The Deficiencies of Artificial Cloning for Realistic Medical and Scientific Purposes
The Deficiencies of Artificial Cloning for Realistic Medical and Scientific Purposes
Have you ever had one of ‘those’ days? You know which ones; the days where there just aren’t enough hands to go around or enough time to finish everything that needs to be done. Those are the days that people tend to have that one fleeting thought: “If only there were two of me, I could relax while my clone does all the work!” But if they had the chance to try it, to have a clone, knowing all of the risks and consequences involved, would they go through with it? No, probably not, but the average person doesn’t think about what the repercussions of cloning themselves may be: repercussions that justify the outlawing of the cloning process. A clone, by definition, is an exact DNA copy of the original, such as an identical twin. However, scientists have created a process for artificially cloning called nuclear transfer. This process entails removing an egg from the carrier, removing the DNA from the egg and replacing it with a complete set of DNA from the donor source, and implanting the egg back into its host. After the gestation period, a clone is born. An artificial clone suffers from any disease that its predecessor has or had and also from a slew of problems that are common with cloning experiments. In fact, anyone could be surprised by the detrimental effects that the cloning process can have, for both the clone in question and for the mother as well. Although an artificial clone is an exact DNA replica, the creatures created through cloning are often weaker than the originals, and commonly suffer from a wide array of diseases and detrimental conditions, including pulmonary fibrosis, weakened immune systems and other birth or growth defects. Dolly the sheep, created by Professor Ian Wilmut, was the first mammal successfully cloned from and adult cell using nuclear transfer methods. (Foster, 10) As information has been gathered over the years and cloning has
Have you ever had one of ‘those’ days? You know which ones; the days where there just aren’t enough hands to go around or enough time to finish everything that needs to be done. Those are the days that people tend to have that one fleeting thought: “If only there were two of me, I could relax while my clone does all the work!” But if they had the chance to try it, to have a clone, knowing all of the risks and consequences involved, would they go through with it? No, probably not, but the average person doesn’t think about what the repercussions of cloning themselves may be: repercussions that justify the outlawing of the cloning process. A clone, by definition, is an exact DNA copy of the original, such as an identical twin. However, scientists have created a process for artificially cloning called nuclear transfer. This process entails removing an egg from the carrier, removing the DNA from the egg and replacing it with a complete set of DNA from the donor source, and implanting the egg back into its host. After the gestation period, a clone is born. An artificial clone suffers from any disease that its predecessor has or had and also from a slew of problems that are common with cloning experiments. In fact, anyone could be surprised by the detrimental effects that the cloning process can have, for both the clone in question and for the mother as well. Although an artificial clone is an exact DNA replica, the creatures created through cloning are often weaker than the originals, and commonly suffer from a wide array of diseases and detrimental conditions, including pulmonary fibrosis, weakened immune systems and other birth or growth defects. Dolly the sheep, created by Professor Ian Wilmut, was the first mammal successfully cloned from and adult cell using nuclear transfer methods. (Foster, 10) As information has been gathered over the years and cloning has