Cloning And Gene Mapping: Good Or Bad?

Adam Roach
Honors Biology
Mrs. Parks
December 9, 2013
Cloning and Gene Mapping: Good or Bad? What would the world be like if we could create alternate versions of ourselves? What if we had the capability to make a copy of ourselves in hopes that they would do work and other tasks for us? These are a few of the things that people could do with cloning. They could exploit this technology for personal gain that is unnecessary, but this scientific advance could also be used to replace dysfunctional organs in a body, ultimately saving the person’s life. Scientists and doctors have to work together to find a balance in using this technology to ensure that they don’t disrupt the order in our society. Scientists have been trying to clone mammals for years. In a since, cloning has been going on forever. A clone is an organism with identical DNA to another, so technically twins are clones. Besides twins, the first cloning breakthrough occurred in 1885 when a sea urchin was cloned. It wasn’t as prominent in the media as the cloning of Dolly the sheep was, which occurred in the 1990s. A Scottish scientist named Dr. Ian Wilmot cloned Dolly in 1997. This cloning astonished the world, and made people realize that the barrier between science fiction and reality had been cracked. It took 277 attempts to create Dolly, and those results have still to be replicated in another lab. Cloning is defined as the process in which the DNA of a female egg cell is replaced with different DNA from another cell. In cloning, a nucleus containing DNA molecules from an unfertilized egg cell is removed and replaced with the nucleus of a cell from a different organism. Then, the cell is tricked into thinking it has been fertilized and is placed inside a mother where it develops into an embryo and is carried for nine months, just as a regular mammal. The only way a clone contrasts with a normal mammal is the fact that it has identical DNA to another organism. Cloning is used for making genetic “copies” of organisms. This can range from a cell, to an entire human being. An example where cloning is useful is when a human being has a dysfunctional organ. Cloning provides a way to create an organ that will replace the old one without having to put the patient on high doses of antirejection medicine. Another use of cloning is enabling couples that are unable to conceive to have a child. A cloned embryo can be implanted into a woman’s body, and then the baby can grow and be a part of the couples DNA. Cloning is quite a controversy. Although there are many cons, there are pros as well. For example it benefits the medical field tremendously. From saving lives to helping people have babies, the possibilities are infinite. It could cure diseases that presently have no cure like Parkinson’s, Diabetes, and Alzheimer’s. Environmentalists could clone animals of endangered species to protect them from going extinct, therefore helping “green” efforts. The cons mostly come from religious organizations, and are just as reasonable as the pros. Many religious organizations think that cloning is like “playing God,” and that by doing this we as a society are messing with his plan for the world. Another con is that the capability to clone could fall into the wrong hands, and could be abused. One con that was not born from the depths of religion is the fact that cloning creates a loss of gene diversity. Without gene diversity, viruses could wipe out entire populations of clones because the gene mutations that protect “natural” human beings would be lost. Another con is that clones have a 95 percent chance of miscarriage, deformities, and debilitating conditions. The problem with clones is that they aren’t stable. People should be properly educated on cloning before they make the decision to use it in some part of their life. Genetic mapping is creating a map of DNA using chromosomes. Genetic mapping is the first step in isolating a gene. It is also known as called linkage

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