Cloning CMC 1° Bach

What is Cloning?  Reproductive cloning is a technology used to generate an animal that has the same nuclear DNA as another currently or previously existing animal.  Dolly was a sheep created by reproductive cloning technology.  Dolly or any other animal created using nuclear transfer technology is not truly an identical clone of the donor animal. Only the clone's chromosomal or nuclear DNA is the same as the donor.

Discovery News 1997  0RaD-A 0RaD-A  Dolly: The First Adult Mammal to be Cloned

Human Cloning  aqA aqA

Stem Cell Research  What are Stem Cells?  Stem cells are cells that develop into different cell types in the body during growth. Different parts of your body are made up of different kinds of cells.  Stem cells are not specific to one area in the body and can turn into skin, bone, blood or brain cells.

Stem Cells  Stem Cells Are Special  Stem cells are different than other cells in many ways. For one, they can renew themselves by dividing into more stem cells more than once.

Stem Cells  Scientific Research  Scientists are researching stem cells and have discovered many interesting things about them.  Some scientists believe stem cells can cure diseases, cause hair to grow for bald people, and can be used to grow organs such as livers and kidneys.

Stem Cell Harvesting

 Therapeutic cloning produces stem cells which can develop into different types of body cell, making them ideal for research into treatment of disease.  But this technology involves the creation and destruction of embryos, which is ethically controversial. The stem cells created also run the risk of being rejected by the body.  The new technology, nuclear reprogramming, creates stem-like cells from the patient's own cells, avoiding both these problems.

Stem Cells  Types of Stem Cells:  There are two types of stem cells: adult and embryonic stem cells.  Adult stem cells turn into many different cells of the same basic kind.  Embryonic stem cells can turn into almost all of the body's cell types with a few exceptions.

Stem Cells  Research:  Stem cell research has much support from the American people but has not received as much from the United States government.  As a result, many scientists research stem cells in other countries that support their research projects

The Stem Cell Debate  Cloning:  Because of the stem cell's ability to transform into any other type of cell, much of stem cell research is directed towards human cloning.  There are two types of human cloning: reproductive and therapeutic.  Reproductive cloning is essentially cloning to produce children, while therapeutic cloning is used only for scientific research.  While cloning to produce children is not yet possible, stem cell researchers hope that one day it will become a feasible option.

Human Cloning: Your Opinion  Answer the following questions about human cloning independently.

1. Do you agree that human cloning should be legalized?

2. Do you think it is unethical to clone a human?

3. If you were dying and needed a donor organ to live, would you clone yourself to create the organ?

4. Do you think a human clone would live a normal life?

5. Should scientists be allowed to use human cloning to create children for infertile couples?

6. Do you agree that human cloning is above human power and should be illegal?

7. Are you for or against human cloning?

What do you think???  u0NQ u0NQ  Cloning the First Human- BBC Horizon

Benefits of Human Cloning:  Better genetic traits can be produced  Better medicines  Recreate endangered or extinct animals  The possibility to recreate life  Cloning of human organs

Benefits of Human Cloning:  Ability to rejuvenate the human body (make our organs younger)  Reduction in the speed of aging  Problems with Famine (meat could be produced at large quantities by cloning animals)  Price and Availability of Food

Why Should We Fear Human Cloning?  Two identical beings will be living (more identical than twins)  Mental Cloning (people with the same skills, history, memory and personality traits)  Fear of having thousands of people identical to each other in the world  No diversity of thought, reasoning, or opinion

Group Debate:  Divide yourself into two groups:  Group 1: For Human Cloning  Group 2: Against Human Cloning

Group Debate:  Each group must create a short argument to defend their stance regarding human cloning.