Reference no: EM131987924 , Length: word count:400

Cloning Discussion -

For each discussion, you need to make two posts. First, choose one of the following questions to address.

Case Study: Cloning

In December 2004, a tabby kitten named Little Nicky made headlines for being the first cloned-to-order pet in the United States. The original Nicky was a cat that died at the age of 17 years. His owner, Julie, chose to have some of Nicky's tissue "banked" so that he could be cloned. The company that produced Little Nicky, California-based Genetic Savings & Clone, Inc., also funded the creation of the very first cloned cat, CC, in 2002, and made the first cloned pet cats, Tabouli and Baba Ganoush, in the United Kingdom earlier in 2004. Cloning pets should be a very profitable business indeed: Little Nicky cost Julie $50,000.

How do you make a clone like Little Nicky? The first mammal to be cloned from a somatic (body) cell of an adult was Dolly the sheep. She was made in 1996 at the Roslin Institute in Scotland, using a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer. In this technique, the nucleus of a cell from a donor's body is combined with an enucleated egg (one with its nucleus removed) from a female of the same species, and the resulting cell is stimulated to start dividing and grow into an embryo. The embryo is then placed in the uterus of a surrogate mother to continue its development. Although additional sheep, as well as pigs, cattle, goats, horses, rabbits, and mice, have been cloned using somatic cell nuclear transfer, one problem with this method is the low survival rate. Most embryos do not survive long enough to be implanted in a surrogate mother. And of those that do, almost one-quarter of the clones born have health problems so severe that they do not reach adulthood.

Some scientists say that we are about to enter the "de-extinction" era during which we have the technology to bring back previously extinct species. This of course raises many questions and eyebrows! Watch the 10 minute Ted Talks presentation about bringing back the Wooly Mammoth.

Questions

1. State some pros and cons regarding cloning. Are you in favor or against it? Why?

2. What is most interesting to you about the idea of bringing back the woolly mammoth? What is your response to this video/presentation? Do you agree or disagree with these efforts to revive this prehistoric creature? Why?

3. Cloning may help save endangered species that have too few members to be rescued by a typical breeding program. Some scientists who are even more optimistic hope to revive extinct species via cloning. What would you predict about the ability of such species to survive without further cloning? Does it make sense to start banking tissue samples from endangered species for future cloning before their numbers reach critical lows? Why or why not?

4. The cloning of primates, including humans, is proving to be more difficult than the cloning of some other mammals. However, it is likely just a matter of time until technological advances make this possible. What reasons can you think of for some people to want to have themselves cloned? What issues would likely arise, for both the clone and the donor?

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