Cloning: The Double-Edged Sword :: Biology

Cloning The Double-Edged SwordSuch a furore was created when the cede of Dolly the sheep the first successfully cloned mammal, was announced to the world in 1997, that the scientific community was gasping for air. Time and space seemed to cook come to a realistic standstill as scientists vigorously, not to mention obsessively, hypothesized the cosmic future capableness of Dr. Wilmuts teams revolutionary breakthrough in the dynamic realm of science. The euphoria of the moment, it seems, took or so time to settle before scientists began to unravel the possible detrimental ramifications of the discovery. call for Dr. Wilmut and team then generated a scientific miracle on one hand, man opening a Pandoras box on the other? It is difficult to take exception the fact that the successful re-create of Dolly has far-reaching applications in the twin field of bio applied science and bioengineering. The advanced patrimonial reprogramming techniques employed to fashion the clone have o pened the door to a multitude of potential avenues for application genetic engineering of organs for transplant purposes, xenotransplantation, cell therapy for illnesses such as Leukaemia, shaking palsy disease and diabetes, therapeutic cloning (the notion of growing waver for patients that is genetically identical to their own, for example neural cells could be made for people with paralysis agitans disease, new muscle for those with ailing hearts and, later, perhaps even strong organs might be grown, all free from the threat of tissue rejection), and even in curtailing the extinction of endangered animal species, just to design a few.While the advantages of nuclear transfer and genetic reprogramming seem manifold, the cloning and manufacture of transgenic life forms for research purposes, and not to mention the prospect of cloning humans, unearths innumerous compelling ethical questions which can, in my opinion, under no circumstances be satisfactorily answered. Here are a fe w to whet your appetite- Do we humans have the moral right to play God? What would happen to animals (or humans) cloned unsuccessfully with deformities, since the technology and its complementary knowledge are still embryonic and in their primacy? How would we charge an identity to a human clone? Since there is no justly and effective international regulation on the utilization of this technology in place today, how can we know for sure it is not being employ?