WHY

ANIMAL CLONING IS A GOOD THING

By: Roberto Panameno

The 1960s introduced us to The Beatles, man walking on the moon, and the first animal
clone ever. What is cloning? Cloning is a process that allows us (or scientists mostly) to
create an identical duplicate of something or someone. Ever since then, scientists have been
hard at work learning more about cloning and cloning other animals. I think cloning is a
good thing and something society has to look more into in order to understand how
beneficial animal cloning could be.

When it comes to the topic of animal cloning, however, its usually a question of ethics.
Theres the argument of whether it goes against personal beliefs or even religion. They dont
take the time to look at it from a scientific perspective and see that it is actually the next step
in the development of science.

Most people think that cloning is wrong just from their morals and opinions alone, rather
than from a scientific standpoint. According to debate.org the main argument against
cloning is that it is against Gods will and that we dont have permission to play God and
create people, plants, and animals (Should We Clone Animals?). A counter-argument that
was presented by jwang64 and an anonymous user was that we should practice animal
cloning to be able to repopulate endangered species that have died off because of human
expansion and messing with the environment. Another common complaint against animal

cloning would be that it harms the animals being cloned and the clone itself. While the
response to that would be that the animal being cloned wouldnt feel any pain because they
are only used to get cells to create the clone, there is no argument against the treatment of
the clone itself. The clones, in my opinion, get the short end of the stick, having to be studied
and constantly the center of attention.

Cloning is a very complex process that allows us to create a duplicate organism using cells
from the original organism. The process can be used for a variety of reasons, whether its for
scientific research or for medical purposes, and according to the Genetic Science Learning
Center, cloning for medical purposes has the potential to benefit large numbers of people
(Genetic Science Learning Center, Why Clone?). These people could include farmers, using
clones to create the perfect livestock, and scientists, using the information gathered from
experiments to perfect the process to raise the cloning success rate. Cloning can be used to
bring back deceased, endangered, or extinct animals, for livestock, or even studying
diseases. However, as long as they continue their research, they might be able to clone
humans, which could be used for medical purposes.

The cloning process deals with taking a somatic cell (a cell from any part of the body except
for sperm and egg cells) from the animal that they want to clone. They take that cell and put
it into an egg cell that has had its nucleus removed. Scientists then allow the egg to develop
in a test-tube until it becomes an early-stage embryo and is then put into the womb of an
adult female animal until it is ready to give birth. (National Human Genome Research
Institute).

The fact that cloning animals has so many positive effects should be reason enough to
support it. Throughout history, there have been 20 successful results of animal cloning,
ranging from fish to household cats to sheep (Drea). Scientists have come a long way to be
able to get to this point, and they should continue with their research.


Farmers would definitely benefit from the use of cloning. Animal clonings greatest use
would be to create the perfect livestock to be used to produce high quality offspring to be
used as food or to produce items such as milk and eggs. Also, according to the FDA, the
interest in cloning comes from the need to produce offspring with desirable characteristics
such as: disease resistance, suitability to climate, body type, fertility, and market
preferences (U.S Food and Drug Administration, A Primer on Cloning). Creating the perfect
livestock would lead to more consumers which would lead to profit for the farmers that
grow the livestock. The FDA even tested the meat and milk from cow, goat, and pig clones to
make sure that it was safe for human consumption. In 2008, they concluded that these
products were as safe as the original (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Animal Cloning
and Food Safety). However, studies on the first cloned mammal, Dolly, have shown that
there are parts of chromosomes called telomeres which get shorter as you get older. When
Dolly was born, the length of her telomere was as long as her older donor. Despite that,
other studies have shown that most clones appear to be aging normally, and that the first
cloned cattle alive, healthy, and are 10 years old as of 2008 (U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, Myths About Cloning).

While there are positives that come from animal cloning, there are negatives that come from
it. The first would be the high failure rate of animal cloning. Studies have shown that the
possibility of success ranges from 0.1% to 3%. That means that for every 1000 tries, 970 to
999 of those attempts will be failures. (Genetic Science Learning Center, What Are the Risks
of Cloning?) On the other hand, Dolly the sheep was successfully created after only 277
attempts (Cloning Dolly the Sheep). That means that there is hope that the process will be
perfected in time and will not take as many tries as in the past.

A second negative about cloning would be problems during later development. After a clone
is born, they could have issues such as kidney or brain malfunctions, impaired immune
systems, or they could be born with large offspring syndrome, which means that they
were born with abnormally large organs that could lead to problems with breathing and
blood flow (Genetic Science Learning Center, What Are the Risks of Cloning?). These
problems could get in the way of gathering accurate information and would probably be
considered failures. There is no way to prevent this (yet) and no way to reliably predict
when these problems will occur.

What would be the long-term effects of cloning? Somewhere down the line, scientists hope
to make history by creating the worlds very first human clone. Despite the ethical issues
that come from human cloning, there are ways that they can help society. The clones would
be used to treat heart attacks, create stem cells, and even cure genetic diseases such as
cancer, Downs syndrome, and others. (Pakhare). Sure, creating a whole other person just

for scientific purposes seems like a bad thing, but the benefits that can come from these
experiments can include using stem cells and manipulating them to repair damaged or
diseased organs and tissues (Genetic Science Learning Center, Why Clone?) and create
better lives for people who couldnt achieve it by themselves.

While there are some drawbacks to it, animal cloning might just be the next big thing in
science. If we dont explore this, there could be a world of possibilities that we could miss
out on. (cure for cancer maybe?)






Works Cited


Cloning Dolly the Sheep. Animalresearch.info. Web. 1 Apr 2015.


Drea. 20 animals that have been cloned. Businesspundit.com. 19 Feb 2009. Web. 30 Mar
2015.


Genetic Science Learning Center. What Are the Risks of Cloning? learn.genetics.utah.edu.
University of Utah Health Sciences. Web. 31 Mar 2015.


---Why Clone? learn.genetics.utah.edu. University of Utah Health Sciences. Web. 30 Mar
2015.


National Human Genome Research Institute. Cloning. Genome.gov. 28 Apr 2014. Web. 30
Mar 2015.


Pakhare, Jayashree. Human Cloning Benefits. Buzzle.com. 8 Dec 2011. Web. 30 Mar 2015


Should We Clone Animals? debate.org. Web. 31 Mar 2015.


U.S. Food and Drug Administration. A Primer on Cloning and Its Use in Livestock
Operations. Fda.gov. 28 Jul 2014. Web. 30 Mar 2015.


--- Animal Cloning and Food Safety. Fda.gov. Jan 2008. Web. 30 Mar 2015.

--- Myths About Cloning. Fda.gov. 3 Jul 2014. Web. 31 Mar 2015.