Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Can cloning stop extinction?

Malaysia is trying to think of ways to prevent the leatherback turtles from going extinct. Because of pollution, eggs are no longer fertile and turtles cannot produce offspring. Scientists have come up with a solution to save these animals by cloning them. However, turtles are reptiles and scientists never cloned reptiles before, only mammels. The project will cost about $9 million and there is a chance that it will fail. Should it be done?

Is it safe to eat food from cloned animals?

On January 15, 2008 the FDA approved food from some cloned animals. The U.S Food and Drug Administration concluded that meat and milk from cloned cattle are safe to eat. However, there is not enough information to confirm the safety of eating sheep meat.

After further inspection food from cloned animals will be introduced to the public.

Ethics on Cloning Farm Animals

Cloning farm animals is catagorized under cruelty and abuse. The efficiency of animal cloning is extremely low. Most of the time there are stillbirths, aborted fetuses, and abnormal offsprings afflicted with lots of diseases and disabilities. Cloned animals struggle and are diagnosed with arthiritis or lung disease at an early age. They have a weak immune system and constantly suffer. After the cloning technology improves and the cloning efficiency increases, there will no longer be an ethical dilemma concerning cloned farm animals.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Hollywood Magic

<--- In this picture you see Lindsey Lohan and her twin..... Lindsey Lohan!!!!

The magicians behind Hollywood films have found their own way of cloning. :D

Monday, May 12, 2008

Reproductive v. Therapeutic Cloning of Humans

There are two motives for cloning humans : to produce offspring (reproductive cloning) and for biomedical research (therapeutic cloning). In therapeutic cloning, the embryos can only undergo a few cycles of cell division and cannot develop into a few grown baby. These embryos are never implanted into a womb and never go into the fetal stage. Therefore, this type of cloning is justifiable and is considered ethical. However, there are many people who object the reproductive cloning.

Some people may want reproductive cloning because of the following reasons:
1. Parents want to replace their lost child.
2. If one parent has a harmful gene that he/she does not want to pass to the next generation, cloning can prevent the child from inheriting this bad gene. In some cases, parents may want their children to have certain traits that can be given to an embryo through cloning.
3. Infertile couples could have a baby.
4. Gay couples can produce offspring.
5. A person with traits that could potentially help the society improve could be cloned. For example a clone of Albert Einstein.

Why therapeutic cloning is useful:
1.provides knowledge about the human development
2.help discover new therapies to cure genetic diseases by inserting a specific gene into an embryo.
3. help scientists advance and learn how to cure many disorders and diseases.
4. Cloned embryos are predicted to have a large source of embryonic stem cells that can help repair damaged tissues and organs.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Cloning Pets


The first cloned pet in US was sold in San Francisco to a woman saddened by the loss of her beloved cat. The owner spent $50,000 for the genetic twin of her cat named Nicky. She banked the cat's DNA which was used to create Nicky's clone.
"He is identical. His personality is the same," the woman told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Famous twins

Did you know that twins are actually natural clones??









1. Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen












2.Dylan and Cole Sprouse from “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody”





3.James and Oliver Phelps shot to fame as Fred and George Weasley in “Harry Potter”









4.Tia and Tamara Mowrey from “Sister Sister”





5.Kara and Shelby Hoffman from “Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events”

Cloning - Google Video

Cloning - Google Video