Term Papers on Cloning: Is It Right?

Term Paper Title	Cloning: Is It Right?
# of Words	3038
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	12.15

Cloning: Is It Right?

The biological definition of a clone is an organism that has the same genetic information as another organism or organisms ("Cloning", 1997). From this definition and from information about the science behind cloning, my current view on cloning is that it is ethical. This statement ignores information about how we can misuse cloning and what consequences occur when the procedure is unsuccessful. I currently do not think cloning should be used until it is perfected. I doubt however that we will allow cloning to be misused, and think most people would probably have this opinion on cloning, but their lack of knowledge on cloning, or their belief that cloning would be misused, is the reason for differences of opinion. Thus, an elaboration on the history, techniques, ethics, and reasons for researching the technology of cloning is necessary.
The first thing that must be cleared up is what is cloning, and what is a clone. A clone is an organism derived asexually from a single individual by cuttings, bulbs, tubers, fission, or parthenogenesis reproduction ("Cloning", 1997). Parthenogenesis reproduction is the development of an organism from an unfertilized ovum, seed or spore ("Parthenogenesis", 1997). Hence, cloning, biologically speaking, is any process in which production of a clone is successful. Thus, the biological term cloning is the production of a genetically identical duplicate of an organism. However, people can use the word cloning to intend other meanings. For instance, we generalize many older and new techniques as cloning. This is not a good practice because these techniques are different and impose unique concerns and issues.

In the world of scientific technology, cloning is the artificial production of organisms with the same genetic material. Scientists actually call the transferring of a nucleus from the cell of one organism to an enucleated egg cell nuclear transfer (Wilmut, 1997). This will produce an organism that has the exact genetic
material as that of the donor cell. Scientists are using current techniques exceedingly more, and with a variety of species. Astonishingly, more clones are present in the world than one would think.
In nature, and even in the lives of humans, clones are present. As stated earlier, a clone is an organism that has the same genetic information as another organism. From this we can say that cloning occurs with all plants, some insects, algae, unicellular organisms that conduct mitosis or binary fission, and occasionally by all multicellular organisms, including humans. Monozygotic twins, or identical twins, are clones of each other. They have the same exact genetic information due to the division of an embryo early in development, which produces two identical embryos. About eight million identical twins are alive in the world, thus, already eight million human clones inhabit the world. In unicellular organisms, a cell will produce two daughter cells that have the same genetic material.
Today, the only cloning research is occurring in scientific model organisms. These are organisms that research scientists from around the globe have collected copious amounts of data. All this data is necessary so that advancements in research can continue more efficiently. The most common scientific models are E. coli, mice, fruit flies, and frogs. The first organisms that were cloned using nuclear transfer were frogs. This is because they have large egg cells and scientists can obtain up to two thousand of them from one ovulation. (McKinnel, 1979)
Successful cloning has occurred with livestock. The drive toward success is not because livestock like cows and sheep are model organisms. Instead, the farming industry has made and continues to make a big effort toward finding a way to implement the technique of nuclear transfer for livestock. Research in cloning is also

occurring in primates. The reason for studying primates is the similarities with humans. This leads us to the most talked about aspects of cloning, the use of the techniques with human ce...

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