Abstract Human cloning: pros and cons, myths and reality.

The science

Man has been interested in cloning since ancient times and this is reflected in many literary works and films. Although human cloning is inherently considered unethical, ethical issues regarding whether it is right or wrong often involve subjective opinion and emotion.

The concept of cloning involves removing the nucleus from an egg and placing it into another fertilized egg in which the nucleus has been removed. This core, in a new location, controls the development of the entire organism. Although cloning is a natural process in some organisms, such as armadillos, cottonwoods and aphids, it can also be done in humans.

Here are 9 arguments that shed light on the unethical nature and development of new technologies for safe and successful human cloning.

1. Social anxiety

One of the biggest problems with human cloning is that it creates a unique and challenging social confrontation. If a person clones himself and raises a child as his own, then this creates a strange situation. Instead of being the clone's father, he becomes the clone's brother. Also, in society, clones find themselves in a very awkward position. How should we perceive them? When a new family member is added, he is related to the rest of the family, and clones appear out of nowhere. Relationships with other family members are a simple concept, but not a reality. Such social awkwardness leads to psychological obstacles in the development of the clone.

2. Forced psychological development

In the book Boys from Brazil, 94 clones of Adolf Hitler are created in different parts of the world so that each of them kills his father to recreate the same circumstances that would lead to the emergence of a new Fuhrer. This more than sufficiently confirms that cloned humans will be samples of their nuclear donors. They will have a different life because their life can be measured. They will be subjected to tests that they must pass because that is what originally happened. This limits their psychological and social development.

3. Freedom of choice

Whenever a stunning discovery comes to light, it is opposed by the people, the church, the government, etc. This happens because a person has always been afraid of change. Judging whether human cloning is wrong depends on the person's views. With the increase in individualism in human society, the choice remains with the individual.

4. Reification of man

If a person can be grown in a laboratory like a vegetable, this undermines the very purpose of birth. The love, care and pain that a mother goes through to give birth to a child represents a person. It is part of our identity as living organisms. The idea of ​​man as an object that can be produced destroys his individuality.

A child born through cloning is not unique, it is an image of a nuclear donor and has no individuality. Such a child will always be perceived as part of a product that can be produced again and again.

Humans are endowed with intelligence, but using intelligence to produce a "sub-human" is an abuse of power. Will such people be treated with the same respect and dignity in society?

5. A refuge for many

What if the smartest man on earth married the most beautiful woman? Their total gene pool will be represented by genes of excellent quality. Their children will have everything they want and everyone will envy them. Now add infertility to the mix. This makes it more difficult because if they cannot conceive, they will need to adopt.

What if human reproductive cloning progressed to such an extent that it became completely it is safe to give birth to your children while being infertile? For people who cannot respond to infertility treatment, reproductive cloning will be a real gift. This will help them avoid many problems, including psychological stress associated with adopted children. This will allow them to live just like everyone else.

Cloning also provides an opportunity for gay couples to have a normal family. They will be able to find a child who can grow up and be raised like in an ordinary family.

6. Unsafe procedure

Dolly, the most famous clone sheep, lived for 6 years and gave birth to 5 healthy lambs. She died of lung cancer, which is quite common among sheep. Despite the fact that the circumstances of her death may seem ordinary to many, not everyone agrees with this opinion. Dolly was predicted to have a life expectancy of 11-12 years, but she died prematurely. It is believed that the possible cause of premature death was that her genetic age was 6 years. Since it is virtually impossible to clone a newborn, clones will always suffer from this anomaly.

Thus, the development of clones can become destructive, leading to the death of many clones, which can even be considered murder. The technology has not yet developed to the point where clones can be successfully conceived, and it may be better this way.

7. Down a dangerous path

Movies and books often show dangerous methods of genetic engineering. If human cloning is encouraged and accepted, who can guarantee that new technologies will not lead to a dangerous scenario? Reproductive cloning is on the verge of a very dangerous path that can lead to all sorts of destruction.

8. Healing agent

Humanity has always dreamed of a miracle cure that would cure all diseases, or at least something similar. Cloning is one of the closest means to this idea.

