It's the breakthrough nobody was expecting: a clone of a fully grown mammal. Dolly the lamb, born last year near Edinburgh, is genetically identical to her biological mother--her only parent. Her DNA comes from a single cell taken from her mother's udder. This makes her the first mammal ever created from the non-reproductive tissue of an adult animal. Will human clones be next? The implications are enormous. Once again Agriculture is in the center controversy.

Hello my name is _______________ __________________, of the Waxahachie FFA Chapter. Today , fellow members, Lindsay Terrel, John Wade, and myself will discuss with you the most controversial topic facing Agriculture today. Cloning ! Is it a miracle of Modern Science or the monster of Madmen

Dolly made front pages around the world last week because of her startling pedigree: Dolly, unlike any other mammal that has ever lived, is an identical copy of another adult and has no father. She is a clone, the creation of a group of veterinary researchers. That work, performed by Ian Wilmut and his colleagues at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland, has provided an important new research tool and has shattered a belief widespread among biologists that cells from adult mammals cannot be persuaded to regenerate a whole animal.

Before discussing the main issue of todays topic it is important to first provide some valuable background information. First of all What is a clone ?

Well by Definition a clone is a population of genetically identical unicellular organisms or viruses arising from successive replications of a single ancestral unicellular organism or virus. Simply stated a clone is a duplicate-- much like a photocopy is a duplicate, or copy, of a document. A good example of such "copies" that occur in nature are identical twins, which are duplicates of each other.

The technique of cloning involves several steps but is really quite simple.

First, the donor cells are grown under special conditions in culture. In this way the number of cells can be increased by several orders of magnitude. It is also possible to make genetic modifications and to select just those cells in which the desired modification has occurred. The selected cells are then fused with an unfertilized egg from which the introduced nucleus can lead to the formation of an embryo. The embryos are then transplanted into female sheep and the lambs are born naturally.

 

 

This technology could allow the production of genetically identical groups of animals which possess a desirable genetic trait.

 

One small step for sheep , One giant leap into the unknown !

One small step for sheep because Dolly may look like other lambs, but she is the most remarkable animal ever born. She is not the result of mating between a ewe and a ram but was cloned from a single cell taken from the udder of a six-year-old ewe. She is the first mammal ever created from the non-reproductive tissue of an adult animal. If the same could be achieved in humans, it would mean that each of us could have clones of ourselves made from our own tissue.

The researchers wanted to see whether "mature" cells that have differentiated to fulfil a specialized role--such as that of an udder cell or a fetal cell--could be returned to a primitive state from which they could grow into entire organisms.

 

Last year they used the same reproductive technology to create the world's first cloned lambs. They produced identical lambs called Megan and Morag, which originated from different cells of the same embryo. The difference with Dolly is that all her DNA originated in a cell from the udder of an adult sheep.

 

 

 

One giant leap into the unknown !

"Extraordinary", "stupendous", "mind-boggling" and "frightening" were the words on everyone's lips. They said it couldn't happen before 2050, but now that an adult sheep has been cloned, there seems to be no technical reason why we could not do the same with people.

 

 

Although Dolly was created in Britain, where human cloning is banned, researchers elsewhere face no such restrictions. In the US, for example, research into reproduction is all in the unregulated private sector, though President Bill Clinton has now ordered a review of the implications of the breakthrough. This may lead to curbs on private experimentation as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Our issue was an easy selection due to its current noteriety in the newspapers and on the radio and television.

The research process was multifacited. All available information gathering tecniques were employed, including the internet, newspapers, televisions and periodicals in the school library. All of our Research was explored under the challenge of our agricultural science and technology instructor to examine this in a totally unbias manner

Now that we have examined the necessary background information, lets take a look at our main issue,

Cloning ! Is it a miracle of Modern Science or the monster of Madmen !

Miracles ? May Be ?

The researchers said their method could be used to create tailor-made livestock to produce genetically-manipulated meat and milk on factory farms.

 

 

 

 

Just imagine it.

Whole herds of genetically identical livestock. All with the most desirable attributes available in our industry today. Every steer would have the same potential to produce a carcass that would yield tender flavorful, high protein beef , while carrying only the smallest traces of external or internal fat !

Imagine the best market hog you have ever laid eyes on, and then envision the possibility of hundreds of litters all containing that same exact champion in one swine operation !

The possibilities that cloning offers to livestock producers to be able to provide the world with the best and safest supply of meat for consumption is mind boggling.

One of the most immediate advantages is going to be the area of pharmaceutical production.

 

The ability to clone will allow scientists to genetically engineer and then rapidly mass produce animals that can secrete human proteins in their milk or blood.

 

 

Drugs made directly from human proteins today are scarce and more expensive than gold. But they offer the most promise for treating nearly all inherited disorders such as hemophilia, cystic fibrosis and even emphysema.

