Bio-ethics and Cloning :: Biology Science Genetics Essays

Bio-ethics and CloningThe idea that humans might someday be cloned-created from a single somatic cadre without sexual reproduction-moved further away from science fiction and closer to a genuine scientific possibility on February 23, 1997. On that date, The Observer broke the intelligence operation that Ian Wilmut and his colleagues at the Roslin Institute announced the successful cloning of a sheep by a new technique that had never before been fully successful in mammals. The scientists from Roslin Institute of Edinburgh isolated differentiated somatic stalls of Finn Dorset sheep and fused them with unfertilized enucleated eggs. The fertilized eggs soon developed into embryos which were in turn transplanted into female sheep, where the lambs ar born naturally.1 The resulting fork out of the sheep, named Dolly, on July 5, 1996 appears to mark yet another milestone in our ability to control, refine, and amplify the forces of nature. Yet, the fact that Dollys paper just scrapes in to the top 10 scientific document published in 19972, showed that cloning was not a much credited technology in science. So why was there so much limelight on Dolly? If it were possible to clone a mammal, would the cloning of humans be next?Dollys arrival opened debate in fields where ethicist fear to go. Some scientists - including Ian Wilmut - dont support human cloning. Those in favor see it as another method in the growing pantheon of human reproductive technologies3. One queer prospect, vividly raised by Dolly, is the creation of a new individual catchingally identical to an existing (or previously existing) person - a delayed genetic twin. This prospect has been the source of the overwhelming public concern about such cloning. People have frequently expressed fears that the widespread practice of somatic cell nuclear transfer cloning would undermine social values by opening the door to a form of eugenics or by tempting to circumvent others as if they were objects instead of persons4.Ethicists and governments have thus far reach a consensus on a ban on all types of cloning of human beings. However, with confidential information Italian embryologist Severino Antinori researching intensely on human cloning5, and Richard Seeds expansion into Japan with future plans of human cloning6, should we wonder about the inevitable cloning of human beings?At present, companies are set up to embrace this new cloning technology. While Genetic Savings and Clone in Texas intends to clone pets and opens its doors for