Cloning gives the ability to grow human body parts using host DNA. Such body parts can be used to replace existing but unusable parts. It is also possible to clone certain organs and replace diseased organs with them. Many people die from organ failure, or lose organs in accidents, or are born with defects. These people could be cured through cloning

9. The Man Playing the Role of God

After human cloning became a common idea, the Bible and Quran were quoted as sayings that were interpreted against cloning. The development of cloning is the same as becoming God. Man creates life using cloning, developing some traits and eliminating others. The creation of life, which was the privilege of God, may be carried out in laboratories and test tubes.

Although there are both supporters and opponents of human cloning, it is believed that the idea of ​​human cloning will do more harm than good and therefore the study and development of this issue should be suspended, at least until the present moment.

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Abstract on the subject of the Concept of Modern Natural Science on the topic:

Cloning: Pros and Cons

Completed by: 1st year student

groups IRD-122

Pleshachkova E.A.

Head: Yurik T.K.

MGUDT, ISI, 2013

• Introduction
• Pros
• Cons
• Conclusion
• List of resources used

Introduction.

• What is cloning?

Cloning (in biology) is the natural appearance or production of several genetically identical organisms through asexual (including vegetative) reproduction.

• Where did it all start?

The first successful experiments in cloning animals were carried out in the mid-1970s by the English embryologist J. Gordon in experiments on amphibians, when replacing the nucleus of an egg with a nucleus from the somatic cell of an adult frog led to the appearance of a tadpole.

However, cloning mammals remained a problem until, in 1997, Jan Wilmut's group was able to create a sheep named Dolly, the first animal derived from the nucleus of an adult somatic cell.

In the late 1990s of the 20th century, implying the possibility of using the same technology to obtain genetically identical human individuals, they started talking about human cloning. The term ceased to be the property of the scientific community, it was picked up by the media, cinema, literature, computer game producers, and it entered the language as a commonly used word, no longer having the special meaning that it had about a hundred years ago.

• What are the types of cloning?

There are three different types of artificial cloning:

• gene cloning,
• reproductive cloning,
• therapeutic cloning.

Gene cloning produces copies of genes or pieces of DNA. Reproductive cloning produces copies of entire animals. Therapeutic cloning produces embryonic stem cells for experiments aimed at creating tissue to replace damaged or damaged tissue. Gene cloning is also known as DNA cloning. This process is very different from reproductive and therapeutic cloning. Reproductive and therapeutic cloning share many of the same techniques but are designed for different purposes.

• What did this lead to?

Any experiments consist of mistakes and achievements, but in this case, a mistake will be the birth of a clone of a person (a fully formed personality) with any deviations, the question arises: “What to do with “HIM”? " Do we have the right to destroy such consequences, i.e. destroy the clone, and this will be tantamount to killing a person;

Does science have the necessary information to conduct such experiments; Is it possible to predict the consequences of such experiments now? Indeed, if successful, such a breakthrough in science can have the most unpredictable consequences for humanity.

Only if you clearly and reasonably formulate the answers to these basic questions can you give a specific answer “FOR” or “AGAINST”, but at the moment no one can do this. Therefore, we can only analyze all the pros and cons, and also by considering the arguments of experts to form our attitude towards cloning at this stage of development.

Pros.

• Humans have a natural fear of the new and unknown, but cloning constantly occurs in natural conditions, when identical twins with the same genotype are born, which is easily proven by the possibility of transplanting organs and tissues between them.

• The development of cloning will make it possible for childless people to have their own children (in Russia, every seventh married couple is infertile.

• Cloning will help people suffering from severe genetic diseases. If the genes that determine a disease are contained in the father’s chromosomes, then her own somatic cell is transplanted into the mother’s egg, and then a child appears, devoid of dangerous genes, an exact copy of the mother and vice versa.

• An undeniable argument in favor of cloning is the resulting possibility of growing organs for transplantation into the body, which will help defeat a lot of diseases such as cancer, save the lives of people affected by disasters, etc. etc.

• Young embryos can serve as a reservoir of a special kind of cells known as stem cells. Cells of this type differ from ordinary ones in that they are not genetically programmed only to reproduce their own kind. For this reason, stem cells during multiple divisions can turn into several types of cells at once. This means that such cells could, in principle, be used to repair any specialized tissue damaged by accident or disease. For example, diabetes mellitus of the first type develops due to the death of specialized beta cells of the pancreas that synthesize insulin. Doctors hope that this disease can be cured by implanting stem cells into the pancreas, which will turn into full-fledged beta cells. Similarly, stem cell transplantation can be a means of repairing traumatic spinal cord tears or healing areas of the heart muscle that have undergone necrosis as a result of a heart attack.

