For some reason, the first thing I think of when I think science is cloning. The concept of cloning can be controversial, yet an extremely interesting and kind of exciting idea. The thought of creating someone exactly like yourself in every way is super intriguing. So I was wondering, is it actually possible to clone oneself?
According to Cloning for Dummies, a clone is a cell, group of cells, organ, or a whole organism produced by asexual reproduction whose genetic information is identical to the parent cell or organism. Cloning has always been thought about and studied by scientists, but recent major developments in technology have brought the study to levels it has never been before.
In 1984, the first successful cloning of mammals was reported. Scientists in both Switzerland and the United States were able to successfully clone mice. Twelve years later, a whole sheep named “Dolly” was cloned. Dolly lived seven years until she died due to lung cancer and arthritis. Dolly brought to numerous scientists a greater interest in the cloning of human beings.
Although it can be a controversy due to ethical issues, the first human embryos were cloned in 1993. They were fertilized in tubes and to be planted into the wombs of women who were unable to become pregnant. Unfortunately, none of these eggs were able to develop enough to be transplanted into a human uterus.
According to livescience, to clone an animal it’s required that researchers remove the nucleus of an egg cell. When they do this, it also removes essential proteins to help cells divide, which has caused many experiments to fail. The extremely high rate of death and risk makes cloning people unethical.
In conclusion, scientists have proved in recent years that cloning human embryos is possible; however, major accomplishments in successfully cloning a whole human being haven’t been reported yet. Numerous scientists report that they’re confident within the next couple years that human cloning will be fully possible.
Work Cited:
“Cloning for Dummies: Introduction.” Cloning for Dummies: Introduction. Tripod.com, n.d. Web. 09 Sept. 2014.
Rettner, Rachael. “Could Humans Be Cloned?” LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 16 May 2013. Web. 09 Sept. 2014.
The idea of cloning is kind of scary and I’m not exactly sure my stance on it but I do think that positive things could be done with clones. I haven’t thought too far into this matter so no one jump on my throat here, but they could be used for positive medical purposes such as organ transplants or medical studies. As we’ve said before in this class, it’s hard to do studies on humans. So, could clones be the solution? I know in some TV shows the idea of regeneration is already happening a lot but I’m not really sure about the medical world and how it would be received by the general population.