Cloning Defined and Questioned

Let me start off by saying that the failure rates of cloning are enormous. You will recall when Dolly was cloned that about twenty of the embryos were constructed, out of more than 400 attempts, twenty actually began to develop. Of those, nineteen were either stillborn or stopped developing with defects. Only one animal was born alive. That was Dolly and she died 6 years later of some lethal sheep virus. So the average success rate from starter kits, to transfer to eggs, to Dolly, a live born animal, was really poor – roughly 1 in 400.

I was curious to find out how cloning works. There are three major ways clones can come into being. I found an article by Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, through the PSU database library that explained the different ways cloning can occur. In a simpler way of describing it, one method in making a clone is by twinning. If an embryo splits naturally in the course of its development, it can make two or more, sometimes three, genetically identical organisms. Twins are clones. The second method for cloning is to take embryos and try to split them. This is very technical, but in non-technical terms, basically, you get a big knife and chop the embryo in half. That is it. The third way to make clones is the most mysterious and remarkable way. You take DNA from adult body cells like from your foot, nose, or the lining of your mouth, take the genes out of those cells, put them into anything, and get them to turn back on and make another organism. How is this done? I am not entirely sure at this point but as John Robertson explains in his article Procreative Liberty in the Era of Genomics, "reproductive cloning [occurs] by somatic cell nuclear transfer. A somatic cell is de-differentiated at an earlier state, its nucleus is removed, and then is transplanted into an enucleated egg. After activation, the resulting embryo is placed in the uterus with the hope that it will implant develop, and come to term."

That’s all fine, you can clone all you want but you cannot recreate the dead or an absolute identical clone because you would have to recreate the environment they grew up in. This fact rings loud and clear in the complicated nature versus nurture debate over genes and the environment and what wins when thinking about inherited and learned traits. The need for interaction between embryo and environment reveals something very important about when life begins. In addition, very little is known about how well clones will do. As Robertson says, “it seems highly premature to attempt human cloning now.” I might agree. But there is a lot of fear that is being put into people’s heads about the serious dangers of cloning in that scientists might start cloning before its safety has been established. Reproductive cloning only becomes unethical when using human lives becomes experimental.