The Very Real Technology of Cloning

The Very Real Technology of Cloning

By: Austin Witthun

Author’s Note: This is a 5-paragraph essay about the process of cloning and facts about clones.

Have you ever wondered about cloning? Or what it would be like to have a clone of yourself that could do all of the work that you don’t want to do? Well cloning may seem like science-fiction, but with today’s technology, it is very real. The definition of a clone is: “Cloning is the creation of an organism that is an exact genetic copy of another” (What is Cloning ). This basically says that a clone is the product of cloning which is a copy of a living thing which could be a variety of things from a stem cell to an animal.

Because in our science unit we have been studying cells, I will talk about the cloning of cells first. When you clone cells, the process of cloning is called SCNT which stands for somatic cell nuclear transfer is also called therapeutic cloning. To do this you would take any kind of cell except for the two reproductive cells (somatic cell), and remove the nucleus from that somatic cell, transfer it to an egg cell which it then is like a fertilized egg and, it is then transferred to a surrogate mother. This is how they cloned Dolly the sheep.

Many people argue about the advantages and disadvantages of cloning. First I will talk about the pros. There are an incredible amount of uses for cloning! One of them is that if tissues are damaged, a clone of that tissue could be able to replace it. If a stem cell is diseased a clone of that cell could replace it too. We could clone cells and study them to see how diseases affect that cell.

On the other hand there is a bad side to cloning. One of the cons is that after a cell is multiplied about 60 times, it begins to mutate and cause cancer. Also, when animals have been cloned in the past, they have been born with deformities and problems. They have been born prematurely and have an extremely short lifespan. Some organs including the heart, brain and, liver have had problems or are not the right size (Cloning ). The limbs of the animals have been either deformed or the animals cannot control them right.

Like I said in the previous paragraphs, there are many up sides and down sides to cloning. It is a very controversial topic. However it seems that the controversy is over the cloning of humans and animals. Some religious groups say that it violates personal freedom. One of the main points of others who say that it is a waste of time say this because the beginning process is very inefficient because not all experiments survive and then like I said before they have a short lifespan.

To sum this all up I will include my opinion. I believe that cloning (as far as current technologies go) is something that we maybe should try to improve but not perform on humans. This is mainly because of how not many experiments survive but also because of the probability that it will have major defects in its body. Also because cows, mice and, sheep have been cloned, we have no idea about how cloning could affect the mental state of a person which is more important than that in a mouse or something. But as far as cloning cells for research and transplants and things like that, I see no harm but I suppose that if the same cell was not cloned anywhere close to what I am now calling the envelope (60 cycles) and they don’t mutate then I think that that is an excellent idea. These are facts about cloning that I hope have given you a better understanding about cloning

Bibliography

"Cloning ." 1 july 2011. genome.gov . 18 april 2012 .

"What is Cloning ." 2012. learn.genetics . 18 april 2012 .

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