What is cloning and what dangers can it create? Click on this article to learn more!
The History of Cloning
In 1996, the birth of Dolly the sheep was a huge milestone for the scientific world. Dolly was an exact clone who came from the adult cell of the mother - her only parent. After this sheep clone, scientists have been experimenting to push the boundaries of cloning organisms, including humans. Currently, there has been some success in the cloning of some animals, such as cattle, swine and goats. Despite the anticipation, nobody knows when there will be shocking news that humans have been successfully cloned.
Of course, due to the rapid growth of science and technology in the current day, scientists are too close to successfully cloning a human being. In 2014, scientists in South Korea and the United States announced that they had successfully cloned a human embryo, which, if it had been implanted into a surrogate mother, could have developed into a fetus.
Because of human cloning rising in the near future, it is a good idea for us to think carefully about cloning before people start to abuse it without recognizing the long-term dangers. It is still controversial among some people whether cloning is a good idea. The reason why many reject the idea of cloning is because of its difference from other known medical procedures.
How is an Organism ‘Cloned’?
Cloning is the process of producing genetically identical individuals. We are already familiar with how plants and bacteria can produce genetically identical offspring. Cloning can also naturally happen in humans, causing identical twins.
When scientists refer to cloning, however, they are often talking about artificial cloning. This is most commonly achieved via a process known as ‘somatic cell nuclear transfer’. In this procedure, scientists take the genetic code from one animal and place it into the egg cell of another. When the egg is implanted in a surrogate mother, it develops into a fetus that is genetically identical to the animal from which the genetic code was derived. This process was exactly what caused the birth of Dolly the sheep.
Figure 1: The cloning process that produced Dolly
The Pros and Cons of Cloning
Scientists want to explore cloning for several reasons. First of all, cloning has an important use in medical fields. Many animals are cloned to provide supplies for medicines to cure severe diseases. For example, genetically modified sheep are cloned to produce a protein called ‘alpha-1-antitrypsin’, which is used to treat conditions such as emphysema and cystic fibrosis. This cloning of sheep is what provides large amounts of protein that have the potential to save many lives. Furthermore, some people want to clone their pets so they can overcome the grief of their death. Scientists are now also trying to clone embryos to produce different parts of the body that can later be used for organ transplants. Organs produced by cloning seem to be the best way to solve the shortage of organ donors.
But there is one point to consider. Is it ethical to create human beings to save our own lives and then kill those humans later? Some scientists claim that cloning is beneficial because it can help people with fertility issues. However, cloning can only produce genetically identical offspring. In the case of animals, there are only some problems with cloning, such as an increased susceptibility to disease. So, what would occur if cloning was easily available to humans? The cost of this accessibility would be so massive that it could lead to human extinction. This is because cloning would reduce the diversity of our genetic makeup. As a result, people would become less and less ‘unique’, causing our survival to become greatly endangered.
Personal Opinion
While I believe that cloning might be somehow useful in the medical field, if we use it widely without knowing its danger, humanity will suffer massive consequences. I am almost certain that cloning would be a scary idea to those who have seen Hollywood movies warning of its dangers. Also, it is extremely frightening to have someone who has a similar appearance to me. Of course, human cloning is not happening right now, but we need to consider its impacts before these predictions could potentially become reality.
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