Dolly The Sheep's Fellow Cloning Their Golden Years

There are some people that have been very anxious with cloning because they believe it is something new, but in reality it was introduced in the 1950s. It started with cloning food and has moved onto cloning animals. It has been successful on many different cases and a famous one is the cloning of a sheep named Dolly. Dolly lived to be six and a half years old and she had six kids. People believe that cloning should be illegal but we believe that scientists should clone endangered or extinct species in order to preserve them, here’s why.

Animal cloning started without the world even knowing. First, an animal clone is “an exact physical copy of one ‘parent’” (Newman 12). “Animal cloning experiments began in the 1960’s. Frogs were the first subjects. By 1987 scientists had begun cloning cows and other mammals” (Newman 12). Dolly the sheep was the first big cloning success, credited to Ian Wilmut in 1996 (Praded 21). This sheep was a scientific breakthrough, but it also caused many people to question the intents of scientists. Many people wondered if scientists would clone humans next. The original intent of animal cloning was not for the food industry. The reason animal cloning started was to find a way to help cure currently untreatable diseases (“Why Do Scientists Clone?”). By cloning cells, scientists will be able to manipulate the cells to become something new.

They took a cell from an adult sheep’s udder and extracted the DNA. It was then put into a “blank” cell. This was the first time an adult cell had been used instead of an embryo cell. Adult cells do not have as much DNA as embryo cells. After 277 attempts an embryo was finally produced. Six days later the cells were transferred into a surrogate mother. The pregnancy progressed like normal and Dolly, named after singer Dolly Parton, was born on July 5th, 1996. Dolly lived for six years, which is only half the lifespan of a normal sheep. Dolly even had lambs. This first cloning led to many discussions about the morals of cloning. Animals cloned can have various health defects. The discussion even was presented that if humans were cloned they would lack personality and emotions. While humans haven’t been cloned great gains have been

The ethical concerns with cloning didn’t become a problem until Dolly, the sheep, was created. Many years before Dolly very similar experiments were being performed; however, those experiments did not spark much public concern regarding cloning. Over fifty years

In understanding why some chose to reject or accept the practice of cloning, basic knowledge how cloning is achieved becomes helpful. Some reject cloning because they believe humans are "playing God", others claim that scientists do not "create life" by cloning any more than they would in the practice of in vitro fertilization. According to the American Heritage College Dictionary, cloning is "to reproduce or propagate asexually". This is obviously not the traditional form of human reproduction. There are three basic methods of cloning: separating the embryo and making twins with the same genetic make-up, taking a cell from a fertilized ovum when the cell begins to split and replace it in another female's ovum, or nuclear transplantation (Travis). The famous cloning of an adult ewe, who's offspring was named Dolly, was accomplished through the second method by Dr. Ian Wilmut and his colleagues at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland (World Book). Dolly was "born" by taking genetic material from cells in the mammary glands of a 6 year-old ewe and putting the acquired cells into an unfertilized ovum. Out of 277 tries, researchers eventually produced only 29 embryos that survived longer than 6 days, of these 29, all died before

In 2008, The U.S. Food and Drug Administration declared it safe for humans to consume cloned animal products, such as meat and dairy-based products. This has captured the attention of many people throughout the entire world and has ignited debates about the many issues that accompany animal cloning. There are many ways that animal cloning can affect us, but we will focus on the more serious conflicts. Cloning can pose serious health risks to the animals involved in the process, creating complications for animal welfare. Cloning animals will also impact the consumer and agricultural industry, and the breeding stock industry. Finally, cloning animals will bring about the morals and ethics of cloning itself and if it should or should not be allowed.

From Star Wars to the Jurassic Park movies cloning has always been a science fiction story that was light years ahead of us. But with recent evidence and research to clone living organisms, the far away fantasies of cloning we have been dreaming about for many years is rapidly becoming a reality, even faster than we think. Twenty years ago, in 1997, Dolly the Sheep was the first successful clone to be produced from an adult mammal. In the article “The Coming of Clones” American Scientists announced in 2013 that they had for the first time successfully obtained stem cells from cloned human embryos (the building blocks of cloning life). Due to this announcement and the cloning of Dolly, cloning has become a debatable topic that has both negative

Cloning Dolly, the sheep in 1996 was a momentous moment in scientific history. Scientists removed the nucleus from one of Dolly 's skin cells and engineered an egg to be insert with then nucleus. This egg could have fertilized in a mothers ' uterus. Following this discovery, mice, pigs and cattle have been cloned based on the same concept. In 2012, a group of scientists took cloning a step further and cloned human embryos. With great certainty, human cloning will be banned by the government due to human rights. The government has already deemed it illegal to fund human cloning projects. Despite the human rights issue, cloning serves a great role in research. These cloned embryos will help understand the biological nature of human cells and the human body. Also the embryos will help advance medical treatments for a wide variety of diseases. Cloning is vital to genetic engineering. Problems do arise from such an advancement. Exploration of women would be a major issue due to the fact that these cloned embryos need to be implanted into a women 's ' uterus in order to under go gestation. Almost all scientific developments pose positive and negative outcomes.

