Plants and Animals Cloning Essay

Cloning is the process of the recreation of the donor organism. In such way, we get a new organism ”“ the clone – that is the exact genetic copy of the donor organism. Artificial cloning of some plants, animals and even human organs is a phenomenon that has appeared in the 20^th century. However, cloning can be also met in nature. For example, strawberries propagate with the help of cloning. Some animals also can clone themselves. This phenomenon is spread among microscopic single-celled organisms. Here we can mention amoeba and also some insects, for example greenflies. A group of scientists also treat some twins with the same genetic material as clones, however, this cannot be proved yet. Today cloning is becoming widely used in the agriculture. Frankly speaking, plants grown from a graft of even cutting can be considered as genetic copies. In such a way, some vegetables and fruit, such as bananas, grapes and potatoes, are also clones in accordance with modern scientific research. “Clones of cattle and other farm animals can be produced using a technique known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). SCNT was first used successfully in sheep to produce ”˜Dolly’ at the Roslin Institute in 1996. SCNT does not occur naturally” (Morgan, 98).

However, it is necessary to note that animal cloning is a very complicated process and in order to hold it successfully, a great amount of investigation should be made in this sphere.

Fantastic pictures created by many generations of the fiction writers came to be more real than they have expected.

Cloning is not a term from the fiction novel any more, but the reality we have to meet and react accordingly. Rapid development of new technologies puts the question of cloning from the plane of mere moralizing to more practical plane. There are many fields where cloning can be used and first of it is food production.

Cloning is definitely an innovative method of reproduction, which opens wide perspective in many branches of science. In can be used in medicine, agriculture, chemistry and many other sciences, however economic profit it can bring if we speak about plant and animal cloning.

Today there is such a tendency to use the term “somatic cell nuclear transfer” (SCNT) instead of cloning to soften the real state of events, however, the term does not change the meaning of the word. SCNT describes a process when differentiated cells serve for the creation of the new embryo cell.

Animal cloning is being developed in the USA, and in the EU it is only on the stage of investigation. “Although there has been some research among US public, to date there has been very little within the EU or the UK. The Agency commissioned the company Creative Research to explore initial public perceptions of animal cloning” (Ruse, 76).

Modern researchers and investigators state that if animal cloning becomes economically appropriate, it will definitely enter today’s food market. However, there are some concerns from the juridical  part. For the researches in this sphere is responsible The Food Standards Agency because this agency  coordinates the Company Creative Research. Nevertheless, the Department of Environment and Food and Rural Affairs will take decisions whether cloned products can enter today’s market or not.

The man source of concerns today is the quality of products which would be clones of the original products. They can unsafe and even dangerous for people’s consumptions, because there is a high rate of mutations and miscarriages in the process of cloning. There is also a danger that these mutations can lead to new diseases or impact food quality in such a way that it can become inappropriate for consumption. Moreover, “There was a major mismatch between the methods used by regulatory authorities to assess food safety and the public’s perception of what is needed.

Participants wanted to see methods for assessing food safety that were similar to the approach used in clinical drugs trials” (McGee, 38). It is necessary to remember that high-quality experiments are extremely expensive and there is a danger that scientists can use cheap technologies to save money which will have terrible consequences for plants and animals that are cloned and human beings who consume these cloned products.  If to compare the quality of organic food and the cloned plans or animals today, the difference is great.

Organic food does not contain different food additives, contained in big quantity in non-organic food. Such food additives, as hydrogenated fats, aspartame, monosodium glutamate and phosphoric acid can have a very negative impact on human health. These food additives contained in non-organic food in big quantity can become the reason of different hearth diseases, headaches, osteoporosis and depressions. Organic food, rich in different minerals, which different plants obtain from soil, can not be compared with non-organic plants, grown with the help of fertilizers.

These plants do not obtain all necessary types of the minerals because they obtain only small number of minerals, which are contained in fertilizers. These facts have a long-term effect on human health, as they gradually cause the decline of the mineral contents, necessary for the normal functioning of all systems of the organism. The content of vitamins and other different useful elements is higher in organic food.  In general, the content of vitamin C is higher in organic food. The content of other mineral components and phytonutrients is also higher in organic food. These arguments are strong enough in order to prove that organic food is much healthier and more useful for people. It is natural that organic food, grown without the use of pesticides and infanticides, costs more. From the other side, the damage to the human health, caused by the consumption of non-organic food can not be measured by money. That is the reason higher prices for organic food can be justified. Recent investigations prove that organic food is much healthier than non-organic one. There are several reasons, which allow make such a conclusion. First of all, organic food is much healthier. In modern agriculture pesticides and herbicides are prohibited and this means that all food produced contains only natural components, which do not harm human health. This means that non-organic food and cloned food can become a reason of many allergic diseases and these facts show only minor part of the problem.

The situation with the cloned products differs greatly, at least today. It is worth to underline one more time that there are too many unsuccessful efforts of cloning when embryos die or undergo irreparable genetic changes which make impossible their normal life and functioning and it goes without saying that such cloned animals are appropriate for consumption. The process of evolution assumes natural selection and human interference within this process can break this fragile balance and finally stop the genetic improvements of the spices. Evolution or genetic improvements are possible only through natural reproduction as they assume the mixture of male and female genes, which become impossible during the process of cloning. For example, it took 227 attempts to get a  famous Dolly the ship. These are the results of animals tests.

Mutations, degradation and unpredictable and irreversible changes of the animals and humans produced with the help of this method of reproduction only the most significant problems it can cause. There are many others and only considerable study of all possible consequences and pros and contras must influence final decision in this field.

Experiments in cloning on animals show many possibilities where cloning can be used. At the same time cloning gets a completely different shade when we talk about humans. The most radical and conservative enemies of any kinds of cloning predict degradation of human race if cloning is ever used for humans. There is another big group of scientists who see cloning as a wonderful way to overcome many diseases, oldness and even death.

To sum up, there is no agreement concerning the issue of cloning yet. A lot of scientists state  most fear about human cloning stems from ignorance and their opinion also has right to be heard. It is necessary to perform a careful study of all possible negative consequences of cloning in order to escape possible problems. There are many areas, where cloning can bring use without negative consequences. Cloning is a comparatively new technological advance and it is obvious that careful investigation is necessary in order to decide on the possibility to use it as a part of medical practice. At the present moment many experiments prove that cloning may bring much use in the field of medicine and in some other fields. At the same time there are a lot of dangers connected with cloning. So, it is necessary to consider all pros and cons before making the final decision concerning this issue.

Cloning is a comparatively new phenomenon and scientists had too little time to study all the possible consequences and influences of cloning on living organisms. The risks of genes mutation isn’t studied in all detail yet. There is a possibility that genes  taken from grown up person used to create an embryo will cause too early aging of the organism. There are results of the experiments, which scientists try to hide and these results show frightening facts.

There is a big number of deviations during the cloning experiments hold on animals and in a number of cases cloning produces mutated creatures with different deviations from norm. All the modern devices used for diagnostics can not give 100% guarantees  that all abnormalities will be diagnosed before the birth. It’s a common known fact that famous Dolly the sheep died of severe lung disease and suffered from many other diseases. There is a big probability that all these diseases were the result of cloning.