Hazel Grace M.

Bellen BS Biology III-1 Clone Wars While looking in the mirror, have you ever imagined yourself having a twin or clone? What if you need to have a kidney transplant but there are no available donors for now. Cloning is popular in science-fiction movies like Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Jurassic Park, Gattaca, and etc. These movies portrayed cloning as evil because it makes a better story. From DNA fragments to organism, many scientists attempt to conduct a research on cloning. There is also a possibility of artificial human cloning in the future which is the subject of issues and debate nowadays. Cloning refers to processes to create copies of DNA fragments, cells, and organism. There are two kinds of cloning, natural and artificial. Natural cloning refers to a process wherein an organism replicates itself such as vegetative reproduction in plants and parthenogenesis and asexual reproduction in animals. Artificial cloning refers or reproductive cloning uses somatic cell nuclear transfer to create animals that are genetically identical. This process involves the transfer of an adult cell to an egg that has no nucleus. Artificial embryo splitting can be also used in cloning wherein the embryo is split in maturation before embryo transfer. Dolly, the sheep, has been the first mammal ever cloned but died six years after her birth due to respiratory infections. Cloning can be a long and tedious work yet there are unavoidable circumstances that can happen after the success of the experiment. Many successfully cloned organism

developed complications and died immediately after the process. So, it is safe for the humans to be cloned? Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of human or its cells and tissues. It has two types: reproductive cloning, therapeutic cloning and replacement cloning. Reproductive cloning is replicating a human as a whole while therapeutic cloning is making a copy of cells or tissues to form an organ. Replacement cloning is the combination of the two which aims to replace a damaged or failing body. These forms of cloning often subject to controversy by religious organizations, regarding it as immoral and unethical. They defended that life only begins at conception.They said that the extraction of adult cells is very expensive and painful. They also opposed the consumption of meat from cloned animals because it is potentially unsafe. On the other hand, others find cloning useful especially in the food industry wherein cloned animals produce meat for human consumption. Replacement organs for people who needs an organ transplant became available and saved lives. They are no longer waiting for an available and suitable donor because organ can be grown for them. It will also lessen the cases of organ trafficking which is popular to people who are desperate for money. Cloning is an interesting area for a biology student like me and I might encounter it in the future if I will be a researcher. It may be beneficial for humans to develop this advancement in science, but I firmly believed that it is against Gods will. He gave us the responsibility to take care of the other creatures He made but he didnt give us the permission to create a new human life from artificial methods. Although it is unavoidable that the time

will come wherein cloning humans will be a legal matter, I must take a stand based on my principles and beliefs. If I said no to cloning, how about you?