaptation create to help future medicine and understanding, helping us to reduce the risk of diseases caused by faulty genes.
These two are also examples of natural and unnatural cloning as, reproductive clones produce twins, and therapeutic cloning is when scientist use it for medicine and to improve human living quality.
How is cloning used?
Cloning has many various uses, as it can benefit us in many ways, with our ever expanding medical. Some examples of the numerous uses are:
- Using it to create identical clones, and then obtaining the stems cells and using them to correct faulty genes, with out the fear of the cells being rejected.
- Using it for selective breeding- for example plants that produce the nice and juicy strawberries can be cloned to produce more nice and juicy strawberries.
- For drug reduction as creating cloned you can get identical cells
- Medical research
- Reviving the extinct animals- like leopard, which are near extinction
- To replace, children that were very much loved but passed away
- For twins
As these there are many more which enable us to use this creation for many different uses, specified to our needs. Theses are all the ways in which cloning can and may be used in the future.
How are clones used today?
Clones have now been recognised by the public and has constantly, become the one of the main topics in the news as in ;“The Times” –Embryo with two mothers created. This is a topic related to that of cloning as in the article;
“A human embryo with two mothers and a father has been created for the first time by British scientists (Jack Malvern writes). The three- parents embryo, created by a team at Newcastle university, opens up the possibility of the short-circuiting genetic diseases by replacing faulty genes from one mother with healthy ones from another mother. It has been hailed as the first realistic hope of an effective treatment for 50 genetic conditions passed on through mitochondrial DNA-DNA clustered outside the nucleus in a cell. The diseases include forms of the muscular dystrophy, diabetes and epilepsy. Professor Doug Turnbull, who led the team, described the technique as a “mitochondria transplant”. Couples would use IVF treatment to create a fertilised egg, from which the nucleus would be removed after a few hours and implanted into a donor egg. The parents’ DNA remains in the nucleus but the DNA outside the nucleus would be from the donor mother. The child’s appearance is affected only by nuclear DNA.”
(this has been taken from “The Times” feb 5th)
This article is an example of cloning used for a particular purpose; it tells us about a mother who replaces most of her faulty genes with healthy ones.
This is one example of how cloning has been used recently.
Stem Cells:
Stem cells have the remarkable potential to change to any cell or organism that is needed, this is because stem cells are unspecialised cells.
Stem cells have become important to us, as they are great factors that enable us to improve our health and correct faulty genes, by using them replace some genes, as well as this there are many other important uses in cell based therapies, to repair other damaged cells with in the body, and loads more. Cloning can also be produced for the stem cells with in it allowing us to replaces faulty genes with eases.
Is cloning ethnically right?
Well as I have mentioned in above pages there are many different view on weather or not cloning is ethnically right, some saying it is good other say it’s not.
There is not a exact answer to weather or not they are ethically right it actually depends upon the persons opinion.
Conclusion
Overall cloning is a huge leap forward for man kind as it has many benefits that can be acquire by the one process furthering our medical knowledge allowing us to produce more efficient and effective medicines for our patients.
I do believe that one day cloning will become the thing of the future our future medicine!
Bibliography:
Some of the information was takes from:
- Newspaper “The Times”
- BBC News
- http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/
- scientific books (school text books)
- Picture
- Science museum (website)
