Although some scientists believe that human
cloning is only 10 or 20 years around the corner, the process would be
far more difficult than cloning a sheep. Researchers began by attempting
to fuse 277 adult sheep cells with an equal number of eggs. This yielded
only 29 embryos, which in turn resulted in only 10 pregnant sheep, only
one of which successfully made it to term and gave birth to Dolly.
There is some misunderstanding about what constitutes a clone. A human
clone would be the genetic identical twin, a generation or more younger,
. But because people are more than a product of their genes, a clone
would have its own personality, character, intelligence, and talents
exactly as identical twins do . Cloning would lend much support to an
age old debate of what determines the composition of Human Character ,
Environment or genetics
Adult DNA cloning:
(aka cell nuclear replacement) This technique produces a duplicate of an
existing animal. It has been used to clone a sheep, and other mammals.
The DNA from an embryo is removed and replaced with the DNA from an
adult animal. Then, the embryo is implanted in a womb and allowed to
develop into a new animal. It has not been tried on humans. It has the
potential of producing a twin of an existing person. (U.S.
Firm Clones Human Embryo for Cells)
Every cell in the body contains
the genetic code to theoretically create an exact clone of the
original body- except the sperm and egg. Our cells have been
programmed to perform limited functions. The other
functions are either dormant or turned off. Most scientists had
believed that such differentiated cells could not be
reprogrammed to be capable of behaving in the same fashion as as
a fertilized egg. In the case of the sheep "Dolly" a
cell was taken from the mammary tissue of a mature 6 year old
sheep while its DNA was in a dormant state. It was fused with a
sheep ovum with the nucleus removed. The cell was
stimulated with an electric pulse. Out of 277 attempts at cell
fusion, 29 began to divide. These were implanted in ewes. 13
became pregnant and one lamb- Dolly, was born.
Similar experiments on other species such as mice were
unsuccessful. There is debate as to why.
Scientists wondered whether Dolly would be fertile, such as in
the case of cross species breeding which produces invariably
infertile mules. As well some cloned frogs are also infertile.
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Therapeutic cloning: This
is a procedure that starts off like adult DNA cloning. However, the stem
cells are removed from the embryo with the intent of producing tissue or
a whole organ for transplant back into the person who supplied the DNA.
The embryo dies in the process. The goal of therapeutic cloning is to
produce a healthy copy of a sick person's tissue or organ for
transplant. This technique would be vastly superior to relying on organ
transplants from other people. The supply would be unlimited, so there
would be no waiting lists. The tissue or organ would have the sick
person's original DNA; no immunosuppressant drugs would need to be
taken.
Embryo cloning: This is a medical
technique which produces monozygotic (identical) twins or triplets. It
duplicates the process that nature uses to produce twins or triplets.
One or more cells are removed from a fertilized embryo and encouraged to
develop into one or more duplicate embryos. Twins or triplets are thus
formed, with identical DNA. This has been done for many years on various
species of animals; only very limited experimentation has been done on
humans. |
Links Dealing With The
Ethics of Cloning
Cornell News: Professor denounces human cloning
Commonweal: Human Cloning: Religious Responses.
Essays in support of human cloning.
Reason Online - Should Cloning be Banned?
Cloning Conference Opens Amid Debate, Controversy - CNN 8/8/01
CNN - Cloning technology progresses despite controversy 1/13/00
CNN - Embryo splitting caught in cloning controversy
6/25/97
Companies
& Institutions Involved in Cloning Research
Clonaid
"The First Human Cloning Company"
The Missyplicity Project
Attempting to Clone a Dog
Oregon Regional Primate
Research Center Where Rhesus monkeys have been cloned
from embryonic tissue
PPL Therapeutics
cloned pigs in 2000
The Roslin Institute
Where Dolly was cloned in 1996.
The Zavos Organization A
consortium striving to use reproductive cloning technology to allow
infertile couples to have a genetically related child.
Miscellaneous
Ewe Again? Cloning from Adult DNA March 1997 Science News Online
Human Genome Project Cloning Fact Sheet
Clones and Clones: Facts and Fantasies About Human Cloning
Future Perfect
The Clone Age: Adventures in the New World of Reproductive Technology
Flesh of My Flesh: The Ethics of Cloning Humans: A Reader
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