Cloning

Joe Brett, Jordan Guthrie, Jury Bell, Zack Pry

Scientist

Jury Bell

Cloning is the creation of an organism that is

an exact genetic copy of another. There are three different types of cloning:

Embryo, Reproductive, and Therapeutic cloning.

The Science of Cloning

Embryo Cloning is a medical technique which

produces identical twins or triplets. One or more cells are moved from a fertilized

embryo and then are fortified to develop into one or more identical embryo(s).

Twins or triplets are then formed with identical DNA.

This technique has previously been performed on many types of animals.

Embryo Cloning

Also known as adult DNA cloning. Intended to produce a duplicate of any

existing organism. The DNA from an ovum is removed and

replaced with DNA from a cell removed from an adult organism.

The fertilized ovum is then placed in a surrogate.

Has been used to clone sheep and other animals.

Reproductive Cloning

Dolly the SheepDolly the Sheep was made using Reproductive Cloning.

AKA biomedical cloning. The procedure’s initial stages are identical to

reproductive cloning. However, the stem cells are removed from a

pre-embryo with the intent of producing or creating tissue or a whole organ back into the organism that supplied the DNA.

The pre-embryo dies in the process. The goal is to produce a healthy copy of a sick

person’s organ or tissue for transplant.

Therapeutic Cloning

Laws on Cloning

Joe Brett

Fifteen states have laws relating to human

cloning. The first law was issued by California in 1997, which banned reproductive cloning.

Since then, fourteen other states have also banned reproductive cloning.

Six states also have laws against therapeutic cloning, or cloning in labs for research purposes.

Pennsylvania does not have any laws against cloning.

State Laws

Regulation of animal cloning in the United

States is under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration.

The Humane Society of the United States has issued a press release condemning the cloning of cats or other pets.

US Laws on Cloning

Recently, the controversy around human cloning has received a lot of news coverage; yet

unsurprisingly, a clear and thorough examination of both sides has been lacking from the news media.

Basically, human cloning is the artificial process of making a genetic twin of a person. This means a person could literally become the parent of their own twin sibling or the parent of anyone’s twin.

Scientists are either very close at being able to clone human beings, or scientists have already done so. Human cloning has already become illegal or restricted in a variety of degrees in several countries, thus scientific research has been greatly reduced throughout the world. Furthermore, there has been quite a bit of legislation proposing to completely ban human cloning, and a large amount of legislation proposing to allow human cloning.

Unfortunately, I have not seen or heard a holistic explanation of both sides with all the reasons for and against human cloning, so I am going to list all the reasons that I’ve found so far. Additionally, I am going to address each of these issues on their rational merit.

Sociologist

Educator

Jordan Guthrie

How Many Types of Cloning are There?

Three

Is Cloning ‘Unnatural’?

No.Some organisms, such as bacteria and yeasts, only reproduce using cloning. Some

larger organisms, like snails and shrimp also reproduce by cloning. As sexual reproduction is the only way to improve the genetic stock of a species, most

asexual species tend to die off. However, at least one - a shrimp called Artemia perthenogenetica (the brine shrimp)- has survived for at least 30 million years

without reproducing sexually. Many more species, including the aphid, reproduce by cloning most of the time and then reproduce sexually every few generations.

Is an Identical Twin the Same as a Clone? Only if the clone is born at the same time from the same womb as its

clone. We now know that what a fetus is exposed to in the womb - nutrition, alcohol, drugs or perhaps even stress hormones - can

influence its physical and mental development.

Could You Clone Someone Dead?

Lincoln? Einstein?In theory, probably.

First, they would need some living cells from his body - and unless it was frozen or otherwise preserved soon after death,

the cells would probably be unusable. More importantly, because of differences in the environment of the womb and

upbringing, the cloned person would not necessarily act, think or even necessarily look like the original.

Could Cloning be Used to Save

Endangered Species?If they make the process have a better success rate, it

could. It took 267 attempts to clone Dolly, so it wouldn’t be all that effective at the moment.