As the future becomes the present, ideas spoken only in science fiction movies are now becoming the reality. Dolly the sheep was the first animal to be scientifically cloned in 1996. It will almost be 20 years since the first animal was cloned, and scientists have been experimenting on cloning ever since. The question is can we clone humans?
The short answer: No. "Nobody in their right mind would want to do that," said John Gearhart, the director for the institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. It might be possible, but we might never know. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops saw the exponential development of cloning in the past few years, and they were concerned. As a result, they banned all research on human embryos, even if they would be destroyed in the process of research. There are also other factors acting as roadblocks from cloning a human. Studies done previously in the Oregon Health and Science University showed defects in embryos, even as soon as they are a 100 cell mass. When doing this, a few genes go wrong, and don’t work, preventing us from making a real, healthy human clone. But with animals, it is successful. Scientist have taken an embryo from one cow, and transplanted into another cow, the cow later being born successfully. In the past, it has been a crazy concept, but now it is possible and useful.
So, you might ask, what is the goal of cloning humans? What do we get out of doing this? Most scientists say stem cells. These are cells that can possibly develop and grow tissue anywhere in the body. Stem Cells might even be the answer to cancer. If we can replace tumorous areas with these stem cells, the chance of recovering and surviving cancer might be greater.
All in all, this technology is still developing, and we might never have it. Nonetheless, you have the option to think if it’s morally wrong, or if it is beneficial. If you were dying, and you needed a heart, would you take a cloned one?
Rohit Mistry
Edited by Ekaterina Zelenin
The short answer: No. "Nobody in their right mind would want to do that," said John Gearhart, the director for the institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. It might be possible, but we might never know. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops saw the exponential development of cloning in the past few years, and they were concerned. As a result, they banned all research on human embryos, even if they would be destroyed in the process of research. There are also other factors acting as roadblocks from cloning a human. Studies done previously in the Oregon Health and Science University showed defects in embryos, even as soon as they are a 100 cell mass. When doing this, a few genes go wrong, and don’t work, preventing us from making a real, healthy human clone. But with animals, it is successful. Scientist have taken an embryo from one cow, and transplanted into another cow, the cow later being born successfully. In the past, it has been a crazy concept, but now it is possible and useful.
So, you might ask, what is the goal of cloning humans? What do we get out of doing this? Most scientists say stem cells. These are cells that can possibly develop and grow tissue anywhere in the body. Stem Cells might even be the answer to cancer. If we can replace tumorous areas with these stem cells, the chance of recovering and surviving cancer might be greater.
All in all, this technology is still developing, and we might never have it. Nonetheless, you have the option to think if it’s morally wrong, or if it is beneficial. If you were dying, and you needed a heart, would you take a cloned one?
Rohit Mistry
Edited by Ekaterina Zelenin