English Literature

The genetic research, a rapidly developing area of science, offers the possibility of the cloning technology, which has entailed a lot of debate and discussions. If one examines the history of its evolution, it becomes clear that this particular technology has undergone much research and constant studies before it attained its current status as a significant part of the modern science. This paper attempts to identify and evaluate the various changes that have occurred in this technology with the passage of time. Besides, it examines the milestones in genetic engineering and cloning. Because of its tremendous appeal to the scientific world and to its utility in the medical field and other areas, this technology has rapidly developed as a result of constant researches.  Cloning refers to the development of offspring that are genetically identical to their parent (Bailey, 2010, para.1).  The human race can derive many benefits from cloning and, therefore, it should be allowed, but with appropriate restrictions.

History of Cloning
The history of cloning can be traced back to the time when genetic engineering has caused much furor in its advent and development. Starting from plants and  later on introduced in animals, cloning has made a solid impact on the development of science and technology with its close relationship with the practice of medicine. Cloning of non-mammals was first accomplished in 1952 (History of cloning What is the history of cloning 2010, para.1). This indicates that the genetic research has succeeded in achieving the real time implementation of what the scientists observed and noted in the course of their work.

The further path has been to develop various cloning techniques useful in the research as well as the development of clones. The techniques developed include the following the Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, the Roslin Technique and the Honolulu Technique (Bailey, 2010, para.3). All these techniques have impacted the field of genetic engineering to evolve as an excellent tool to derive diversified benefits to the human race.

The Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer is a method in which the nucleus of any cell except germ cells is used to replace  the nucleus of an egg,  to produce an embryo. The nucleus of the egg used will be removed before the neuclear transfer and it is followed by proper cultivation of this unfertilized egg leading to rapid division and the production of embryo. The embryo thus developed is later implanted inside the uterus of a surrogate female where it develops into a baby.

The Roslin Technique is the one that has been utilized to produce Dolly, a sheep, the first mammal to be cloned. The name of this technique is derived from the institute that devloped this method of cloning. In this method, the somatic cell is intended to  be used to separate and allow them to divide later, keeping them away from any type of nutrition. The cells are said to be in a dormant state then. A system is evolved where an egg, devoid of the nucleus, is kept in close proximity to those dormant cells and electric stimulation is done on the system, leading to fusion of cells which then develope to an embryo. Later, it is implanted in the surrogate mothers womb.

The Honolulu Technique is the contribution of Dr. Teruhiko Wakayama. This method removes somatic nucleus which is then injected  into the egg sans its nucleus. Then it is washed in a chemeical mixture and cultivated to form an embryo. The embryo developed in this way is later implanted into a serrogate mother.

The demonstration identified in cloning history was done by a team of scientists in Philadelphia working at the lab of Robert Briggs cloned a frog embryo (History of cloning, n.d., para.5). It is this development that helped  further nuclear transpalntation in genetics. The test so conducted included the replacement of nucleus of a  frogs egg with that of a cell from the frogs embryo. When the egg receives a complete array of chromosomes there occurs no delay for cell division  and scientists claim of this success as long back as1951, as a result of their research of years related to nuclear transplantation.

Dolly was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, rather than an embryo (Cloning Dolly the sheep, 2010, para.2).
 INCLUDEPICTURE httpwww.animalresearch.info_uploadsimgpoolDolly195px.jpg

MERGEFORMATINET
1996 was the year marked by the birth of Dolly under the inspection of Ian Wilmut. But the major mishap was her death on 14th February 2003 at the age of six years seven months and nine days. Usually, a sheeps age is about twice that of Dolly. The reason attributed to the death is that the donor cell was already six years old, implying that Dolly was already six years on her birth. However, the event offered possibilities for future cloning and elimination of redundancies in the knowledge about reproduction as well as genetic disorders in cloned mammals.

The scope of cloning is high but on the other hand, the exploitation of  women and children cannot be condoned.The children produced by cloning as well as donors and serrogates will be under continuous experiment, most of the times exposed to chemicals and drugs. So, the authorities have taken many steps taken to prevent such eventualities. Regulations issued by the FDA extend the Common Rules basic requirements to private sponsors conducting human drug, device, and biological product testing (Dresser, 2003, para.2). There are many laws and regulations implemented to stop the misuse of women and children in the name of cloning which is a positive sign.

Cloning is divided  into two types regarding the end usage of the embryo developed through the process. These are Reproductive Cloning and Therapeutic Cloning. The names indicate the purpose of each.

Therapeutic Cloning
As the name  suggests, this is perfornmed to achieve certain medical objectieves. Therapeutic cloning, also called embryo cloning, is the production of human embryos for use in research (Cloning fact sheet, 2009, para.9). The embryos developed through this system is used for the  treatment of various ailments as well as to facilitate the development and replacement of damaged organs.

The embryos developed are taken to extract stem cells which are the base of any cell in a body. The stem cells planted with any cells tend to develop into those cells surrounding them. The eggs at the stage of blastocyst are the main utiltiy for therapeutic applications. The stem cells that are being kept at the  liver of a person, will develop in to new liver cells and  the same applies for all organs.
Therapeutic cloning is  one of the major milestones in stem cell research. The stem cells produced by eliminating the redundant chromosomes responsible for various ailments will help in making a human organ free from any diseases.

Moreover, this can help in the initial stages of reproductive cloning as well. The therapeutic research on embryos to develop a clone of a living creature will alwas help in removing possible genetic disorders to a great extent.

