Studied cloning the way it is done

[transit442003]

i just studied cloning the way it is done and the moral and ethical issues i was wondering what are the benefits anyway?




a day without sunshine....is like.....well....scary!

 

[Thallium]

Good question. All the scientists I have heard say that cloning a human being is their goal. They never say why. Two benefits, if they indeed are benefits, are smarter minds and that the parents can have a substitute of their dying son or daughter. Cynical if you ask me. But that's science, I suppose. :(

 

[transit442003]

but what about the people knowing that they have a clone in some lab somewhere that has the same genetic info as them and looks exactly the same how would they feel imean i wouldn't want a substitute of me do you know because it's never really going to be me if i die i don't want to know that my clone is going to take my place in the world everything that i have worked hard for i just think that cloning human biengs should be left alone.

 

[alpha_wolf]

The main potential benefits are:
1. Reproductive cloning - alternative for "reproductively challenged" couples.
2. Medical cloning - spare 100% compatible body parts, basically.

Both are highly controversial, and the 1st is also dangerous (birth deformities, latent deseases caused by a defective cloning process, etc).

Although, both of these will become medically (and perhaps ethicaly) less problematic as nanomedicine emerges in a two or three decades or so...

 

[Moonbear]

Was your question specific to cloning humans, or to cloning in general? Cloning of mice, for example, is a very powerful research technique.

In terms of cloning humans, I'm not in favor of reproductive cloning. Even if all the safety issues were worked out, and it was only used for infertile couples to conceive, my opinion on this is that if a couple has such severe reproductive problems that they cannot conceive using their germ cells, then we are not doing our species any favors to perpetuate the problem. I think the problem is a societal one that people are expected to get married and have children, and labeled as inferior if they do not or cannot. I also think there are important roles for childless couples in society, particularly as supportive in roles as aunts and uncles, or as part of the workforce that can function at greater productivity than parents who need to divide their time between child-rearing and work. This is, obviously, my opinion and not related to biology.

On the other hand, I can envision another use for medical cloning that isn't just growing body parts in a dish. I see this as a long term combination of stem cell research and cloning research. Instead of needing to rely on embryonic derived stem cells, an ideal would be to use cloning technology to create stem cells that have never formed an embryo, but retain the totipotency of those stem cells, then use those to direct specific cell type formation to repair damaged organs, but not necessarily growing up a whole new organ. Given the current state of the technology, this is a pretty far-fetched goal, and we may never realize it, but I think it's a direction worth exploring as these technologies improve.

 

[transit442003]

oh no cloning in humans i mean we don't know really the long term effects of cloning so how should we approach this subject. what about the clones wouldn't they be human and so come under the human rights act would they be allowed to vote for example or to reproduce or maybe just to live a normal life even though it would be an exact replica of me it would still have feelings nad stuff.

 

[Monique]

Twins are human, why would a clone not be human... identical twins are clones.

 

[aychamo]

Aye.. A clone of a human is every bit as human. It would just be your exact genetype in that person. But they would be their own person. They would have their own thoughts, opinions, and personalities.

Anywyas, I've seen quite a few girls I would love to have a few clones of running around ;-) Too bad you have to wait for them to grow up and all that. Imagine if you could buy your own clone of, say, Angelina Jolie or whatever other beautiful woman out there! Haha! I'll take two!

 

[alpha_wolf]

Imagine if you could buy your own clone of, say, Angelina Jolie or whatever other beautiful woman out there!

Errr... if selling people is wrong, how exactly is this any better??!

 

[Sho'Nuff]

The most important benefit of cloning right now is the possibility to get real totipotent stem cells that can be used for the treatment of many different diseases and aren't detected by the immune system. One prominent example of this is repopulation of the bone marrow after irradiation and chemo therapy in leukemia patients. The conventional transplants eventually fail not mentioning the side effects of immune supressive medication.

 

[Andre]

How about cloning extinct species? I understand that Japan is doing serious research into cloning a mammoth. That's why that newly found Yukagir mammoth mummy will be on display on the EXPO 2005

Is it possible?
What would be required to do so?
Why would we want to revive mammoths? To undo the damage that prehistoric man did by hunting it to extinction?
Why would we not want to do it? Because their biotope ceased to exist?

 

[iansmith]

to have a successful clone, you need an intact nucleus from a cell. It probably unlikely that scientific can find a nucleus in a good shape that is sufficient for cloning.

As far as reviving the mammoths, does Jurassick park comes to mind? The mammoths would not be capable of living in our modern world because it is no adapted.

 

[Drayakir]

Well, the movie 6th Day adressed some of those issues. If cloning ever gets cheaper, we could have a large food supply of not only animals, and such, but plants as well, in fact plants might be easier to clone. Second, "spare parts." It sounds bad, but if you're missing a kidney and you have no acceptable donor, you wouldn't care. Finally, if we allow cloning, we could have viable offspring that could be our ideal children (ChildTech)

 

[loseyourname]

to have a successful clone, you need an intact nucleus from a cell. It probably unlikely that scientific can find a nucleus in a good shape that is sufficient for cloning.

As far as reviving the mammoths, does Jurassick park comes to mind? The mammoths would not be capable of living in our modern world because it is no adapted.

What was the opinion of the meat expressed by those scientists that had mammoth burger back in the day? If it's good, maybe we can clone them and confine them to farms to be used as a food source. (I'm kidding, of course.)