• Cloning of exceptional individuals.

• Cloning is reasonable even for mere mortals.

• Cloning the dead. An interesting but little-known fact about Dr. Wilmut's cloning procedure is that it is performed with frozen, not fresh, cells. (This information was obtained directly from Jan Wilmut by Dr. Petrik Dixon.) This means that the DNA donor, whether animal or human, does not need to be alive when cloning is done. If a human tissue sample is frozen properly, the person could be cloned long after their death. In the case of people who have already died and whose tissue has not been frozen, cloning becomes more difficult, and current technology does not allow it.

• People must have a backup option for reproducing their own kind in order to protect the population from extinction in the event of some planet-wide tragedy, which may temporarily make the traditional way of continuing the human race impossible.

Cons

• Cloning would reduce genetic diversity, making us more vulnerable to epidemics and the like.

This objection is based on an unwarranted extreme extrapolation. There are more than 5 billion people on this planet. Obviously, human cloning will be done on a very modest scale due to the expected cost of the procedure. In addition, most women still will not want to be mothers of twin clones. It will be many decades before the total number of human clones reaches at least 1 million people worldwide. As a percentage, this would constitute a microscopic portion of the total population and would have no impact on human genetic diversity.

• This can lead to the creation of human monsters or freaks.

Human cloning is not the same as human genetic engineering. In cloning, DNA is copied, resulting in another person who is an exact twin of the existing individual and therefore not a monster or freak. Genetic engineering would involve modifying human DNA, which could result in the appearance of a person unlike any other who has previously existed.

• Dictators can use cloning for evil.

There is a possibility that unscrupulous dictators may try to perpetuate their power by creating a clone of themselves and transferring power to him when they die. The appropriate solution would be a worldwide ban on dictators, but this, of course, is unlikely to come true as long as the world is dominated by oligarchic circles.

• The technology is not perfect, it can lead to fetal death.

No sphere of human activity is free from accidental death. Human cloning is no exception. Based on additional experiments on higher mammals, it can be foreseen that the cloning procedure will be improved to the point where the risk of miscarriage or death of the child will be the same as for other births.

• This is equivalent to taking on the role of God.

The Bible and the sacred texts of other major religions do not explicitly prohibit human cloning. Therefore, religious opposition to human cloning has no solid basis. Religious leaders who believe that human cloning is "wrong" are given the right to preach their beliefs and persuade anyone they can convince. But they discredit themselves when they propose to imprison people they cannot convince. Jesus never advocated power to force people to live according to Christian beliefs. Imposing religious beliefs through laws is a very pathetic idea, and what’s more, it’s a violation of the constitution.

• Millionaires will clone themselves only to obtain organs for transplantation.

This is one of the most absurd of all cloning claims. A human clone is a human being. In a free society, you cannot force another human being to give you one of their internal organs. Also, you cannot in any way kill another person to obtain one of their organs. Already existing laws prevent such abuses. Note also that if your twin clone is injured in an accident, you may be asked to donate one of your kidneys to keep the clone alive. Many legitimate future applications of cloning technology are in the areas of organ transplants, skin grafts for fire victims, and the like. In these cases, cloning an entire person would not be required, but only the use of the same cell nuclear transfer technology to grow new tissues or organs for medical purposes.

The only objection that remains as a result of the analysis is that cloning technology is not yet perfect. But this is a justification for further research, not a ban.

Conclusion.

It is clear that human cloning has enormous potential benefits and several possible negative consequences. As with many scientific advances of the past, such as airplanes and computers, the only threat is the threat to our own narrow mental complacency. Human clones can make great contributions to the fields of scientific progress and cultural development. In certain cases where potential abuses are foreseen, they can be prevented through targeted, specialized legislation. With a little common sense and reasonable regulation, human cloning is not something to be afraid of.

However, today experiments on human cloning are prohibited (or a moratorium has been imposed) in almost all developed and developing countries, in addition, there is a special resolution of the UN Security Council introducing a moratorium on any experiments on cloning of humans and embryos older than two weeks of development.

Desirable government regulation.

