Samantha Plasky

BIO 101L
Prof. Dibella
October 16, 2016
Cloning

A big topic that people hear about in the science world is cloning.

Why cloning? Why is it so important to clone something when the world

was not made for that? With cloning they can start to try and save lives

through science when there is no more hope. People with failing organs

or in need of some kind of transplant will benefit form this so much.

Waiting on a list could take a many, many years but if we can clone

genes and DNA and organs, scientist can create a way for people to be

helped and even healthy. Cloning can help not just humans for the best

way but also plants and animals can benefit from these actions also

(Tingnu).

Just like anywhere else there are multiple things done when

something comes along. The cloning of plants and animals is what came.

Much of the research that scientist get about humans are from animal

behavior and how they react. Most commonly used are mice. Most of the

times there are genetically engineered to carry disease-causing

mutations in their genes. (why clone). By cloning these animals it helps

with the study of what is going on and how or if something can be fixed.

If scientist focus on why some animals can grow back and mutate certain

parts of their body than maybe they could figure out how to do it for

humans. In the world today we see animals going down in numbers and

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the idea of cloning extinct species has come around. There are many

projects undergoing to help this problem, for example the wooly

mammoth. Many scientists are using goats as the one to test on. The

goat that was used in 2009 shortly died after birth (why clone). There

have been many successes stories though. It is also easier to clone

animals because there is other animals exactly like them that can give

healthy live cells.

With everyone looking for a way to do cloning it could eventually

lead to a break which could help us humans one day and be able to clone

full organs one day. In 2013 at Oregon Health and Science University,

scientists were the first to use cloning techniques to successfully create

human embryonic stem cells (why clone). The donor came from an 8

month old who had a genetic disease.

There are many different views out there that people think this will be

against social norms and that we will be cloning humans instead of using

it for medicine (why clone). It will take a while for this idea to fully come

around. Therapeutic cloning is a good way to being this process.

Therapeutic cloning is producing embryonic cells with same DNA as the

donor cell (cloning fact sheet). However there has been no real progress

on it but they hope they can grow healthy tissue with this. With these

healthy tissues that they would grow in the laboratory they would hope to

use them to replace the injured or diseased tissue (cloning fact sheet).

However this process could end up with mutations and sometimes lead to

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cancer, which would be a set back if that was to occur. There is a

professor at Oregon Health and Science University that he has

reprogrammed human skin cells back to their embryonic stage. This

founding was not for cloning but to produce lines of embryonic stem cells

(park). The cells that he has created can turn into muscle, nerve or any

other type of cells (park). This all still new so no one will know if it will

work until all the trial and errors but every scientist is eager to see what

is next.

There are in this world called natural clones called identical twins.

With the same genetic make up they are the ideal things that people look

at in todays world to help them out (cloning fact sheet). Everyone with a

disease or something wrong with them is hoping that one day they can

be fixed and that their organs or tissue can grow in a lab to help benefit

them but who knows when it will occur. With animals being able to pull

off a process like this, there will be away for humans to also it just takes

time.

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 Bibliography

"Why Clone?" Why Clone? N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.

Tingnu. "All The Reasons To Clone Human Beings." All The Reasons To Clone Human
Beings. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.

"Cloning Fact Sheet." National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). Usa.gov,
11 May 2016. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.

Park, Alice. "Scientists Report First Success in Cloning Human Stem Cells |
TIME.com." Time. Time, n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.