Reproductive Or Therapeutic Cloning?

The word cloning describes many different processes that can be use to make identical copies of existing organisms or object. The copied object has the same genetic makeup as the original, the copied material is a clone. Scientist have cloned many biological materials such as genes, cells, tissues, and whole organism like dolly the sheep. There is also natural clones, some plants and single celled organisms like bacteria make genetically identical off springs through a process called asexual reproduction. In asexual reproduction, a new organism is made from a copy of a single cell from the parent organism. Identical twins are also natural clones and they happen in humans and other animals. Twins are produced when a fertilized egg splits, creating
two or more embryos that carry almost identical DNA. Identical twins have almost the same genetic makeup as each other, but they are genetically different from the parent.There are three different types of artificial cloning reproductive cloning, gene cloning and therapeutic cloning.Gene cloning makes copies of genes or parts of DNA. Reproductive cloning makes copies of whole animals. Therapeutic cloning makes embryonic stem cells for experiments aimed at creating tissues to replace injured or diseased tissues which is why I support this type of research.
Gene cloning, also known as DNA cloning, is a very different process from reproductive and therapeutic cloning. Reproductive and therapeutic cloning have many of the same techniques, but are done for different purposes. Many people oppose to cloning & human cloning because when somatic cell nuclear transfer is use to clone the nucleus of an egg and all of it’s DNA is removed .In 1997 the United States president Bill Clinton challenged the techniques of human cloning such as somatic cell nuclear transfer, here is a simple and brief description: the nucleus and all DNA from a fertilized egg is removed and then the nucleus from the isolated somatic cell is transfer to the egg and after a couple chemical tweaks you got a freshly fertilized egg. The isolated somatic cell comes from the organism which is going to be cloned. When the nucleus and all DNA is removed from the egg is like killing a person which is why Bill Clinton challenged this types of
techniques. Then in 1998 people saw opportunities to profit from cloning, for example scientist Richard Seed had made public his intentions to set up a Human cloning clinic first in Chicago, then in ten to twenty locations nationally, then in five to six locations internationally. While the U.S federal government was wondering how to approach this topic many states began passing legislation's to outlaw human cloning research, and nineteen European Nations acted fast to sign a ban on human cloning. The European ban only bans the actual implantation, nurture, and birth of human clones. The United states ban only bans research which could lead to human cloning and there is no federal funds for embryo research. Cloning has slowed down in the United States since the president and congress withheld federal government funds from research that targets embryos to risk for non-therapeutic purposes.
During president Clinton’s term in office, the National Institutes of Health decided that as long as private labs destroyed the embryos and produced the stem cells, the federal government would fund research on those cells. Then in 2001, president Bush prohibited federally funded research on embryonic stem cells produced after the date his prohibition was in place. Scientist are currently focusing more on stem cell research instead of cloning because stem cell research brings more to the table at the present time. They are also working on answering the questions people have on cloning for example Why humans should be cloned, and the destiny justification which most people ask, also the risks of cloning and what can be reach with
cloning. In the future when scientist have even more technology they should focus on answering all this questions and reducing the risk of messing up the genetic code.There are many risks that come with cloning for example high failure rate only 30 out of 1000 attempts will be successful, Clones have a shorter life expand, abnormal gene expression patterns, telomeric differences, and many more problems.(On the NBC program Nightline, 7 January 1998). Money should not be a problem for this type of research in the future because the possibilities are great, for example if there is a great scientist who is a problem solver he can be cloned and his research can live on forever until reaching its goal. We can all contribute to this type of research by funding it or going into the field of stem cell research. Cloning and stem cell research have great possibilities to solve many problems that are present in the world and can also be used to prevent problems. For example if someone needs a heart transplant, the heart can be cloned and the gene code can be altered so the problem is no longer present in the cloned heart. Also lets say there is a cow which produces the best milk, this cow can be cloned because we want are cows to produce the best milk. Also lets say someone is born without an organ. Scientist can make that organ in the lab and fix the problem. This is already possible but if the research is extended many more things are possible like growing limbs on people which lost limbs, cloning food, cloning extinct animals, and in the future people won’t be born with health problems, limbs missing, or diseases that run in the family.