Sheep Cloning Controversy

Animal cloning is getting popular by scientists day by day after the success of the sheep Dolly which was the first animal clone in the world. Dolly was created effectively by Roslin Instute scientist in Edinburgh (TechNyou) and she was euthanized when she was six year old due to a virus-induced lung tumour (Mott M., 2004). Even though the relevant scientists report that there is no evidence that cloning might be the cause of the disease of Dolly (Mott M., 2004), most of the scientists agree that cloning animals cannot be

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.

There are many ways stem cell research can aid the major diseases of today. Stem cell research allows scientists to gather information about the events that are going on during the development of the human body. In the article “Stem Cell Basics”, the author states “A more complete understanding of the genetic and molecular controls of those processes may yield information about how such diseases arise and suggest new strategies for therapy”(National Institutes of Health). These scientists are using information available to them

Many, as of currently incurable diseases plague the Earth. Thanks to technological advancements and better understandings of cells, scientists believe that it may be possible to cure diseases by the use of embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are cells obtained from an embryo when they are only a few days old. Because they have only begun to differentiate, these cells have the capability of developing into any cell in the human body, and that's why they can be used for the progression of medicine. Scientists hope to cure some diseases but if that isn't possible they at least hope to create treatments using them.

Six years ago, an event in genetic history changed our perspective on "reproduction" and added to our conscience a new element in the study of biology. On February 23, 1997, the world was introduced to Dolly, a 6-month-old lamb that was cloned from a single cell taken from the tissue of an adult donor. Ever since the birth of this sheep, a question that never before existed now lingers in the mind of many: should human cloning be a part of our society?

Cloning is a number of processes that are used to create genetically identical copies of an organism. Researchers have cloned a number of biological materials, such as genes, cells, tissues and whole organisms, including sheep 's and horses. Cloning can happen naturally in identical twins, but it can also be done in a lab. ("Cloning Fact Sheet").

In the 21st century, disease is rampant and for most diseases, we have no cure because we haven 't researched them long enough to find a specialized cure. One option that we have is human embryonic stem cell (HESC) research. HESC research consists of using human embryonic stem cells, which are very flexible and adaptive to create the necessary cells to develop future cell-based therapies for currently untreatable diseases, such as leukemia, various types of cancer along with the regeneration of organs and tissues. There are multiple applications of stem cell research include being used to study the development of a complex organism, replace damaged cells and treat disease, study disease and they could provide a resource for testing new medical treatments. (What are the potential applications.) HESC research offers the “hope of cures for chronic and debilitating conditions, such as juvenile diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries and blindness.” (Vestal.) On the other hand, this research also represents “a revolutionary path to discovering the causes and cures for many more human maladies.” (Vestal.)

As mentioned earlier, cloning is the copying of an organism that results in identical offspring (“Cloning”). Scientists have tried cloning many times on frogs and other organisms (“Cloning”), but when the first mammal to be cloned was successful in 1997, scientists jumped into pools of thoughts to clone humans. The first mammal to be cloned was a sheep named Dolly. The process of cloning Dolly was called Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer. The nucleus of a somatic stem cell is taken out of the eggs of the

We’ve all seen the movies. A person gets in a tube. The scientist, usually equipped with crazy hair, pushes a few button and a huge flash of light occurs. Two people walk out completely identical. And of course we know movies would never lie to us. The first cloning of a mammal, while not quite the mad scientist scene expected, was still an amazing event. It was a sheep, later named Dolly. One day, in the not so distant future, we can all use these techniques to clone our dearly passed pets or even family members. Dolly was cloned in 1996 using reproductive cloning and since then many things thought unthinkable twenty years ago have been achieved.

When Dolly, the first cloned sheep entered in the news, the cloning controversy is becoming more prominent. Not only researchers, the general public became interested in knowing how cloning is done as well as engage in the pros and cons.

The science in biology allows us to discuss living things, organisms, and the creation of life. The United States banned all kinds of cloning in 2005, but there is still a curiosity in if it can lead to improvement in human existence. Cloning is about composing an identical organism out of the given DNA and constructing it to appear as natural as it originally did. Experiments and approval for human cloning may be in many years to come and out of reach today. As far as animal cloning, we know to a point it’s safe. If we continued the exploration in genetic replication on species, breeding animals can enable us to provide food for a growing global population, and save endangered species. An article like Dolly the Sheep’s Fellow Clones, Enjoying Their Golden Years, the writer brings attention to cloning as being a possible answer to the problems we harbor

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

According to “Therapeutic Cloning” in order to make a clone, scientist’s have to conduct a procedure to destroy the DNA inside of the nucleus. The nucleus is where the genetic materials of an embryo are contained. While there have been many animals cloned since Dolly, cloning has arose the question of it being an ethical procedure or not. This is because according to “Cloning,” it has been proven to be harmful to the animal itself during the process of cloning. However, scientists have debated whether Dolly’s cause of death was of natural causes or because she was a product of cloning. It is a fact that Dolly the sheep died younger than she should have. Furthermore according to “Cloned Goat Yangyang Celebrates 15th Birthday In Shaanxi,” one of the first animals to be cloned, Yangyang the goat is celebrating being

Many Americans do not understand how risky it will be to clone a human, not to mention how hard it is to clone an animal. Many news article and publications offer this information to the public, because many scientists will not address the media with the real facts. In an article titled, “Creator of cloned sheep, Dolly, says he wouldn’t want to make copies of humans”, Dr. Wilmut stresses that only 1-5% of those embryos used in cloning result in live animals, and survivors are plagued with obesity, kidney problems and other troubles, and even Dolly is suffering from arthritis (1). Most cloned animals, like cows, pigs, goats, sheep, die during embryonic development, and others are stillborn with monstrous abnormalities. Bloated mothers have laborious miscarriages, and occasionally die themselves. The clones usually struggle for air in intensive care units, only to have to be euthanized, the process of ending the life of an individual suffering from a terminal illness or an incurable condition, according to an MSNBC article titled, “Much confusion over cloning” (1). The risks and uncertainties associated with the current technological state of cloning are the basis for why