History of Cloning

Cloning is defined as the different processes for duplicating biological materials such as tissues and new life forms (“Cloning Fact Sheet” 2009). The cloning of human tissue should be allowed because the fields of medicine benefit from it; however, the full cloning of humans is a mockery of life because it creates a population of people who will not evolve or adapt to changes in the environment. Therefore, the government should financially support the research of therapeutic cloning while condemning the act of reproductive human cloning.

There is a major difference between therapeutic and reproductive cloning that sets them apart from one another. Therapeutic cloning is the creation of cloned stem cells in order to produce a genetic duplicate of an organ for a patient in need of a transplant (Robinson “Therapeutic…” 2000). Reproductive cloning is the use of science in order to create a complete duplicate of a living organism, either plant or animal. This copy would be genetically identical and would be a perfect duplicate of the original (“Cloning Fact Sheet” 2009).

Cloning has been attempted for over a century by many different biologists. The first known cloned animal was created in 1885 by a man named Hans Dreisch. He took the two celled embryo of a sea urchin and cut it into two separate cells. Both cells began reproducing and, after developing, created two identical clones (“Cloning - a short

historical timeline” 2010). This early reproductive cloning technique was like forcing the creation of twins through the separation of a blastula. Mister Dreisch did not intend to be the start of a new scientific study. He was simply a scientist who was studying genetics

and wished to prove that genetic material was not lost in the ...

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Schlesinger, Fay. "I've cloned a human: Astonishing claims of a doctor who 'has implanted embryos into four women' | Mail Online." Home | Mail Online. 22 Apr. 2009. Web. 19 Jan. 2010. .

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