Farewell to the Fiction in the Science of Cloning
In his 1930's futuristic novel, Brave New World, Aldous Huxley predicted a society where the human race was created in a laboratory and carried to term in incubators. At the time it was regarded as being ludicrously impossible. The idea of cloning in the eighties required multiple reproductions of specialized cells. Even then, the possibility of cloning was unachievable. Recently, scientists cloned a lamb, simply by replicating the cell in the skin tissue. It is now happening in all parts of the world: Scotland, England, America, and Australia. As technology increases, doubts and "what-ifs" turn into realities. Three essays were examined concerning cloning endangered and extinct animals and the benefits and detriments of therapeutic cloning. Matt Ridley, from the article "The Lure of Detinction", claims there is "finally a noble use for cloning. To date," he states, "it has only been promised to serve the human race's vanity, by producing doppelgangers, and hypochondria, by providing spare livers. But with the announcement that cloning has been applied to vanished species, to reverse their extinction, it suddenly seems a rather higher calling" (1-4). A Massachusetts's company has taken the first steps by cloning a rare Indian
In addition to reviving extinct animals, Great Britain is currently requesting permission to pursue what is called therapeutic cloning. According to Mike Pezzella, Prime Minister Tony Blair said he would introduce legislation to change the ban on human cloning passed in the 1990 Health Act to allow creation of human embryos for scientific research (3-4). Therapeutic cloning involves replacing the nucleus from a donated egg with that of the patient. Since an embryo younger than 14 days is essentially a ball of cells, scientists believe they can tweak the ball to develop into the kind of specialized tissue or organ needed for the patient. This act, if approved, would still strictly prohibit the mixing of human adult cells with the live eggs of any animal species. Transferring a cloned embryo to the womb of a human mother would also remain a criminal offense. wild ox embryo called a guar and implanting it into a cow. Once successful, the company plans to do the same for a recently extinct Spanish goat called a bucardo. The possibilities are limited for the time being however, as long-extinct creatures can not be included in the "wish list" due to inadequate knowledge of their molecular biology. Even reptile, bird, and amphibian cloning are quite a ways off because they lay eggs. However, by allowing research to continue, time will produce stunning results. In contrast, t
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Approximate Word count = 930
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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