Definition History Dolly CUMULINA Success?
Right or Wrong? My View Acknowledgements
Cloning, by definition, has been going on in this world for many thousands of years. A clone is simply a living thing made from another, leading to two organisms with the same set of genes. As such, an earthworm can simply be cloned by cutting it in half. The two parts regenerate the missing part, leading to two earthworms with the same set of genes. TOP
The first cloning was made possible by Hans Dreisch in the late 1800s. As the sea urchin's embryo cells were large, and they grew independently of their mothers, he separated a two celled embryo. Each grew into a whole new sea urchin with the same set of genes. Another team, in 1951, invented nuclear transplant by taking the nucleus out of a frog embryo cell and using it to replace that of an unfertilized frog egg cell. Once the cell detected that it had a full set of chromosomes, it began to grow. Later advances didn't prove much, till the 'Dolly" incident. Top
In 1986, Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute in Scotland was assigned to a project which required him to create a sheep that produced a certain chemical in its milk. He decided to go about it by cloning altered adult cells. His team later discovered that the reason of the many failures of attempts to clone was that the cells were in incompatible stages of life. They then discovered that by starving the cells, they could be forced into G0 phase, which is quite alike to cellular hibernation. In this phase, the cells could survive longer. Using this method, they created a lamb from an adult lamb's frozen mammary cell. This lamb, was Dolly. TOP
On October 3rd, a cloned mouse was created by the Honolulu Technique. She was named Cumulina, mainly because she was cloned from the cumulus cells by nuclear transplant. Cumulus cells are cells that surround the developing egg cells. The nucleus of the cumulus cell was taken and transplanted into an egg cell of another mouse. A special chemical was added to this cell to stimulate growth. The process was repeated for three generations, producing over fifty cloned mice. Cumulina should have been more famous than Dolly, as the Honolulu technique's success rate is almost 6 times more than that of Roslin Institute's. Top
On December the 8th, researchers removed the nuclei from 10 eggs of a single cow of Japanese beef cattle obtained at a slaughterhouse. Into the eggs, they inserted the nuclei from ten adult cells from another adult cow. Six nuclei were from cumulus cells, which surround the eggs inside ovaries, and four were from epithelial cells lining the oviducts. Cumulus cells are particularly good candidates for cloning females because they can be obtained without injuring the animal. The egg cells were then cultured in the laboratory until they had developed into blastocysts, embryos at the earliest stages of development. These were implanted into surrogate cows, and eight of the embryos were carried to term and were born. Four of the calves later died, but this was probably due to environmental causes. The unusually high success rate may be attributable to a number of factors, including the authors’ system for developing the blastocysts and the fact that cumulus and oviductal cells are particularly good choices for donor cells. Research efforts in the United States tend to focus on cloning cattle from fetal cells, which lend themselves to genetic manipulation. For example, the cells can be manipulated to contain specific, desirable genes, such as to make cows that give milk containing human serum albumin, a medically important product now available only by separation from human blood. US scientist Steven Stice claimed that fetal cells are better in the sense that they are much more robust, and more can be done with them. He also claims that with fetal fibroblast cells, genetic modification can be done faster and more efficiently. TOP
Scientists also ponder the idea of cloning endangered species to increase their population. The possibilities are endless. However, we are actually doing much of this research for the improvement of life for humans. Scientists foresee the cloning of pigs that will produce organs that will not be rejected by humans. Also, as mentioned earlier, livestock can produce biological proteins helping people who have diseases including diabetes, Parkinson's, and Cystic Fibrosis. Cloning also provides better research capabilities for finding cures to many diseases. There are also possibilities that nuclear transfer could provide benefits to those who would like children. For instance, couples who are infertile, or have genetic disorders, could use cloning to produce a child. Equally important, women who are single could have a child using cloning instead of in-vitro fertilization or artificial insemination. Nuclear transfer could also provide children who need organ transplants to have a clone born to donate organs. Cloning could also provide a copy of a child for a couple whose child had died. TOP
The biggest problem with the use of cloning on a large is scale is the decline in genetic diversity. Think about it, if everyone has the same genetic material, what happens if we lose the ability to clone. We would have to resort to natural reproduction, causing us to inbreed, which will cause many problems. Also, if a population of organisms has the same genetic information, then the disease would wipe out the entire population. Helping endangered species by cloning will not help the problem. Currently, zoologists and environmentalists trying to save endangered species are not so much having trouble keeping population numbers up, but not having any animals to breed that are not cousins. The technique of nuclear transfer is also early in its developmental stages. Thus, errors are occurring when scientists carry out the procedure. For instance, it took 277 tries to produce Dolly, and Roslin scientists produced many lambs with abnormalities. If we tried to clone endangered species we could possibly kill the last females integral to the survival of a species. This may be the main reason science is holding out on cloning humans. Other arguments for cloning include if we are taking nature into our own hands by cloning animals or people. People question when we will draw the line for getting involved in natural events. Religious organizations consider nuclear transfer to cause men to be reproductively obsolete. This claim was deduced by gathering of the information that cloning requires only oocytes, any cell, and a woman to develop in. They also claim that cloning does not respect the fact that humans have souls. They also consider cloning unnatural, and say we are taking the work of God into our own hands. There is also a debate as to the moral rights of clones. Some say their rights will be defied because clones are not granted the birth of newness. That we would not receive clones with such excitement as a child of a couple who conceived naturally. If natural reproduction were to occur, genetic variation would occur. They say cloning would deprive a person of uniqueness. They argue that identical twins are not unique from each other, but that they are new in genetic variation and unique from anything that came before them. People also wonder what mental and emotional problems would result if a clone were to find out that he or she was cloned. TOP
The issue of whether clones would have mental and emotional problems would not be any different than the issue of a child born by In-Vitro Fertilization. The argument about the naturalness of nuclear transfer is a tough one. For starters I believe the argument of naturalness is a full argument in itself. Currently, I believe the only person that can make an accusation on cloning' s unnaturalness, is a native who lives on an island living in harmony with nature, independent of all technologies and advancements. I hope you now understand my view better. As you can see I believe cloning using nuclear transfer should not be used on humans for any reason. One being the issue of causing pain to human life and the other being of genetic diversity. I think if we were to use cloning it should be closely monitored as to what dangers are involved in having copies of people. Also, the ability to alter genes should only be used for improving quality of life, but not quality of the being. I also think this technology should not be used until successful. In fact, I do not even condone the use of cloning on sheep or mice. I promote animal rights and do not believe in causing pain to animals. Thus, no cloning on anyone unless it does not harm any one or anything physically or mentally. TOP
I'd like to thank the following people and sources for helping me in the development of my website.
My Mom, for being such a good mom, My Dad, for being such a good dad, My Grandma, for being such a good Grandma, My Grandpa, for being such a good Grandpa. MSNBC, for providing some reports on cloning. 'Ethics of Cloning' by David Schwimmer for actually pointing out that cloning did have some advantages. Last but not least, all my fans from all over the world for being my fans. TOP