Reproductive Cloning
EQ:Should We Leave It Or Keep It? By: Chloe Lunceford
Background Information
- Reproductive Cloning is the process of taking skin cells from an organism and fusing it with an unfertilized egg and implanting the embryo into a surrogate mother.
- Cloning began millions of years ago with a farming technique called “cutting”,
- a frog was cloned in 1952 by scientists, using a technique that is still used today
- In 1996, a sheep was cloned and is the first successful clone
- Dolly developed arthritis and lung cancer
- Dolly was put down in February 2003 due to the diseases
The Good
- Reproductive cloning can be used to save endangered animals from extinction like the giant pandas.
- allows us to clone a livestock animal that has superior genetics and make them produce faster, like if a cow can produce quality milk, a farmer can clone the cow to get more live stock with the quality milk gene
- help make pharmaceutical drugs like insulin
- allow us to directly experiment on cloned genes when it is unsafe to directly experiment on humans
- help further our understanding of history and science, ex: woolly mammoth
The Bad
- Some clones die prematurely from an infection or from an abnormality like an extra leg, like the baby bull guar
- Cloning might be cruel since few clones ever survive and most develop diseases and age faster, ex: Dolly the cloned sheep
- Having different genetics can help species survive, example a herd of cows were cloned from a cow that produced quality milk, and an outbreak of a disease occurred
- Cloning is expensive and has a very low success rate
- Cloning could be misused to clone humans
Decisions, Decisions
- Should we ban reproductive cloning or should we let it stay? Yes, it is a very useful resource
Bibliography
American Museum of Natural History. "Science Bulletins: Cloning and Conservation." YouTube. YouTube, 6 June 2012. Web. 04 Dec. 2014.
Big Think. "Michio Kaku: Can We Resurrect the Dinosaurs? Neanderthal Man?" YouTube. YouTube, 20 Sept. 2012. Web. 04 Dec. 2014.
"Cloning." BrainPOP. BrainPOP, n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2014.
"Creating Embryos for Research Is Wrong." Stem Cells. Jacqueline Langwith. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "A Primer on Human Cloning." Christian Life Resources. 2009. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 11 Dec. 2014.
Nüsslein-Volhard, Christiane. "Research Cloning Should Be Allowed but Not Reproductive Cloning." Cloning. Ed. Jacqueline Langwith. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Manipulating the Human Embryo." USA Today Jan. 2011: 30-33. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 11 Dec. 2014.
"Reproductive Cloning." Genetics and Genetic Engineering. Barbara Wexler. 2011 Ed. Detroit: Gale, 2011. Information Plus Reference Series. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.
"Reproductive Cloning." Genetics and Genetic Engineering. Barbara Wexler. 2011 Ed. Detroit: Gale, 2011. Information Plus Reference Series. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 4 Dec. 2014.