If people clone things there is always a question of who its parents are. Things could get a little confusing if more than one of the same person are around. The only ways to tell them apart would be from their personalities, and maybe their ages. Cloning would give little children problems with deciding which ones are their parents. Family problems is the major issue with cloning something. Cloning interferes with the beliefs of some religions. They would question whether or not God would put a soul into a body that has the same form and image, that someone has already taken.
My belief is that humans should not be cloned ever. This is because a human has a spirit and he/she should be treated with respect. Some people might take advantage of cloning technology, clone people and raise them as slaves. In some circumstances cloning could help society. For example; if someone owned a ranch and used the cattle to make beef, they could clone cows so their beef sales would go up, and it would be easier to support their families. The topic of cloning has been debated for years. I assume it will be argued much longer.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Cloning History
Cumulina was a mouse who was a clone. She was made on October third of the the year 1997. After this success, the scientists continued to clone the mouse that Cumulina came from. At the end of 1998 fifty mice had been made. In the end three generations of mice all relatively the same were born. The Honolulu Technique rate of the success was 1 in 50 tries. This was much better than the rate of the Roslin Institute, which was 1 success in 277
In the year 1986 two teams, (one working in England, the other team working in America,) cloned the first mammals. The team in England cloned a sheep, and the team in America cloned a cow. These successful clones led to a large increase of cloning technology. At times cloning can be awsome!!
In the year 1986 two teams, (one working in England, the other team working in America,) cloned the first mammals. The team in England cloned a sheep, and the team in America cloned a cow. These successful clones led to a large increase of cloning technology. At times cloning can be awsome!!
Monday, December 14, 2009
How Cloning Could Help
There are ways, in which we can look at cloning as good thing.
1) There are many endangered species on the earth today. If we were to clone some of them successfully, we could start a whole new line of that endangered species, which would make it so the species would be less endangered.
2) If populations start to shrink rapidly, we could clone different animals of this population to put the population at a better number. Visa verso, if the population had increased to a point where there was no room, we could use clones to dwindle the population.
1) There are many endangered species on the earth today. If we were to clone some of them successfully, we could start a whole new line of that endangered species, which would make it so the species would be less endangered.
2) If populations start to shrink rapidly, we could clone different animals of this population to put the population at a better number. Visa verso, if the population had increased to a point where there was no room, we could use clones to dwindle the population.
Dolly
Dolly is a clone of a sheep. Many times before Dolly, Scientists experimented with unicellular organisms. They succeeded almost every time. Because of their success, they decided to attempt to clone a mammal; sheep. They were able to clone the yew with much success. Dolly is the name they gave the clone. She was the first mammal clone in the history of the earth. Dolly now has a kid and is apparently happy. Dolly was successfully made! One of the disappointing factors of cloning things is that it would be easier to spread diseases. This is because clones will share their DNA with the person they are cloned from and along with DNA comes immunity systems. If the person who was cloned gets a disease, it is more likely for the clone to get it than any other person.
Misconceptions
*These are directly acquired from: http://library.thinkquest.org/C0122429/science/misconceptions.htm
Quote
"Misconception 1: Cloning can reawaken the dead
This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Well, a dead person is -- dead. There's no way to reawaken them (with the present technology. Maybe we could do it in the future, I can't tell). Even if we could produce a being with identical genes as the original, they are not the same. Also, in order to use the cloning by nuclear transfer technique (this is the only technique which can clone from adult tissues), we have to use living cells, and to fuse it with an oocyte. We cannot clone from mere DNA.
Misconception 2: A clone has the same mind as the original person
Somebody thinks that a clone would have the same personality and the same thinking with the one who provided the genes. This is simply not true. The personality and thinking of a person depends on his/her experiences. It is impossible to ensure that EVERYTHING the clone experienced is the same as the DNA donor. Therefore, the clone's thinking depends on what happened to him/her, and has no relationship with the DNA donor at all. Although genes and DNA can give some characteristics and personality and perhaps basic tendencies for a person to a certain extent, environmental factors play a much bigger role in creating who the person is and will be, and the personality, intelligence, thoughts and feelings. Every person is unique.
Misconception 3: A clone is a soulless being
There is an argument for why we shouldn't clone. It says "A clone is actually a soulless being" This is a serious misconception. As we've seen before, there are clones in the nature, and twins are actually clones of each other (Twins are formed when the embryo breaks into 2 embryos in the womb of the mother). If we say a clone has no soul, how about the twins? Do we imply that twins have no soul? and do we mean that there are soulless beings among us?
Misconception 4: It is completely safe to clone
No. Cloning is not exactly safe. As mentioned before, the success rate of cloning is low. Take the experiment that produced Dolly as an example, Dolly is the one successful embryo out of the original 277. Also, a clone may suffer from many defects. It is observed that the cloned animals tend to be delivered later than their sexually produced equals. The clone may suffer from a lot of diseases by late delivery.
