Cloning Technology

The technology of cloning is fast becoming one of the most talked about areas of Biological Science in current times.

The cloning of Dolly, the Finn Dorset sheep, that was born in 1997. The genetic engineering of disease-resistant plants. These are things that the stuff of dreams is made of... Not anymore.

It has happened, it has been achieved.

But just how did they do it?

It is really quite a process - but for the purposes of this article, we shall look at 'reproductive cloning' in a simplified manner:

reproductive cloning occurs when a cell is extracted from one animal, the nucleus removed from that cell, and then a cell inserted from another animal to give the first cell the DNA characteristics of the donor animal. The division of that cell is then manipulated by using chemicals or an electrical current. Once cell division begins, the cell is then placed into the womb of a surrogate animal. The animal hosts, or carries, the cell as it grows and takes on the characteristics of the animal being cloned, and the cloned animal is born as part of a normal delivery.

Reproductive cloning is one method of cloning. This method is employed in a variety of different ways, but the result, or the desired result, is the same.

It sounds fairly simple doesn't it? Well, in some ways it is. They did alright with Dolly didn't they? Or did they? Dolly was born without the ability to reproduce. This is the first problem that I suppose the scientists have to address.

By the way, there are some common misconceptions about cloning:

Clones are not carbon copies. While a clone will have the same genetic make-up as the model, a clone grows from birth and will develop different characteristics depending on the environment around it and the experiences the clone has. The clone may look identical, but the environmental differences mean that the clone will, in fact, be unique.

So, how far can this technology progress? Well, judging by the scientific and technological advances we have made in the last 50 years, a lot!

But I think that, for those of us who are not going to be around in another 50 years, our imaginations will have to do. And what a frightening thing an imagination can be, when confronted with the simple question:

Cloning - where do we go from here?

The answer is one that, thankfully, I don't think I will ever know...