Answers to Common Questions on Cloning

 

Is cloning "unnatural"?

No, cloning is not unnatural; in fact some organisms can only reproduce through cloning. For instance, bacteria and yeast only reproduce through cloning. That's not all, some species of shrimp and snails reproduce through cloning also. Although nature's way of reproducing is through sexual intercourse, some species such as the aphid have been around for 30 million years reproducing solidly on nothing but cloning.

Is an identical twin essentially the same as a clone?

The only possible way for a clone to be essentially the same as an identical twin is if it was created inside the same womb and as it's clone. This is true because inside the womb of the mother many things happen that determine what the clone looks like. For instance, if the mother was an alcoholic, the child would experience the mother's body natural reaction to the alcohol, therefore deciding a part of the child's personality and appearance. Drugs and stress hormones also decide the baby's physical and mental appearance.

Could some lunatic clone Hitler if human cloning were perfected?

If cloning was perfected, yes some lunatic could clone Hitler. However there is a small problem. Most people think clones are identical to the person or animal who was cloned. That is not the case. When you clone someone you don't get an exact clone of that person. The clone will look surprisingly like the person who was cloned, and his/her IQ will be around the same range. However, that person is a living human being who might even follow the Jewish belief. The clone was created differently than the most people are. Also they would need some active (or living) cells extracted from Hitler's body. Hitler was buried and who knows what state his body is in now, so the option of cloning Hitler is impossible. However, even if Hitler had active cells the events that occur inside the womb of the mother would further decide the personality and appearance of the child.

Could Clones be "farmed" to provide spare body parts for their "parent" clone without problems of tissue rejection?

It is possible to farm clones, but scientists don't know yet if tissue rejection would not be a problem. Not enough research has been conducted in order to know that tissue rejection would be eliminated entirely. There is also the fact that the recipient would have to wait until the clone's organs were mature enough for them to work inside the recipient's body. There is also the fact that it is highly illegal for you to farm clones because they are living people. THEY HAVE RIGHTS TOO.

Would a clone have a soul?

People say that identical twins have souls, and all different types of "test tube babies" are believed to have a soul, then the only conclusion can be that a clone has a soul also. Like I said earlier, a clone is a living, breathing person and it would be unethical to think that a clone didn't have a soul.

Could people be cloned without conscious brains, (so their body parts could be harvested with fewer moral qualms)?

NO. Consciousness doesn't reside anywhere inside of the brain. Meaning it would be impossible to remove the consciousness from the brain. Not to mention that it would morally dubious to surgically extract consciousness.

Could vital organs be grown using cloning without the rest of the body?

It might be possible in future years but no one right now is even close to knowing how to. However, thanks to the amazing breakthrough of cloning through Dolly, it is quite possible that one day we'll be able to grow organs without the rest of the body, but right now no one knows.

Could cloning be used to create "super warriors" or super-intelligent people?

Again it is possible that we could, but still we don't know enough about genetics in order to do any improving on humans right now. So far, the man uses of improving humans through cloning is concentrating on genetic diseases and curing them. This is not exactly genetic improvement in itself, but it does help scientists gain many needed discoveries.http://www.newscientist.com/nsplus/insight/clone/clone.html

Why we should use cloning

http://cloning.tripod.com/intro.htm A huge reason for using cloning would be the amount of awesome research that could be used in the pure study of cloning. The amount of research that could be done on embryology would be quite extensive. Also, the agricultural demand for livestock could easily be met through the use of cloning as nuclear transfer improves. Currently we are producing livestock by literally "bombarding embryos of livestock with genes that produce livestock with preferred traits", http://cloning.tripod.com/intro.htm .However this process of cloning livestock is not very effective because only 5 percent of the offspring produce livestock with the wanted traits. However, all hope is not lost, scientists can easily alter the genetic material of and adult cell and thus making it easier for the clone to receive the traits wanted.

Scientists are also considering the idea of cloning extinct species to increase their population; bringing them back into the "safe" area of extinction. Nuclear transfer could help couples who want to have children but are unable to have children due to disabilities in the reproductive areas of the couple. Also women who are single could have children through the use of nuclear transfer. All and all the possibilities of cloning are endless and many of those possibilities could lead to vast improvement of the human race.