Benefits of Therapeutic Cloning
Cells removed are pluripotent the fact is evdient that stem cells are useful for the treatment of any deteriorating organs. Thus it can be stated that they serve multipurpose benefits to humans.
Lower risk rates of the immunological rejection the risk of rejection of transplants or replced cells is very much reduced because stem cells are produced with cells from the patients own body, producing same genetic code.This eliminates the possibility of the production of antibodies owing to new transplanted cells.

Lowered delay for the transplant since the procedure includes injecting and culturing of stem cells on damaged parts, no delay as in the case of  ordinary transplant surgery is present. Also, immunological delays are eliminated by therapeutic cloning.

Enhancement of information the enhancements of information regarding stem cells, their production and culturing is  very significant in therapeutic cloning.

Limitations of the Therapeutic Cloning
Tedious approach to meet the requirements there is no scope for success in creating feasible egg at the firist attempt itself and this drawback necessitates much time and cost.

Blsatocyst the embryo at blastocyst stage gets disrupted completey due to the extraction of stem cells.
Fear of the new cloned humans human cloning is not accepted as such and there are existing frights that following therapeutic cloning the researcher may opt for further developoment leading to human cloning because the entire procedures are carried out with human genome and stem cells having pluripotency.

Reproductive Cloning
The reproductive cloning  is used to produce a new living clone  identical to the donor. Reproductive cloning is a technology used to generate an animal that has the same nuclear DNA as another currently or previously existing animal (Cloning fact sheet, 2009, para.7). A duplicate copy is created with reproductive cloning. The nucleus from a non germ cell is fused into an egg having no nucleus which is then left to develop through division into an embryo. The embryo is then planted into the uterus of the sugrrogate mother who carries it as usual conception process to give birth to a baby who is identical to the donor. The genetic makeup will imitate donor with no gene transaction between baby and serrogate mother. This is a better option when a parent is impotent or infertile to give birth to a baby owing to some problem in impregnating or conceiving natuarlly or due to certain genetic disorders. Dolly, the first cloned mammal, has proved that reproduction is possible in the same manner as that of ordinary mammals.

Benefits of Reproductive Cloning
The major benefit of reproductive cloning is the blessing it offers to parents who cannot have children in the natrural way. Pregnancy becomes a true bestowment to such females and their husbands yearning ardently for a child.

Limitations of Reproductive Cloning
Shorter life spans the life span of the cloned individuals will always be shorter than of the normal humans or animals. This because of the fact that the clone child born will have the maturity of genes and other traits of growth matured upto that of the donor. So, such a clone has to live from that age to complete his life span.

Genetic diversity the gene pool of the world will obviously have similar traits which are being considered as a major redundancy  possible through reproductive cloning. The genetic diversity will get exceptions if reproductive cloning is done.

The Arguments against Cloning
The negative aspects of cloning can be examined by considering the arguments against  therapeutic and reproductive cloning separately.Arguments against Therapeutic Cloning
 Following are the four major arguments against therapeutic cloning The Anti-Abortion Argument, the Therapy-Enhancement Blur Argument, the Deal with Reality Argument, and the Anti-Medical Advancement Argument (Yount, 2004, p.5).

The Anti-Abortion Argument claims that the process of disrupting embryos at the blastocyst stage is illegal and immoral. The morality of destroying embryos is questioned in the case of therapeutic cloning.

The next main objection is that the Therapy-Enhancement Blur argument draws on the narrowing of the gap between therapy and development through therapeutic cloning. The usage of the treatment, those who promulgate this argument say, has extended to the betterment which, according to them, is not the right thing to do.

Next in line, the Deal with Reality argument can be seen as something close to a theological approach. The proponents of this argument believe that the reality of life and death cannot be kept separated from ones life. Many are of the opinion that diseases alone cannot or must ever be eliminated completely from the world.

The final one, the Anti-Medical Advancement argument, opines that the therapeutic cloning has a redundancy of knowing about a person more than for medical purposes which cannot be permitted on ethical grounds.

Arguments against Reproductive Cloning
The arguments made against reproductive cloning are Not IVF Argument, the Unacceptable Medical Risks Argument, the Psychological Harms Argument (Yount, 2004, p.2).

The Not IVF argument claims that the reproductive cloning is not a natural procedure on the initial stage. It is the person conducting the research who defines the possible and required qualities of the child produced. The promoters of this argument hold that this is totally against moral ethics. Moreover, they feel that there is a possibility that at times this can end up being great disasters.

The Unacceptable Medical Risks argument states that jeopardy is not far in the case of clones. Genetic as well as physical problems can occur in such individuals, forcing them to have a life with many difficulties.

The Psychological Harms Argument goes through the link between psychology and genetic relationship. A feel of copied identity and competing mentality to outsmart the donor will always remain there, causing psychological problems to the cloned individual.

Conclusion
The field of genetics and cloning has achieved the rapid growth and success over the recent years and the trend continues. The benefits and redundancies are being studied over years but could never diminish the glory of this concept. The scientists in the field are hoping for many developments making biomedical field a better domain of success to be deployed for the benefits of human race. If one considers the advantages and disadvantages, it becomes apparent that the former outweigh the latter. In terms of the benefits cloning brings in the medical field and the blessings humans can tap through it, cloning definitely is a desirable technology and the government should allow its practice. However, before deciding so, the authorities have to ensure that this technology is not used for attaining the vested interest of any party, including the scientists, by implementing appropriate regulations. The human race must learn to use as a boon as a boon and prevent its misuse and then they can negate the disadvantages.