The Pros and Cons of Cloning

Introduction

The idea of cloning has been around for a while, but the thought of it becoming a reality is surprisingly new. Cloning has been all over the papers and the news lately, mostly caused by the death of possibly the world’s most famous animal behind Lassie, Ian Wilmut’s cloned sheep, Dolly.

In 1880, a man named Walter Sutton made one of the most important discoveries towards cloning- he proved that chromosomes hold genetic information. This discovery allowed us to get to where we are in the world of cloning today.

Research Facts

Farmers started cloning plants thousands of years ago in simple ways, such as taking a cutting of a plant and letting it root to make another plant. Early farmers also devised breeding techniques to reproduce plants with such characteristics as faster growth, larger seeds, or sweeter fruits. They combined these breeding techniques with cloning to produce many plants with desired traits. These early forms of cloning and breeding were slow and sometimes unpredictable. However, the scientific cloning history really began in 1902, when Hans Spemann divided a salamander embryo in two, showing that early embryo cells retain all the genetic information necessary to create a new organism. Later, Spemann also performed the first nuclear transfer experiment, and ten years later, the German scientist proposed a "fantastic experiment;" to transfer one cell's nucleus into an egg without a nucleus, the basic method that would eventually be used in cloning.

Many years later, Neal First produced genetic copies of calves from embryos. They grew to about 120 cells. A year later, scientist Ian Wilmut copied First’s experiment with separate cells from sheep, but put the embryo cells into an inactive state before transferring their nuclei to sheep eggs. The eggs developed into normal lambs. Wilmut’s cloned sheep, Dolly, was born a year later in 1996, but was not announced until 1997. Sadly, Dolly the sheep was put to sleep on February 14th, 2003 after developing progressive lung disease.

Anti-cloning critics argue that the science of cloning is in its infancy and, mistakes may be made along the way. This could result in the development of cloned animals or humans with serious defects. Others fear that cloning tampers with God’s will. Supporters of human cloning argue that without proper regulation, cloning could result in such questionable practices as designing babies with chosen genetic qualities so that they are more athletic, beautiful, or intelligent.