Cloning Technology
The possibility of cloning human beings began when the sheep "Dolly" was first cloned in 1977. Since then cloning has produced worldwide attention and concern because of the scientific and ethical implications it comes with. "Cloning" is an umbrella term given by scientists to depict diverse processes of duplicating biological matter.
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What is Cloning?
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Cloning is the process of creating an organism that has exactly the same genetic composition as another. This means that each bit of DNA is the same between the organism or "genetic clones" as they are known.
DNA Cloning
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Also known as molecular, gene or recombinant DNA technology is the transfer of a DNA from one organism to self-duplicating genetic elements like bacterial plasmid and then transmitted into a foreign host cell to produce a "clone." Being practiced since the 1970s, it is still being widely used in the labs today.
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Reproductive Cloning
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This type of cloning Is used to "reproduce" an animal to have similar nuclear DNA as another presently or previously existing animal. Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from adult DNA was created by reproductive cloning by a process known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).
Therapeutic Cloning
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Also known as embryo cloning this process is used to produce stem cells from the human embryos for research and study. This could be useful for treating various diseases such as Alzheimer's, cancer and heart diseases but since it involves the destruction of a human embryo it is raises ethical concerns.
Criticisms of Cloning
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Cloning brings up a list of criticisms including its highly expensive and inefficient methods, low success rates, DNA problems giving rise to other health risk factors and lowering the life expectancy of the cloned organism, according to the Human Genome Project.
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