CLONING......Blessing or a Curse

•  CLONING

What exactly is cloning?

Cloning is the creation of an organism that is an exact genetic copy  of another. This means that every single bit of DNA is the same  between the two! You might not believe it, but there are human clones among us right now. They weren't made in a lab, though: they're identical twins, created naturally. Below, we'll see how natural identical twins relate to modern cloning technologies

• FIRST CLONE

The possibility of human cloning, raised when Scottish scientists at Roslin Institute created 

the much-celebrated sheep "Dolly" , aroused worldwide interest and concern because of its 
scientific and ethical implications. 

CELEBRATED SHEEP "DOLLY"

The feat, cited by Science magazine as the breakthrough of 1997, also generated uncertainty over the meaning of "cloning" --an umbrella term traditionally used by scientists to describe different processes for duplicating biological material.

Although most Finn Dorset sheep live to be 11 to 12 years of age, postmortem examination of Dolly seemed to indicate that, other than her cancer and arthritis, she appeared to be quite normal. The unnamed sheep from which Dolly was cloned had died several  years prior to her creation. Dolly was a mother to six lambs, bred the old-fashioned way.

• Misconception #1: Instant Clones!

A common misconception is that a clone, if created, would magically appear at the same age as the original. This simply isn't true. You remember that cloning is an alternative way to create an embryo, not a full-grown individual. Therefore, that embryo, once created, must develop exactly the same way as would an embryo created by fertilizing an egg cell with a sperm cell. This will require a surrogate mother and ample time for the cloned embryo to grow and fully develop into an individual.

A common misconception is that a clone, if created, would magically appear at the same age as the original. This simply isn't true. You remember that cloning is an alternative way to create an embryo, not a full-grown individual.

Therefore, that embryo, once created, must develop exactly the same way as would an embryo created by fertilizing an egg cell with a sperm cell. This will require a surrogate mother and ample time for the cloned embryo to grow and fully develop into an individual.

• Misconception #2: Carbon Copies

Your beloved cat Frank has been a loyal companion for years. Recently, though, Frank is showing signs of old age, and you realize that your friend's days are numbered. You can't bear the thought of living without her, so you contact a biotechnology  company that advertises pet cloning services.For a fee, this company will clone Frank using DNA from a For example, do you know any identical twins? 

They are genetically the same, but do they really look and act exactly alike?

NOT EXACTLY THE SAME....

  

Therefore,there is only a slim chance that Frank #2 will closely resemble the Frank you know and love.

• ADVANTAGES OF CLONING

Among the advantages offered by cloning are the following:

1. The possibility of producing not a complete body but just an organ to save the life of a human being who requires the transplant of that organ.

2. The cloning of a complete human being whose bone marrow would help to save the life of his brother ill with leukemia. The transplant of bone marrow calls for a close biological link between the donor and the beneficiary, which in the case of cloning is really the closest possible relationship. 

In England there was a case where a woman felt obliged to conceive another child who could provide bone marrow for her only son who suffered from leukemia.

     

3. Cloning also allows the propagation of animals facing extinction and thus maintains ecological balance.

WHITE TIGER

4. Cloning permits a greater propagation of insects that help control plagues that damage agricultural products, thus reducing the use of insecticides and pesticides, improving the quality of human life and protecting the environment.

5. Cloning will also enable us to understand why nervous cells, unlike the others in the human body, don't multiply.

This is very important because if nerve cells could be multiplied it would be eventually possible, among other things, to enable paralyzed people, who have suffered the fracture of their spinal cord, to walk again.

6. Cloning will also make it possible to have children with the characteristics of one parent, in the case where the other suffers from a serious genetic illness that has not yet been cured.

7. James Watson, the 1971 Nobel prizewinner, who was rewarded for having discovered the structure of the hereditary material, has said that for the solution of the world's problems which are more complicated each day, we urgently need copies of those persons who were truly extraordinary.

• DISADVANTAGE OF CLONING

1. In June 1998, president Clinton publicly condemned human cloning. He opined that ‘any discovery that touches upon human creation is not simply a matter of scientific inquiry.

2. It is a matter of morality and spirituality as well. Each human life is unique, born of a miracle that reaches beyond laboratory science.’When did president Clinton condemn human cloning so resolutely? What are the  reasons lurking behind actually? Let us start discussing the reasons of opposing cloning deeply.

3.The uncertainty of science technology

Science and technology cannot solve everything. What if we allow to human cloning? Have we ever thought of the results of that? Will the results be controllable? Even scientists cannot promise they can. Obviously, there are some potential crises lurking behind. 

PROCESS OF HUMAN CLONING AS DESCRIBED BY SCIENTIST

Of course, these kinds of uncertainty are not reasonable to stop all the developments of science and technology. But we believer that we should ban such extreme cases (such as human cloning) as long as they have potential in damaging humans’ future.

• CLONING IS PLAYING GOD

The clergymen opined human cloning is playing the role of god. Bishop of Catholic Albert  Moraczewski mentioned that the power that God gives humans is over the fish, the birds, and all animals, domestic and wild, large and small.  

ACCORDING TO SOME SCIENTIST CLONING IS AGAINST THE  GOD

Adam and Eve have all the power, except they cannot eat the fruit of the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad. If they do so, they will die. So, Albert Moraczewski believes that human cloning is out of the God’s permission. There is no evidence that proves humans have the right to change God’s will.

• WHAT ANIMAL ARE BEEN CLONED?

         Scientists have been cloning animals for many years. In 1952, the           first animal, a tadpole, was cloned.

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  TADPOLE
  

  Before the creation of Dolly, the first mammal cloned from the cell of an adult animal, clones were created from embryonic cells. Since Dolly, researchers have cloned a number of large and small animals including sheep, goats, cows, mice, pigs, cats, rabbits, and a gaur.  

All these clones were created using nuclear transfer technology. Hundreds of cloned animals exist today, but the number of different species is limited. Attempts at cloning certain species have been unsuccessful.

• WHAT ARE RISK IN CLONING ?

Reproductive cloning is expensive and highly inefficient. More than 90% of cloning attempts fail to produce viable offspring. In addition to low success rates, cloned animals tend to have more compromised immune function and higher rates of infection, tumor growth, and other disorders. Japanese studies have shown that cloned mice live in poor health and die early. About a third of the cloned calves born alive have died young, and many of them were abnormally large.

 Many cloned animals have not lived long enough to generate good data about how clones age. Appearing healthy at a young age unfortunately is not a good indicator of long-term survival. Clones have been known to die mysteriously.For example, Australia's first cloned sheep appeared healthy and energetic on the day she died, and the results from her autopsy failed to determine                                        a cause of death.