In line with the U.S Department of Energy office of Science, Cloning is the process of producing two genetically identical organisms or populations by means of artificial and technologically asexual procedures. Therefore, copies of DNA, organisms, or cells are built using the cloning process, without going through sexual production. Three different ways of cloning that are discussed in this paper are therapeutic, recombinant DNA, and reproductive cloning. There are different ways of cloning associated with the Therapeutic, recombinant DNA, and reproductive cloning. The different ways of cloning techniques, result from the different uses for which cloning is being done.
Therapeutic cloning is one of the three types of cloning. Therapeutic cloning is also referred to as embryo cloning because of its application for production of human embryos for research work. There is a perception amongst individuals that therapeutic cloning is used to create cloned human. This is however not the case because, therapeutic cloning involves harvesting of stem cells. The stem cells obtained through therapeutic cloning are used in research work for human development and therapeutic purposes. The stem cells are used by biomedical researchers to generate specialized cells to perform specific therapeutic functions in the human body.
Through therapeutic cloning, as an example, therapeutic research has been able to develop specialized virus cells for treatment of some genetic defects. The virus so developed through therapeutic cloning has its gene corrected sequence to the body. Therefore the virus becomes specialized to treat some genetic defects, such as gene disorder after it is introduced into the body. Production of human embryos for human development research is also done through therapeutic cloning. The main aim of the therapeutic cloning is to enhance therapeutic solutions to human disease through gene technology (Brown 78).
Recombinant DNA Technology, on the other hand, involves the transfer of DNA portions or fragments of interest from the chromosome into another living organism that self-replicates to obtain many similar copies of the created DNA. The process of recombinant DNA is also referred to as molecular DNA or gene cloning. It has been hugely instrumental in studying gene therapy and in genetic engineering.
On the other hand, reproductive cloning is used for the generation of animal that emulates the nuclear DNA of another animal. The animal to be emulated could be in existence or it could have existed in some past. A pertinent example of this genetic engineering is Dolly the Sheep among other uses. The Dolly sheep was generated through the somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) process. Reproductive cloning is resorted to for replacing endangered animal species (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science).
There are debates surrounding the area of cloning technology, following which some regulations have been made and passed for the control of this technology. In the said debates for the cloning technology, some people are in favor of the technology while others are not. For instance, the process of therapeutic cloning is looked at with the arguments that favor it and those that discredit it. The positive side of therapeutic cloning is its medical benefits. With this regal, therapeutic chroming is favored since it is expected to unlock treatments for various body tissue malfunctions. Since therapeutic cloning is a specialized stem cell therapy, it is expected to be a doorway to so many treatments. Notably, therapeutic cloning is augmentation of cell nuclear replacement (CNR) together with the developing therapy of stem cell. The argument that the embryos used in therapeutic cloning are not persons as the contenders of this technology claim.
Even with the knowledge that the human embryo is not a human being, the opponents of therapeutic cloning claim that the potentiality of the embryo to develop to a human being should not be overlooked. Therefore, these opponents claim that the embryos should be accorded the moral respect as human beings. Opponents of cloning also raise the arguments that alternative embryos should be used in the place of the human cells (Brown et al. 75).
Gene cloning has also been used to produce genetically modified food in the food industry (Nayak et al. 17). Genetic engineering is being expected to open a new dimension for bio searching. Although just like any other field genetic applications the GMOs have faced opposition, their advantages takes the better part of the scale. The GMOs portrays increased resistance to pests, they enable ripening alterations, as well as proving to be abiotic resistant. All these are advantages that boost the development and acceptance GMOs technology in crop production (Nayak et al. 115).
Benefit from Our Service: Save 25% Along with the first order offer - 15% discount, you save extra 10% since we provide 300 words/page instead of 275 words/page
However, other than being beneficial in crop production development, GMOs have their associated shortcomings. In the first place, the GMOs technology poses threat to the social economic environment. They also exhibit some limits in the extent of research as well as posing some health threats. Even with their associated shortcomings, it is evident that the GMOs have the potential of solving the world’s problems of hunger and malnutrition. They are also capable of reducing the rates of chemicals and pesticides applications thereby promising to protect the environment (Nayak et al. 117).
Cloning is a remarkably wide topic, with highly compelling facts that should be a subject of study. There is much anticipation in regard to the possibilities of cloning. For example, in animal breeding, the emerging technologies of cloning from cultured cells and trans-genesis with site-specific integration have the potential of control (Laible and Wells 104). In this area therefore, a lot more research is required to fill the gaps in the reprogramming of donor cells, and increase of targeted somatic cells. With these anticipations and others, cloning offers a critical study area for any student or researcher
Related Science essays
0
Preparing Orders
0
Active Writers
0%
Positive Feedback
0
Support Agents