Since Dolly the sheep was cloned in 1997, hundreds of cloned animals have come to exist (such as pigs and cats). Sadly the range in the different species is limited. Attempts at cloning certain species (such as monkeys horses and digs) has been unsuccessful. This is because to method currently used is very traumatic. Improvements in cloning technology is necessary to make cloning in all species successful.
How to Clone People
This is the method currently being used to clone animal, and foetus. Sadly it is not viable in humans yet, but it is still the only method that is successful.
An egg is taken from a female human donor.
The nucleus is removed from the egg.
It is replaced by a donor cell from another person.
The egg and cell are fused together, using an electrical current or chemicals
The egg and cell are then implanted into a woman’s womb
The egg and cell start reproducing into an embryo as the current also stimulates cell division.
Although it has the egg from the female donor, the baby will be a twin of the cell donor. This is because they have all of their dna in the cell (all 46 instead of the 23 that sperm contain.)
Types of Human Cloning
There are three types of human cloning.
Therapeutic
Reproductive
Dna cloning
Therapeutic cloning is also sometimes known as ‘embryo cloning’. This is where embryos are cloned for use in research. The aim of this isn’t to create cloned people, but rather to gather stem cells so they can be used to study human development and help cure diseases.
Therapeutic cloning also contains only cloning parts of the body. This means that organs such as livers and kidneys can be cloned to be given to a patient in need of a transplant. Also the stem cells used to create these organs can come from the patient themselves. This means that the body cannot reject the transplant, as it contains their own dna.
Reproductive cloning is where whole humans are cloned to make new people. A few people in America have invested into this type of cloning, with a Christian cloning project called cloneaid. This programme is designed for people who are unfertile, or wish to make a copy of their dead relative. Although it is expensive, some people have still opted for this treatment instead of other reproductive techniques.
Dna cloning is cloning a whole dna strand. This way if there is a faulty gene, it can be replaced by a cloned, unfaulty gene (gene therapy).
Cloning used wrongly
A families daughter has passed away. The family has saved some of her dna in hopes of her becoming cloned. The cloning procedure is successful and they have another child, looking exactly the same as their daughter before.
What this family don’t realise is that although the child may look the same, it is infact very different. It won’t have the same abilities, the same fears or the same personality. Cloning is an external thing. A persons life experiences cannot be cloned, only the body.
Good example of cloning
A couple are infertile and wants children. The decide that they want a child who is genetically related to both of them. They undergo the cloning procedure and successfully have a child between them. Although all the child’s dna will match the fathers donor cell, the child will still be part of both the parents, as it grew in the mothers womb.
What society thinks of cloning
In feb 2001, time magazine found that;
90% felt that human cloning was a bad idea
67% felt that animal cloning was a bad idea
69% felt that human cloning would be against gods will
And yet 45% believe human cloning would be possible within the next 10 years.
There is a lot of controversy over the issue of if we clone humans or not.
Richard Nicholson of the British Bulletin of Medical Ethics , believes that cloning research will be ‘sowing the seeds of our destruction’
While Ann Northrop, a columnist for LGNY, believes that ‘this cloning has the potential of giving women complete control over reproduction… a stunning possibility that could, carried to its logical extreme, eliminate men altogether’.
