The Science of Cloning DNA

Aaron Augat
April 7, 2017

Cloning has always been a dream to achieve for many humans. It has always appeared in
famous films portraying the possibility of having our own clone! Is it really possible? Am I able
to have the twin brother Ive always wanted? Cloning has always been a subject that fascinates
scientist, and they are racing to find even more information on the subject.
In our world, cloning can and does occur naturally all the time, mostly in plants and
bacteria. However, when we hear the word, clone, we generally think of an artificial copy of a
mammal (such as ourselves, humans.) Dana Dovey in her article, The Science Of Human
Cloning: How Far We've Come And How Far We're Capable Of Going, she states, Cloning
describes a number of processes used to create genetically identical copies of a biological entity.
Scientists all over the world have been studying without hesitation, the process of cloning
mammals. Although the ethics have yet to be discussed about cloning human beings, there are
several accounts of successfully cloning other mammals.
Dolly is the name of a now famous sheep. She was the first mammal to be successfully
cloned. No she was not put into a cloning machine and then magically popped out several
carbon copies of herself, rather, a part of her DNA was put into another sheeps egg to clone her,
starting as a newborn lamb. In reality, cloning is simply taking the randomness out of sexual
reproduction.
The famous sheep, Dolly, was first cloned in 1996 which at the time created much
controversy which still exists today. But the controversy isnt the only effect of the cloning we
have. There are still four of her clone sisters that are genetically identical to Dolly and are alive
and well today. According to an article written by, Rachael Rettner, Dollys clone sisters
recently had their ninth birthday, which is an astonishing seventy in human years. This research
has been very helpful in showing how clones can be just as healthy as their origin. Isnt that
amazing? Scientists before worried so much about health problems and disorders in cloning
DNA, and there has been, yet Dollys clone sisters have proven that not all clones contain
genetic disorders.
Dolly, now a famous model of cloning DNA, stands on display in a museum in Scotland
so all can appreciate her achievement in this scientific field of study. Because of her, we know
that cloning is not only possible, but can be successful. Cloning is now a much studied field of
science due to the success of the first cloned animal, Dolly the sheep.
Now we know for a surety that cloning is definitely possible, but is it safe? The overall
objective with cloning is to be able to clone a human being, but what side effects would it take?
To this day, there is no record of any human being that was successfully cloned. The closest we
have come is cloning the DNA of one of our relatives, the monkey. We have come so close as to
clone human embryos (both infant and adult), but those embryos were not allowed to fully
mature. But what does it mean to clone embryos?
In order to understand fully how animals are cloned, its probably a good idea to start
thinking about how the reproduce naturally. No, I dont mean just having sex. Think a little bit
deeper than that. What takes place in order to develop a full human embryo?
Every animal has something inside of them called chromosomes. These chromosomes
contain genetic DNA in order to reproduce. Each animal has a different number of
chromosomes (therefore we can never have a human mixed with whatever other animal). When
humans engage in sexual reproduction, they each pass one set of chromosomes onto their
offspring, giving him/her genetic traits such as eye color.
We get our eye color from our parents. Brown is the dominant trait, but some people
have blue eyes as well. This happens because somebody might have one or both parents with a
homozygous recessive trait or they just might be carrying it as a heterozygous trait. If one of the
parents carries a homozygous recessive trait and the other a heterozygous trait, their offspring
has the possibility of having either blue or brown eyes. Cloning DNA would simply take out the
chance aspect and we would know exactly what color eyes they might have or what color of
hair. Cloning does not mean same personality or physical ability. This comes with the living
environment and experiences.
What are the benefits of cloning though? Is it really necessary? Most would think that
cloning is really just for studies when really, a lot of people can benefit from cloning. Yet at the
same time, it can be detrimental to other people and species. For example, farmers could save a
lot of money from cloning animals to bypass the defects of chance in their animals. Possibly
horse racers could take out the chance of having a bad genetic horse. There are a numberless
amount of benefits. Future cloning could even possibly bring back extinct species. And now
what about the disadvantages?
There are also a lot of disadvantages of cloning. Known cloned animals tend to obtain
diseases at earlier ages giving them a disadvantage to natural born animals. Dolly the sheep was
known to have died from a lung disease that she obtained earlier than most sheep at that age.
The scientists who studied Dolly attribute that to her being cloned although nobody really knows
for sure.
Although we have come very far in studying cloning since we first discovered it possible,
nobody knows exactly how far we will be able to take cloning or what the next level is. We
have cloned many animals even down to monkeys, yet we dont have anything recorded about
any human, adult or child, being successfully cloned. On the other hand of cloning, can we
really deem it ethical? A study asking the ethical viewpoint on human cloning to several
churches around the world, showed that most do think that human cloning is absolutely
unethical. Only one of the 7 accepted it as ethical. Aside from the churches, human cloning is
also completely banned in over 20 nations around the world including some of the worlds
biggest countries such as Canada, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Germany, Italy, France and so on.
Even if a cloned animal makes it to birth, its almost as if nature has it out for them from
the start. Like I explained, cloning isnt fully researched and some of these cloned animals
resemble premature births for reasons we dont understand. Their lungs aren't fully developed, or
their hearts don't work quite right. Overall, they arent born as healthy as a natural given baby.
Though the future of cloning is still undecided due to laws and ethical reasons, we have a
far way to go on this kind of research. Will cloning be completely outlawed? If it does get
outlawed, will the research continue? Nobody can truly say. But there is one thing that is for
certain, and that is that, there are still many unanswered questions. Who knows. Maybe oneday
we will see the wooly mammoth roaming the earth yet again. Thanks to Dolly and all other well
known cloned animals, cloning research is still alive and today but yet to be finished. And
maybe we never finish it, but we can keep getting closer.

Literature Cited

Dovey, Dana. 2015. The science of human cloning: how far weve come and how far were
capable of going. Medical Daily: Innovation
Sohn, Emily. 2004. Animal clones: double trouble?. Science News for Students

Rettner, Rachael. 2016. Dolly the sheeps clone sisters are healthy in old age. Live Science