Public awareness of Cloning

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  1. Introduction

Cloning could only happen in science fiction movies but now it seems like it is becoming a reality or is it? In this 21st century, anything is possible and this has been proven when the first man landed on the moon. Now there are talks of cloning going around and arousing suspicions in each persons mind. What is cloning? It is simply a term used when producing an identical of something but ‘what’ is the question. The discovery of DNA proved to be the ultimate discovery of all time as scientist has a better understanding of what we are.

  1. Background Information

Ever since the discovery of DNA or Deoxyribonucleic Acid, there had been amazing discoveries that had helped human race especially in the world of medicine and farmers in increasing the food production. Each year, scientists become more aware of what DNA is and how we inherit some characteristics from our parents. Then questions on possible cloning began to stir. Tests were carried out, experiments were done on animals and the results were both devastating and amazing.

First of all, what is DNA cloning? To different people it has different meaning. According to a website , DNA cloning is ‘the use of DNA manipulation procedures to produce multiple copies of a single gene or segment of DNA’.

1970’s was when animal cloning began and the animal that was usually tested on was mice. Of course the first few experiments should disastrous results as shown in diagram 1 below.

Diagram 1

However, after much further investigation Dr. Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute in Scotland had successfully cloned a sheep. ‘Dolly’, the name of the sheep brought new light and perhaps hopes to the new world. Of course, there were those who were sceptic of Dolly’s existence. After Dolly, 8 other species of animals were successfully cloned and now the question that is yet to be answered is are humans able to be cloned? Below are diagrams of those successful mammals to be cloned.

                   

 Diagram 2                Diagram 3                                          Diagram 4

   Dolly, the first cloned        Cc, the first cloned        Andi, the first cloned

         Sheep                                           kitten                  monkey

Diagram 5

Dolly and her surrogate mother

There had been theories that mice and humans are in common and that both of not clone able, which simply means they cannot be cloned. But after the success of cloning mice and sheep and other species of mammals, there is hope yet for human DNA cloning. The only thing that is stopping such a project is the question of morality and ethical as well as religiously. Is the world ready for such technology?

  1. Rael

There are a number of people out there who strongly agree and support of the idea cloning. Rael is an organisation set up for those believers of cloning. Here, there are talks of cloning should be legal and must be put into more research than any other projects going on in this world. Reason being humans are from outer space.

This organisation was founded by a French journalist named Rael. 13th December 1973, was the day that changed his life when he had an encounter with the ‘alien being’ from outer space. Shown below in diagram 6 is a rough image of what the ‘alien being’ looked like.

Diagram 6

The ‘alien being’ by the name Yahweh, spoke to him and had told him that humans were clones of themselves and it is them who had brought humans to earth. This was what they told Rael on that day,

“We were the ones who made all life on earth”

“You mistook us for gods”

“We were the origin of your main religions”

“Now that you are mature enough to understand this, we would like to enter official contact through an embassy”

- Yahweh,

  1. Procedure

The DNA is extracted from the person who wants to be cloned which is then inserted into an egg taken from an egg donor. The egg and cell are forced to fuse and giving an electric shock encourages cell division. This is then implanted into a surrogate mother until the clone is born. Diagram 7 below shows roughly what happens.

Diagram 7

Diagram 8

Diagram 9

  1. Types of DNA cloning

There are at least three types of cloning in which are shown in table 1 below:

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Table 1

Many countries forbid all these three types of cloning by law. However, there was some news of an Italian embryologist named Dr. Severino Antinori (in diagram 10 below) to have successfully initiated a pregnancy through reproductive cloning unfortunately no one can be absolutely sure that he had successfully did it.

                                                 

Diagram 10                                                                                 Diagram 11

Dr. Severino Antinori                                                         Dr. Brigitte Boisselier

Rumours did not stop there as Dr. Boisselier (shown in the above diagram) the chief executive of Clonaid revealed to the world the first ‘cloned’ baby was born on the 26th December 2002. This created suspicions ...

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