Pros And Cons?: What Is Cloning?

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What Is Cloning?
Cloning can be defined as creating an exact copy of genetic material located in an organism. (Dictionary.com) Though cloning has been going on for over a hundred years, the cloning of mammals has always been a topic of debate. The process of cloning can be difficult to do, and is easier said than done. There are a good amount of situations that have resulted in successful clones of the original mammal, but the most popular and the first example would be Dolly the Sheep. The researchers that made Dolly used a method called Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer. To make Dolly, the researchers took a somatic cell from an adult female sheep and then removed DNA and the nucleus of an egg cell. Next, the somatic cell's nucleus was transferred …show more content…

Firstly, the success rate of cloning is less than 2 percent. (Cloning Fact Sheet) The few that survive barely make it to adulthood or even birth. Cloned animals tend to have more birth defects, or have other problems like a weak immune system, lung problems, and liver problems. (Cloned Cows Drop Like Flies) This causes death at an early age. Dolly the Sheep was made after 277 other failed attempts. She then died of a lung disease after 6 years. It is possible that the normalization of cloning could additionally cause a population to be wiped out quickly. The production of many clones can increase the risk of the population being the same. Since they would all be the same, they would be vulnerable to the same diseases. If one disease that affects one person is lethal, it would be lethal to most or all of the other members of the population. In spite of these cons, there are benefits to mammalian cloning. A popular benefit of cloning is referred to therapeutic cloning. (Human Cloning) This is the production of stem cells. This is beneficial because these stem cells can be used to replace damaged tissues or organs. Therapeutic cloning is done by transferring a diploid nucleus from a body cell into an egg whose nucleus has been removed previously. (Therapeutic

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