The Amazing Facts of Cloning

         

            Author’s note: This is about cloning. The purpose is to teach you about the facts of cloning and what has happened in the history of cloning.

            Have you ever wondered about the information of cloning? Cloning has been leaving us in confusion for a long time. There are three types of cloning. One of them is called reproductive cloning. That means that you make someone look and might act just like you. It’s never been done on humans though. Today I’m going to tell you about the meaning and the information about cloning. Cloning has a lot of information and it has a cool history too.

            To start my journey, have you ever taken the time to actually ask yourself, “What is cloning”? “There are different types of cloning however, and cloning technologies can be used for other purposes besides producing the genetic twin of another organism” (Cloning Fact Sheet). They are basically saying that with the technology we have, you can get cloned. As I said before, cloning is when you have somebody that looks like you and acts like you. Cloning is basically having an identical twin. “The following three types of cloning technologies will be discussed: (1) recombinant DNA technology or DNA cloning, (2) reproductive cloning, and (3) therapeutic cloning” (Cloning Fact Sheet).  I already described reproducting cloning which is making a twin of yourself. Recombinant cloning means that you take some DNA and add to the baby of a host. Finally, therapeutic cloning means to treat diseases.

            Another interesting fact is that cloning is acuatly quite diffucult. “The most common cloning method, known as "somatic cell nuclear transfer" or simply "nuclear transfer," requires two kinds of cell.  One is a somatic cell, which is collected from the animal that is to be cloned (known as the "genetic donor")” (Batra). Now unless you are a science teacher, you probably don’t know what somatic cell nuclear transfer is, or what a somatic and the egg cell. The somatic cell is any other cell than the sperm cell or egg cell. An egg cell is taken from the same species that the somatic cell was taken from. The egg cell is taken from a female species. After that the somatic cell is then put mixed with the egg cell and is put in the female species. Finally the baby will look like the female species.

            On the other hand, where and when has cloning actually occurred? There have been multiple clones. The animals that have been are snakes, mice, and much more. The most popular clone was Dolly the sheep. “Dolly, the first mammal to be cloned from adult DNA, was put down by lethal injection Feb. 14, 2003. Prior to her death, Dolly had been suffering from lung cancer and crippling arthritis” (Cloning Fact Sheet). Dolly was an excellent clone, or was she? She was the first mammal to be cloned. Although the day she died, she was in perfect condition the day she died not including the lung cancer and crippling arthritis.

            Most research has shown that the advantages, it makes it sound really good. Also this is very beneficial with scientists because they can use the research and expand it. As I said before, one of the greatest advantages is the Dolly the sheep. “The possibility of human cloning, raised when Scottish scientists at Roslin Institute created the much-celebrated sheep "Dolly" (Nature 385, 810-13, 1997), aroused worldwide interest and concern because of its scientific and ethical implications”  (Cloning Fact Sheet). The other advantage is that we can see if it would be safe to clone people. Cloning has approved in history by a long shot.

            Some might argue that the disadvantages make cloning sound really evil though. “More than 100 nuclear transfer procedures could be required to produce one viable clone. In addition to low success rates, cloned animals tend to have more compromised immune function and higher rates of infection, tumor growth, and other disorders”  (Cloning Fact Sheet). Also one interesting fact that is a disadvantage is that the day a clone dies, it is normal at the beginning of the day. So if people were cloned, we wouldn’t know how to stop their death. Since cloning is a very high risk and cloning is very expensive, it is not worth cloning at all.

            It is clear that cloning leaves us in many questions. Cloning in my opinion is that we should do it. We should try something new and reach the limits. If you were cloned as a really good basketball player, all you would have to do is grow up and be amazing at basketball. The only disadvantage is that it wouldn’t be you, but other than that it would be cool to be cloned. Also this topic is controversial because I think a lot of scientists would fight against cloning or not for our health. Cloning is very exciting to learn and its history is interesting.  

Bibliography

Batra, Karen. Process of Cloning. 2008. Tuesday April 2012 <http://www.clonesafety.org/cloning/facts/process/>.

Cloning Fact Sheet. Monday May 2009. Tuesday April 2012 <http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/cloning.shtml>.