Cloning of AnimalsOn Sunday, February 23, 1997, Scottish researchers broke one of nature’sgreatest laws by cloning a lamb from a single cell of an adult ewe. Thisbreakthrough opens the door to the possibility for the cloning of other mammalsincluding humans. This remarkable achievement is being looked at as a great advancement inanimal agriculture.
But this achievement could lead to ethical questions ofstandard. Researchers lead by Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute in Midlothian,Scotland, showed that a fully differentiated cell from the mammary tissue of anewe could be manipulated in such a way as to produce a genetically identicalcopy of the animal that the DNA was acquired. Scientist long believed that once a cell became differentiated, thatmost of its approximately 100,000 genes shut off. Only a few genes remainedactive to allow the cell to perform its specific function of life. All effortsto reactivate the shut-off genes have failed.
English researchers have came theclosest by teasing frog body cells to develop into tadpoles. The tadpoles,however, never matured into frogs. The Scottish researchers have failed many times with sheep cells beforetheir success, but the task was perfected and accomplished. Now thisaccomplishment has made it possible for the cloning of almost any mammal,including humans. To the average person, exactly how the technique works is unclear.
Scientist predicted that by making cells dormant and bringing them close todeath, something happens to break the chemical locks (barriers) that keep mostof the genes inactive. The mammary cell is inserted into an unfertilized sheepegg cell that has already had all of its own genetic material removed. Byfusing the cells together tricks the egg into thinking that it has becomefertilized. After being fused together, researchers believe that the chemicalmachinery inside the egg cell goes to work to reprogram the mammary cell genesinto starting over again, as if they were brought together as sperm and egg. The cell divides, produces an embryo, fetus and a newborn that is identical tothe animal from which it was cloned. Although the United States government prohibits government funds beingspent on human cloning research, and ethicists decry it, nevertheless, humancloning could be achieved, Neal First said.
First is a professor of animalbiotechnology and reproductive biology at the University of Wisconsin. Overall, there is no apparent reason to clone humans. A duplicate bodydoes not mean a duplicated mind. The clone’s brain would be far different, forthe clone would have to learn everything from its own experiences. Is cloning ahuman ethical’should we try to clone humans?I believe that nature will clone what it wants to clone.
Researchersshould be careful for we no nothing of the stability of any animal that iscloned by scientist. We don’t know if that animal will be dominant over theanimal from which it was clone or if it will turn hostile. From my point ofview having a “clone” is not all it is cracked up to be.