Why should we not use cloning

http://cloning.tripod.com/intro.htm "A major problem with the use of cloning on a large scale is the decline in genetic diversity, and decline in gene pool." Just imagine for a second, everybody looking a lot like the person standing right next him, everybody with about the same brain capacity. Some people say that our individuality is what makes us so special, and if everyone was cloned from someone else that individuality would be lost. Furthermore, if we somehow lost the ability to clone people would have to inbreed, which would cause major problems in the gene pool possibly leading to global chaos in the human gene pool.

Although everybody says that cloning endangered species will help them from being endangered this is not the case. Currently zoologists and environmentalists trying to save endangered species aren't really having trouble keeping the population numbers up. They're having difficulties finding animals to breed with each other that aren't cousins. Cloning would not help this dilemma since the clone in essentiality would be a cousin to the animal it was cloned from. Not to mention that nuclear transfer is still in it's infant stages. It took 277 tries to produce Dolly and Roslin scientists had produced many lambs with abnormalities. There is also a great risk if we do go ahead and clone endangered species. It's "possible that we could kill the last females integral to the survival of a species." http://cloning.tripod.com/intro.htm This is most likely the reason that scientists are holding back from cloning endangered species.

Other arguments concerning cloning include that we might be taking nature in to our own hand by cloning animals and people. "Some people are questioning when we draw the line for getting involved in natural events." http://cloning.tripod.com/intro.htm Many religious organizations are arguing that cloning will make men reproductively obsolete. This claim came from research that cloning requires only oocytes, any cell, and a woman to develop in. The organizations are also claiming that this process is not respecting the fact that humans have souls. You should know by now clones do have souls so technically they are correct. The religious groups also consider cloning to be unnatural because they believe that god should be in control of all reproduction.

Currently there is debate to whether or not clones have moral rights or not. Some people say that they don't because they aren't granted the birth of newness. "That we not receive the clones with such excitement as a child of a couple who conceived naturally. If natural reproduction were to occur then genetic variation would occur." Those people who are debating this say cloning would deprive a person of uniqueness. "They also argue that identical twins are not unique from each other but they are new in genetic variation and unique from anything that came before them."

How was Dolly cloned?

http://www.pathfinder.com/TIME/cloning/cloning.htmlFirst of all, Dr. Ian Wilmut was the lead scientist of the team of scientists who created Dolly. The method Dr. Ian Wilmut used is called Nuclear Transfer. I know you're thinking, "they used nuclear energy" to create Dolly but they didn't. The reason it is called Nuclear Transfer is because the transferred the nucleus where the DNA is held, thus where the genetic information is coded. The first step to Nuclear Transfer is to first find something you want to clone. Dr. Ian Wilmut and his didnصt even go that far. All they did was just take cells from a six-year-old Finn Dorset ewe. (Adult female sheep.) This Finn Dorset died ironically before Dolly was born. The next step is to get an oocyte, and the nucleus (or DNA) so that the donor DNA can be added. The oocyte then becomes enucleated because it is now without a nucleus. Then Wilmut and his Colleagues took the enucleated oocyte and fused it together with the donor cell. Wilmut and his team did this by bringing them together in a petri dish and subjecting them to an electric current. They enucleated oocyte and the donor cells are now fused together and are one cell as a sort of zygote. "The cell now has the same genetic information as an egg fertilized the old fashioned way." Scientists believe that the current cell now stimulates the zygote to develop just like a sperm would. Then during the next week or so the cell grows and divides in a laboratory culture dish. The fused cell then forms an early embryo. The embryo is called a blastocyst. Wilmut and his team then implanted the now blastocyst into the surrogate mother. Five months later if everything has occurred correctly the surrogate mother will give birth. This process sounds extremely simple but if you don't already know Dolly was the only lamb ever born from fusion of oocytes with mammary cells. It took this process of fusion 277 attempts between oocytes and mammary cells to make Dolly.

Clones Aren't Exact Copies

http://www.afgen.com/cloning.html Clones are a genetically identical twin a couple of generations younger than the donor who provided the nucleus. Like I've mentioned earlier in this article people are more than just genes. A clone is a person. Being a person it has it's own personality its own intelligence, its own talents. Just pretend that a clone is like an identical twin. Although those two twins are very much alike they have their own personality one could be a brat and the other some type of angel. One could have an intelligence of 150, and the other an intelligence of 50. One could be the best soccer player in the world, and the other football and best chess player. Some people today think that when you clone someone you're cloning somebody's mind, brain, and their body. The reality is you cannot clone somebody's mind, you cannot clone somebody's personality and you cannot clone somebody's exact body. In fact you can't even clone somebody who's deceased.