Cloning
What is cloning? The simple explanation: Cloning or nuclear transplantation or somatic cell nuclear transfer involves removing the nucleus (containing a cell's DNA) from an egg cell, and transplanting the DNA from an adult cell into the enucleated egg. The egg is shocked into simulating of fertilization. When the fertilized egg is implanted into the uterus, it has the potential to develop into a full organism. This organism has the same DNA as the donor of the adult cell. The organism would be an exact copy of the adult -- at least biologically. This is "reproductive cloning." (Benagiano & Primiero, 2002)
People have come on different sides of the philosophical divide when the topic of human cloning is brought up. (Goodnough, 2003) Dolly the sheep was the first mammal cloned (Wilmut et al., 1997) -- Dolly is now dead. Recently the Raelian's (who believe that they have descended from aliens) made claims to have cloned (Tomasch, 2002) the first human baby. These unsubstantiated claims are fodder for sensationalism.
While most bio-ethicists, among them, Leon Kass (former President Bush's appointee) and Professor Glenn McGee at the University of Pennsylvania have come against human cloning (either for the imposition of a moratorium or complete, unequivocal ban), other medical personnel and scientists like Michael West (President and CEO of Advanced Cell Technology), Richard Seed (a scientist from Chicago), Panos Zavos (President and CEO of Zavos Diagnostic Laboratories, Inc.), Severino Antinori (a fertility expert from Italy enabled a 62-year-old woman have a baby) and Lee Silver (molecular biologist and professor of genetics at Princeton University) are some experts that are cloning's main proponents. With the debate on cloning, there is an air of inevitability: no matter what the debate, cloning will proceed. Also, the convictions of the people on different sides of the issues are so firmly rooted, that it would be extremely difficult to convince them otherwise. (McGee, 1998)
Bibliography
Benagiano, G., & Primiero, F.M. (2002). Human reproductive cloning. Int J. Gynaecol Obstet. 79(3), 265-268.
Goodnough, D. (2003). The debate over human cloning, Berkeley Heights, NJ, Enslow Pub.
McGee, G. (1998). The human cloning debate, Berkeley, Calif., Berkeley Hills Books.
Tomasch, P. (2002, December 28, 2002). The sportswriter, the aliens, and a cult with 55,000 believers. The Guardian.
Wilmut, I., Schnieke, a.E., McWhir, J., Kind, a.J., & Campbell, K.H. (1997). Viable offspring derived from fetal and adult mammalian cells. Nature. 385(6619), 810-813.
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