To Clone or not to Clone
On February 24, 1997, the whole world was shocked by the news that Scottish scientists had successfully cloned a sheep. Dolly an artificially cloned mammal was born a star. After the shock, that cloning was not only a possibility but a reality, wore off the out cry against human cloning began. Physicians, scientists, politicians and church leaders and many more have been trying to ban the cloning of humans ever since. Is cloning something to be afraid of? I do not believe it is. I believe that cloning will become a tool of science that will, in time, bring many benefits to humankind.The Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia describes a clone as "an organism by an asexual (nonsexual) reproductive process"(clone 1). This definition means that we already have many clones on the earth today. The Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia also states that "the organisms known as prokaryotes (the bacteria and cyanobacteria), a number of other simple organisms, such as most protozoan, many other algae, and some yeast's, also reproduce primarily by cloning, as do certain higher organisms like the dandelion or aspen tree"(clone 1). The Biology Textbook Concepts and Connections describes a clone as "a single organis
Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc., 1998. Therapeutic cloning could be used to clone any of the body's tissues. This does not involve cloning an entire person but only the tissue needed. Please see diagram labeled "the ultimate body repair kit" in appendix A. In an on-line scientific magazine Andy Coghlan discusses therapeutic cloning and how it is done. He writes that "[t]herapeutic cloning would use the technique that created Dolly the sheep to grow cells for transplants that are matched to their recipients - for instance to replace the brain cells lost in Parkinson's disease"(1:3). Many thousands of people die every year while waiting for an organ transplant or as a result of tissue rejection. With therapeutic cloning there is no chance of rejection as it is your tissue that is cloned. Think of how wonderful it would be if one of your family members or even you yourself could be saved because of therapeutic cloning. http://www.biology.com/Kimbell/C/CloningMammals.html
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Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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