Misconception 5: We can use a unconscious clone to provide spare organs
This depends on our technique. If our technique is good enough and can clone a single organ, it's OK, but if we're going to clone a unconscious clone, how can we tell if it's really unconscious? It's true that the organs of a clone can co-ordinate completely with our body immune system, but maybe it knows full well what's happening, but could not tell us? It would be inhumane to do so, and if we get the organs from the clone, it will die? Are we killing a human being, then? (Also see Ethical Problems)
Misconception 6: Cloning is unnatural
As we've mentioned, cloning occurs in nature. Bamboos, bacteria, amoebas, and twins are actually clones. Artificial cloning is only a very small part of the overall clone population, so cloning is a quite natural thing.
Misconception 7: If you cloned yourself, your clone will be at the same age as you
No, if you cloned yourself at a certain age, then your clone would be that many years younger than you, probably a generation younger."
End of Quote
Quote
"Misconception 1: Cloning can reawaken the dead
This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Well, a dead person is -- dead. There's no way to reawaken them (with the present technology. Maybe we could do it in the future, I can't tell). Even if we could produce a being with identical genes as the original, they are not the same. Also, in order to use the cloning by nuclear transfer technique (this is the only technique which can clone from adult tissues), we have to use living cells, and to fuse it with an oocyte. We cannot clone from mere DNA.
Misconception 2: A clone has the same mind as the original person
Somebody thinks that a clone would have the same personality and the same thinking with the one who provided the genes. This is simply not true. The personality and thinking of a person depends on his/her experiences. It is impossible to ensure that EVERYTHING the clone experienced is the same as the DNA donor. Therefore, the clone's thinking depends on what happened to him/her, and has no relationship with the DNA donor at all. Although genes and DNA can give some characteristics and personality and perhaps basic tendencies for a person to a certain extent, environmental factors play a much bigger role in creating who the person is and will be, and the personality, intelligence, thoughts and feelings. Every person is unique.
Misconception 3: A clone is a soulless being
There is an argument for why we shouldn't clone. It says "A clone is actually a soulless being" This is a serious misconception. As we've seen before, there are clones in the nature, and twins are actually clones of each other (Twins are formed when the embryo breaks into 2 embryos in the womb of the mother). If we say a clone has no soul, how about the twins? Do we imply that twins have no soul? and do we mean that there are soulless beings among us?
Misconception 4: It is completely safe to clone
No. Cloning is not exactly safe. As mentioned before, the success rate of cloning is low. Take the experiment that produced Dolly as an example, Dolly is the one successful embryo out of the original 277. Also, a clone may suffer from many defects. It is observed that the cloned animals tend to be delivered later than their sexually produced equals. The clone may suffer from a lot of diseases by late delivery.
Misconception 5: We can use a unconscious clone to provide spare organs
This depends on our technique. If our technique is good enough and can clone a single organ, it's OK, but if we're going to clone a unconscious clone, how can we tell if it's really unconscious? It's true that the organs of a clone can co-ordinate completely with our body immune system, but maybe it knows full well what's happening, but could not tell us? It would be inhumane to do so, and if we get the organs from the clone, it will die? Are we killing a human being, then? (Also see Ethical Problems)
Misconception 6: Cloning is unnatural
As we've mentioned, cloning occurs in nature. Bamboos, bacteria, amoebas, and twins are actually clones. Artificial cloning is only a very small part of the overall clone population, so cloning is a quite natural thing.
Misconception 7: If you cloned yourself, your clone will be at the same age as you
No, if you cloned yourself at a certain age, then your clone would be that many years younger than you, probably a generation younger."
End of Quote
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
What is DNA?
All living organisms are made of deoxyribonucleic acid, (DNA.) It is shaped like a ladder that is twirling around and around, a douple helix. On each rung of the "ladder" there is a combination of two chemicals. In total there are four chemicals: adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C), and guanine (G). Even though there ared only four chemicals, there can be many different combinations because more each chemical can be used more than once. Adenine can only fit on a rung with thymine, and cytosine can only fit on a rung with guanine. This means that if there is adenine on one side there has to be thymine on the other. The backbones of the ladder ared made of sugar and phosphate. The molecule of DNA is very small but is 1 000 000 000 (one billion) times longer than it is wide.
Monday, December 7, 2009
How do People Clone Things?
Above, deoxyribonucleic acid was explained. If you are to clone organisms, you have to copy their DNA. This can be a very complicated process, especially if it is a mammal you are trying to clone. First people have to take a donor cell from the animal they are cloning. Second they take a firtelized egg cell from another one of the animals they are cloning, and take out the nucleus of the egg. They then fuse the donor cell to the egg cell. Finally they put the cell back into the animal the egg came from. The cell will then start multiplying itself until the cloned animal is ready to be born.
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