Somatic cell nuclear transfer produces the same result as artificial embryo twinning, yet it is a different way of cloning. First scientist isolate and egg cell and remove its nucleus. Then they isolate a somatic cell ( a cell in the body that is not the reproductive cell.) and transfer its nucleus into the egg cell. Then using electromagnetic pulses, the egg cell acts like a zygote and is placed in a surrogate mother. The famous cloned sheep, Dolly, was cloned this way.
There are two main cloning types; therapeutic and reproductive cloning. Reproductive cloning is used to make a genetic copy of an already existing animal. This is the more well known of the two types using somatic cell nuclear transfer. Therapeutic cloning is the production of human embryos for research. Unlike reproductive cloning the purpose is not to clone a life form in another life form but to harvest stem cells that develop knowledge or organs that can help cure diseases. Therapeutic cloning can be used to make organs but not a life. Stem cell research is learning about how an organism develops from a single cell and how healthy cells replace damaged cells in adult organisms. Stem cells can be used to harvest organs just like therapeutic cloning. Though there are many benefits present in cloning, especially therapeutically, there are dangers and cloning raises ethical concerns.
One of the benefits of cloning is that it could save lives. Therapeutic cloning can give people who need a kidney or a heart transplant the kidney or heart they need. Usually the body does not accept an organ form a donor, yet these organs would be your own organs, harvested by therapeutic cloning and your body would accept this organ and make organs more easily available to those who need them. The problem with this is you still need to create a zygote which is alive. Can you kill this living thing in order to make a organ that could save your life? Some say yes, others say no. Some believe it is “playing god” to make an artificial life. Others want to make a genetic copy of a celebrity or someone they loved but don’t realize that they are only genetically similar. This could create a high expectation of a clone to act as their gene donor did. Though there have been many attempts to clone life, most of the attempts did not work and ones that do actually live, like Dolly, suffered premature illnesses and died much younger than would be expected of a normal animal.
Though there are many risks to cloning I think therapeutic cloning and stem cell research should be allowed. The zygotes made for this research would be just that. Made for research. They could save lives of many loved ones. In the case of reproductive cloning, I am not so sure if it should be allowed to continue or not. It is not only very interesting but very exciting and could be tolerated an extent. I think animals should be allowed to be cloned. This way individuality is not taken from humans and we can save genetic material from endangered species. Overall, I think cloning is an important step for society to take, medically and scientifically, yet mostly socially.
