.."And God said, let "us" make man in our own image, after our likeness"-Gen 1 Vs 26.
In a report submitted to The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia on human Cloning :Scientific, Ethical and Regulatory Aspects of Human Cloning and Stem Cell Researchref
In February 1997, the world awoke to the news that seven months earlier scientists
in Edinburgh, Scotland had created a sheep known as ‘Dolly’ by the technique of
somatic cell nuclear transfer, commonly referred to as cloning. The news of Dolly’s
birth generated vast publicity, including suggestions that humans might also be
replicated in a similar manner.
In a layman term, Cloning is the process of taking genetic information from one living thing and producing identical copies. "Clone" is the "copied Material.Reference 1.
Scientifically, to produce a clone, the nucleus of a Somatic cell (any cell except for reproductive cell) is removed (from the individual being clone). Also the nucleus (which holds the DNA) of an Egg cell (oocyte) is removed. The nucleus of the somatic cell is then transferred into the empty egg cell. The egg cell is then chemically jump started, the cell is then allowed to divide and grow for several days to reach a multicell blastocyst stage. The blastocyst is then implanted into the uterus a surrogate female (usually of the same species as the egg) for it to develop into a fetus and hopefully a baby. The surrogate mother gives birth to an animal that has the same genetic makeup as the animal that donated the somatic cell The
The world of Science and the general public were both fascinated and astonished when Sir Ian Wilmut, a British embroyologist and his colleagues announced in 1997 that they have successfully cloned a sheep from a single cell of an adult sheep, thus DOLLY THE SHEEP was given birth to. [Reference 2](wilmut, I, ET Al, viable offspring derived from fetal and adult mammalian cells nature, 385:810-813,1997)
Scientists were partially surprised, because many hold the belief that at the early stage of embryonic development, it is likely impossible to achieve by nuclear transfer the cloning of an adult mammal.
A brief History of Cloning
As far back as 5000BC, early Humans discovers that they can improve corn crops by planting seeds from the best plants. In 1866, the father of genetics Gregor Mendel published his "Experiment in Plant Hybridization ". Three years later, Johann Friedrich Miescher extracts DNA from the nuclei of white blood cell. Sir John Gurdon whose work on cloning frogs in 1950s and 1960s led to the creation of Dolly the Sheep. Monkeys, human closest relative in terms of genetics and genetic make up have been successfully cloned paving way for human cloning
In the year 2000, Britain become the first country to grant a patent for cloned early stage human embryos. Geron Corporation which received the patent says it has no intention of creating cloned humans. In 2003, Chromatin transfer (CT) was developed and exclusively licensed for pet cloning. [Reference](Cloning's Historical Timeline
PDFwww.nsta.org › scope › cloningtimeline)
Ethics of Human Cloning
It has been argued that Human cloning creates a class of humans who exist only as means of to achieve the ends of others. It also give a gateway to genetic manipulation and control of human beings. Not only that, human cloning pose a health risk and exploitation of women( used as surrogate). Human cloning also leads to commercilazation of human lifes . Reference
**Cloning Unnecessary and Obsolete?? **
Alan Trounson, Australian embryonic Stem Cell expert and a leader in the field world wide said in 2002, that "stem cell research has advanced so rapidly in the past years that therapeutic cloning in now not necessary. Quoting his words
my view is there are always 3 or 4 other alternatives that are more attractive ". I can't see why you would argue for therapeutic cloning in the long term because it is so difficult to get eggs and you've got the issue of destroying embroys as well.
The process of cloning is far from being perfect, the success rate was nothing to write home about. It took 276 failed trials before Dolly was created. The probability being 0.0036 (1/277).ref
Thanks for reading. Suggestions, contributions and advice are highly entertain.
