Sunday, April 22, 2012

Cloning – The Ongoing Debate


           The next time you are strolling through your local market, be on a lookout for the products that you are purchasing. If you look carefully, you may be able to tell that some products may have distinct markings compared to its similar counterparts. One of them may be a product from a cloned subject. Question. Would you eat a product from a cloned animal? Say, would meat from a cloned cow fill your appetite?

            If you don’t mind it, then good news! The article from the “Institute of Science in Society” contends that the milk and meat from a cloned animal’s offspring would soon be on sale without labels. This means that you may end up eating or drinking a cloned cow’s milk or meat without knowing. Bright future indeed, however some people may find cloning unethical. The first sheep to be cloned on July 5, 1997 called Dolly had people getting off their chair. If Dolly was placed next to her natural sheep, then we wouldn’t be able to tell a difference. Could cloning perhaps be employed into the human society? Most people would argue that cloning humans would be too hard, as even Dolly was a result of 277 previously failed attempts. Clones would also not be totally “identical” to its natural counterpart. As we duplicate cells, it accumulates mutations overtime, causing the gene to differ slightly from its original cell. The cloned offspring may then be infected with disease that may not be known as of yet.

            Dolly was created by the somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Several attempts have been made using the method to create a cloned human. An American couple tried to pay $500,000 to a company called Clonaid for a clone of their daughter who has already been deceased. As stated before, cloning doesn’t ensure an identical clone. In the end, Clonaid didn’t succeed, however, even if they did, the clone may be ridden with diseases. Would the parents even want a cloned daughter that would remind them of their original deceased daughter? Anyways, do you still want to eat a cloned product?

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