Cloning : controversial science

CLONING: CONTROVERSIAL SCIENCE

SONAM TAMANG

Introduction: What is Cloning? Speaking of controversial issues, how about if we pick cloning as an example? Cloning is one of those issues that has, and probably will not have a final end to it. So, is it ethical or is it not ethical? Can we not overlook this aspect since there are many advantages to it? But then again, a line has to be drawn somewhere, does it not? Before going into the intricacies of cloning and how it is done, a concrete, dictionary definition of what a clone is, must be given in order to prevent any confusion that may occur later on. A clone is defined as "the aggregate of the asexually produced progeny of an individual" as well as "an individual grown from a single somatic cell of its parent and genetically identical to it."(1)To put it in simpler words, it is an asexually reproduced offspring who has the same genetic information as another organism or organisms. Organisms that clone themselves include bacteria, most unicellular organisms, plants (not from seed), algae (not all), fungi (not all) as well as many invertebrates.(2)

Missyplicity: A New Project

The "Missyplicity Project" can be used as an example for trying to find out more about cloning and its purposes. The "Missyplicity Project", involves Missy, the first dog to be cloned in history, following Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned >from an adult. The project started with the wish of Missy's owners to have her reproduced, which the scientists state, is different from creating a genetic duplicate. This "team of world-class scientists" deem their project as being "socially-beneficial" as well as "strongly ethics-driven." (3)Thus, the scientists aim not just to clone the dog but by doing that, they hope to attain several goals.

The Processes of Cloning

There are three different ways to clone mammals. They can be cloned either through the "twinning" method, the "Roslin Technique" or the "Honolulu Technique." The first method, "twinning," is the splitting of a cell from an embryo. The second method, the "Roslin Technique," also known as the "Nuclear Transfer" method, was used to create Dolly the sheep and the third technique, the "Honolulu Technique" has been developed most recently and is considered the most effective technique. The concept of twinning is as follows: once a sperm has fertilised an egg, it may divide into eight cell embryos which may then separate and in turn, these cells would then be able to be implanted into the uteri of eight separate mothers. Thus, eight clones will be borne to different mothers.(4) Nuclear transfer, one of the steps in creating Dolly, is the technique currently used in the cloning of adult animals. Although twinning exists, it can only used before an organism's cells differentiate. Since the focus of this paper is on a project similar to the Dolly project, there will be a more in depth explanation of how nuclear transfer is done. Nuclear transfer requires two cells, a donor cell and an oocyte, or egg cell. The egg cell can be taken out either from the donor of the host sheep. (5) The egg cell must be enucleated, or in other words, its nucleus must be taken out. (4) The two cells are then joined using an electric charge and implanted into the host sheep. The cell acts like a normal egg and grows a clone sheep, which is then born just like a normal baby. If no errors occur, a perfect replica of the donor animal will be born. (5) The Honolulu technique, the newest and most effective method was done on mice, the most difficult mammals to clone due to the fact that almost immediately after a mouse egg is fertilised, it begins dividing. Sheep, on the other hand, have eggs that wait several hours before dividing, possibly giving the egg time to reprogram its new nucleus. Despite the challenge, the success rate in this case was much higher than at the Roslin Institute wherein one in two hundred twenty seven clones were created as opposed to three out of every one-hundred attempts. For this technique, three different cells were used and there were no in vitro procedures since the cells used here were not cultured outside the animals.(4)

The Pros: Positive Aspects of Cloning

Dr. Mark Westhusin, a Nuclear Transfer Specialist and principal investigator of the Missyplicity Project believes that that through this project, there will be a definite improvement in basic understanding of canine reproductive biology, whether or not other goals are attained. Another goal they have

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