Should cloning for human benefits or even human cloning itself be allowed in society today? That is a question we must ask ourselves. Recently, less than two years ago, an event in genetic history changed our perspective of what we know as "Reproduction" and added to our conscience a new element to the study of Biology. This event really caught my attention. It was the birth of a unique sheep named Dolly. Dolly was a clone sheep born on February 12th 1997. .
Cloning is the process of creating a genetic duplicate of an individual. It involves taking DNA from an organism, living or dead, and replacing the nucleus of the egg with it. This would mean that an individual would grow with the exact genetic make-up of the person that the DNA was taken from. It needs no sperm to fertilise it as it already contains a full DNA strand, unlike the process involved with normal fertilisation where the sperm holds half the strand and the egg holds the other half. .
Up until the birth of Dolly, cloning was only heard about in movies such as Jurassic Park and The Lost World, where cloning seemed to be an idea of fantasy and not reality. The idea that scientist could just take a little DNA from a dead mosquito and turn it into something that could tower over a skyscraper was very intriguing to most people. On the other hand, there were movies such as Judd Dredd and Alien Resurrection; in which cloning was necessary in order to save lives. That was a little more farfetched, but no less enthralling. The idea of even cloning oneself came up in the movie Multiplicity. The idea seemed interesting to most, for who wouldn't want an extra pair of hands or better yet an extra brain? However, these movies are just that movies. It was not until Dolly, who was acknowledged to be the first cloned mammal, was cloned and conceived that cloning became an actual reality. Ever since that day, a question that had never been asked is now a very real and current issue.