 

 

"The potential for making this much cheaper is very important. Sometimes it's difficult to conduct even a clinical trial with these proteins because they are so scarce and expensive. This will greatly reduce the cost when this gets on line.

 

 

In essence, barnyard animals such as sheep, goats, cows and pigs will be made into living factories for producing a variety of vital human proteins that, when missing in a person, cause disease.

Scientist also are working on producing in sheep the protein called clotting factor 8, missing in many hemophiliacs. Hemophiliacs must take blood transfusions to replace the clotting factor and that is why they are at risk for infection with HIV. Such an accomplishment would make it possible to eliminate their blood transfusions.

 

 

Cloning mammals also will make it possible to do the types of studies reserved for genetically engineered mice. Larger animals have not been practical to use in such research because of the long gestation periods of offspring.

Cloningwill surely be refined and may become an important aid in all manner of biological and biomedical investigations. It might, for example, be used to mass-produce animals that mimic human diseases for research purposes.

Now an egg can be genetically engineered for a particular disease or trait and the animal can be cloned, creating an entire herd with any scientifically desired feature.

 

 

This is a breakthrough that will have not only important scientific issues but also economic ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monsters of Madmen, possibly !

Several Issues exist that raise concerns about the widespread use of cloning technology.

Many Livestock producers believe that using cloned livestock will cause producers to become lazy in the area of genetic improvement. They are afraid that livestock raisers might simply use what genetics are available in one animal, as opposed to trying to improve what they have in their own herd.

And as we all are aware of, that driving force that made producers want to have the best herd possible has caused United States to be producers of the highest quality Agricultural products on the planet.

Also many scientist believe that cloning may cause such a drop in genetic variance throughout the livestock communities, that animals may become less resistant to disease thus causing widespread animal epidemics.

Other researchers engaged in similar work note that it is unclear how much practical benefit Wilmut's technique will yield in the short term: it is very labor-intensive and it required 277 nuclear transfers to produce the single, viable cloned lamb. At present, cloning from embryonic cells and even old-fashioned animal breeding are still more efficient ways of producing large numbers of genetically-altered animals.

With all this said it is important to note that most concerns over animal cloning does not relate to animals at all. The highest levels of concerns relate to the possibility of using the technology used in animal cloning to clone people.

The prospect of "carbon-copy humans" was a prime concern in submissions to Britain's Warnock Committee, which reported in 1984 on the ethics of test-tube babies and embryo research. Quoting the commission "People felt a kind of horror about producing clones,".

Lets examine some common concerns and questions that people have involving human cloning,

 

Could some lunatic clone Hitler if human cloning were perfected?

Just possibly - but they wouldn’t get what they wanted. First, they would need some living cells from his body - unless it was frozen or otherwise preserved soon after death they would probably be unusable. More importantly, because of differences in the environment of the womb and upbringing clone Hitlers would not act, think or even necessarily look like the original.

 

 

 

 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

 

 

Could clones be "farmed" to provide spare body parts for their "parent" clone without problems of tissue rejection?

 

 

Possibly, although we don’t know enough yet to be confident that rejection would be eliminated entirely. You would also have to wait a number of years until the clone’s organs were mature enough to transplant, and of course your actions would be highly illegal unless your clone was willing to act as a donor as a clone would be just as human as you or I. Even leaving aside the ethical concerns, with the progress that is being made in understanding and coping with tissue rejection, you would be more likely to have a pig's heart in your future than a clone's.

 

 

 

 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

 

 

Would a clone have a soul?

 

 

Though we are not theologians if you grant souls to identical twins and to the various kinds of "test tube babies" already being born then it follows that a clone would have one too.

 

 

 

 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

 

 

Could people be cloned without conscious brains (so their body parts could be harvested with fewer moral qualms)?

 

 

No. For starters, whatever consciousness is, it doesn’t reside in any one brain structure or set of genes that could be easily removed from the clone before or during its development. Moreover, attempting to surgically or genetically erase someone’s consciousness seems in itself morally dubious. It would also be hard to know if your technique worked. A person can look and behave like a mindless vegetable but have a very active mind.

The ultimate issue is: How would these clones be treated? As a human being, or as a means to someone else's end?

 

There is obviously a question that will be debated for days, years and decades to come.

One thing seems for certain, now that the genie is out of the bottle it appears very unlikely that it will ever be lured back in. In other words we have reached a virtual point of no return.

Now that the technology exist, rest assured that research in this area will go forward. If not in one country then in another. As it turn out most research labs in the world can be turned into cloning facilities with only slight modifications.

In conclusion we would like to summarize the Pros and cons of animal cloning and offer some concluding remarks of our own!