The invention of cloning has multiple positive outcomes to not only the inventors, but also to society. Cloning allows scientists to have a better understanding of cells through genetic research. This leads to not only a better comprehension of genes, but also “better research on diseases and how to prevent them” ( Pros and Cons of Cloning). At the same time, cloning benefits organisms such as animal and plant life. From this invention, endangered animals or plants can be cloned to save the species. “The invention of cloning can save organisms close to extinction” (Pros and Cons of Cloning). In the near future, cloning may “advance to allow pigs to grow replacement organs for human use in transplant surgeries”(Uses of Cloning) . This invention will also one day allow same sex couples to create their own children through cloning . These advancements will be both a medical and scientific breakthrough for mankind. As cloning advances, it may be able to save and create lives through gene research, duplication of organs, and adaptation of embryos for human use.

Debates about cloning only initiated after the first cloned mammal from an adult somatic cell in 1996 was officially declared a success. The cloned mammal was a sheep named Dolly, which then appeared to suffer from health conditions that ended her life at a young age (Pano, 36). “This ignited a worldwide controversy about whether or not cloned animals die prematurely” (Lew, chapter 1).

Dolly the sheep, was the first animal cloned successfully by scientist, Ian Wilmut at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland. Scientists cloned to mainly see if they could replicate the sheep without inbreeding. Cloning has a great advancement in our society, medical, and scientific researches. It shows that we have many more advancements coming in the future with cloning. Cloning for research should be used for these three main reasons: use of cloning through medicine, cloning to have healthy livestock, and using cloning of animals to see how it affects drug production.

It can be argued that this debate stems from one of the most controversial, yet successful, experiments to be created: Dolly the sheep. In Gregory Pence’s chapter, “From Dolly to Humans?” from his novel, Who’s Afraid of Human Cloning?, Dolly is heavily discussed. Pence details that in Edinburgh, Scotland, on February 24, 1997, Ian Wilmut’s successful attempt to clone a lamb took the world by storm (1). Almost immediately after the experiment was publicized, everyone from commoners, scientists, and even lawmakers joined in unison to rebuke the idea of the future cloning of humans. Only days after the announcement of Dolly’s existence, according to Pence, human cloning was entirely banned and thus one of the biggest philosophical questions to emerge from biology was swiftly dismissed. Why did this experimental delve into the biological cause such an uproar? In the words of Gregory Pence, “emotions can be justified, but they can also stem from our most primitive, prejudiced reactions” (6). The majority of the individuals who objected cloning experimentation, during the period of Dolly the sheep, barely knew what cloning was or how it affected the world around them. Today, numerous of those who are against cloning are typically victims of the fearmongering of visual and print media, which thrive on the imagined

If a random individual were asked twenty years ago if he/she believed that science could clone an animal, most would have given a weird look and responded, “Are you kidding me?” However, that once crazy idea has now become a reality, and with this reality, has come debate after debate about the ethics and morality of cloning. Yet technology has not stopped with just the cloning of animals, but now many scientists are contemplating and are trying to find successful ways to clone human individuals. This idea of human cloning has fueled debate not just in the United States, but also with countries all over the world. I believe that it is not morally and ethically right

Cloning of Dolly the Sheep was a first on many fronts. First, it represented the first mammal ever to be cloned from a somatic cell. It also sets a benchmark on which to evaluate other animal cloning experiments going forward. Secondly, her cloning was the start of controversy and panic in regards to animal cloning, as it raised the question of whether scientists would seek to clone humans too, and the ethics behind such a practice, should it ever be adopted. Over the past few years, animal cloning has yielded remarkable results, and this has given scientists hope of a possible human clone over the next few years (University of Utah Health Sciences n.p.). When such reports of cloning success appear in the media, only few attempts works. However, for every success story, there are many other cloning experiments that have dismally failed. Out of 100 cloning experiments, less than three, at the maximum, yield viable offsprings (Harper n.p.). Even for these few success stories about cloning, problems often emerge later, as the animal develops towards adulthood. Although there is limited scientific explanations for the cause of such high failure rates, most researchers believe that it is an indication of the technical hurdles facing cloning experiments. The important lesson that can be drawn from the cloning of animals is the likely influences in case humans are cloned. While a growing

Congress, the president, foreign countries, political activists, companies, consumers, churches, ethicists, doctors, patients, and even scientists have entered the fervent debate on cloning. The March edition of the Life Extension Foundation’s (LEF) magazine vocally calls for American citizens to write to their Senators and stop an anti-cloning bill from passage through both Houses (See Figure 1.) While the public argues over short-term questions – such as what is the definition of cloning, at what point does life begin, and is cloning bad – we must examine the hidden future potential and consequences of therapeutic cloning. Scientists’ direct contact with cloning technology grants us the opportunity to more accurately realize its promise