certainly there has been successful cloning from cells in the past. However, up until Dolly, cloning was achieved using nuclei from young embryonic cells that had not yet specialized into the various types of cells required for various body functions and parts.

Here is how this works. Once an organism grows and matures, the vast amounts of cells in its body begin to specialize and then "switch off" most of the genes that are not relevant to their functions. For example, consider the different genes that determine hair color and eye color. Once the hair cells develop, the genes in the hair cells that control eye color are shut down; they become inactive. They this sets the stage for Ian Wilmut and his team. He, remarkably enough, was able to reverse this process. He figured out a way to again turn on, or reactivate those "sleeping" genes in cells that already had been differentiated! Then he went on to clone a whole animal from a cell taken from a sheep's mammary glands. Incredible! What this means is that the DNA in a single cell from an adult animal was "reset" . From this rejuvenated DNA, the cells could then grow a completely new organism, in this case, an apparently normal sheep called Dolly.

This stunning achievement of Dolly’s birth created a firestorm of coverage and reaction from the media, scientists and lawmakers.   President Clinton imposed a ban on using government funds for cloning research. The European Union imposed a ban. Pope John Paul II issued a statement insisting that each human being has a right to a unique human genome. UNESCO issued a Universal Declaration on the Human Genome that bans the reproductive cloning of human beings. To make this even more interesting, last December, just six months after the National Bioethics Advisory Commission called for a legal ban on cloning humans for three to five years, a physicist named Richard Seed announced that he was looking for partners to open a human cloning clinic!

Now that the "Cloning Genie" is out of the bottle, what can be done and what should be done? If we can clone humans, should we?  If parents could choose  the gender, body type, hair color and intelligence of their child like the flavors of an ice-cream cone, should they be allowed? What about the future?  It is easy to let your imagination explode! Is the plot of  the movie, "Jurassic Park" even a remote possibility?   Will we be able to clone living dinosaurs from samples taken from tissue trapped in ancient amber?  If we had the power create clones of already dead great people, like Beethoven, should we dare?

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This issue is extremely important! Now it is your turn. We have set up this web site as an educational and debating forum for those interested in the scientific, the social, and the ethical dimensions of this important area of biotechnology. Our goals for this site are clear: We want you to understand the basic scientific terms and procedures for this technology. Also, we want to give you a chance to refine and hone your ethical judgments on this issue. We hope that you will improve your critical thinking skills as you mentally engage with the complex issues surrounding this exciting leap forward in human knowledge.