Human cloning is a new and unexplored legal field that will definitely require some legislative regulation to prevent abuse. Here are some suggestions as to what moderate laws might be considered desirable.

1. Human clones should officially have the same legal rights and responsibilities as any other human being.
2. A currently living person should not be cloned without his written consent. Any person is automatically given ownership of his genetic code and the right to dispose of it at his own discretion; the code must remain under his control.
3. Human clones must be carried and born only by an adult woman acting of her own free will, without coercion. Growing a human fetus outside a woman's body, for example in laboratory apparatus, should be prohibited. At the moment, there is no technology for artificially growing the fetus, but Japanese researchers are working on it.
4. There is reason to believe that the predisposition to cruelty and murder is genetically determined. Cloning of convicted murderers and other violent criminals should be prohibited.

Short description

However, cloning mammals remained a problem until, in 1997, Jan Wilmut's group was able to create a sheep named Dolly, the first animal derived from the nucleus of an adult somatic cell.
In the late 1990s of the 20th century, implying the possibility of using the same technology to obtain genetically identical human individuals, they started talking about human cloning. The term ceased to be the property of the scientific community, it was picked up by the media, cinema, literature, computer game producers, and it entered the language as a commonly used word, no longer having the special meaning that it had about a hundred years ago.

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Subject: concepts of modern natural science.
Abstract on the topic: Human cloning: pros and cons, myths and reality.

Prepared by: Tsoi K.G.
Group: R-121
Teacher: Tulvert V.F.

Introduction.

The term cloning comes from an ancient Greek word that means "branch, shoot, offspring" and was used in the field of botany. In the last decades of the last century, there was a rapid development of one of the most interesting branches of biological science - molecular genetics. Already in the early 1970s, a new direction in genetics arose - genetic engineering. Based on its methodology, various types of biotechnologies began to be developed and genetically modified organisms were created. The possibility of gene therapy for some human diseases has emerged. In the 70s of the 20th century. the word “clone” began to be used to refer to a living human or animal organism obtained from one ancestor. By the end of the 20th century. the term “cloning” began to be used to refer to the technology of obtaining one or another artificial identical genetic copy of one of the existing forms of life. To date, scientists have made many discoveries in the field of cloning animals from somatic cells, which are successfully used in practice.
Human cloning is now very close to reality thanks to the historic scientific breakthrough of Dr. Ian Wilmut and his colleagues from the UK. This opportunity has the potential to provide incredible benefits to all of us. Man has been interested in cloning since ancient times and this is reflected in many literary works and films. The media have a huge influence on shaping the perceptions of the entire society about the idea of ​​cloning.
The development of technology for cloning complex organisms at the end of the 20th century became an event that attracted the attention of all mankind. It attracted everyone's attention, first of all, in connection with the problem of the possibility of creating human clones. The advent of cloning posed a number of ethical, philosophical, legal, religious, and social problems to society. Cloning opened up for humanity the prospect of extending a person's biological life in a new body identical to the old one. There is hope for a solution to the problem of the endless continuation of human life.

Cloning technology.

Cloning technology consists of removing the nucleus from an egg using a microsurgical operation and replacing it with the nucleus of a somatic cell from another individual (donor), which contains genes only from the donor organism. The differences in the genomes of the parent organism and its clone range from 0.05% to 0.1%. The second technology option is the enucleation of a somatic cell and the introduction of an egg nucleus into it. Due to the fact that differences, although minimal, exist, in the strict sense of the word a clone is not absolutely identical to the parent organism.
Currently, there are two types of cloning: reproductive and therapeutic. As a result of reproductive cloning, a new integral organism is formed, which is a genetic copy of another organism - a clone.
Therapeutic cloning is a cloning technology for the purpose of obtaining embryonic stem cells for scientific research and, potentially, use in the treatment of various human diseases. In the process of therapeutic cloning, the embryo is not transferred for further development into the woman’s uterine cavity, but is used as an object for scientific research and experimentation and for obtaining stem cells. The zygote is othipotent, i.e. from any of its cells, under appropriate conditions, an embryo can develop. At the blastocyst stage, pluripotent cells are formed, from which all organs and tissues of the body are subsequently formed. In the process of therapeutic cloning, the embryo is inevitably destroyed after the formation of the primary “strip” (“trunk”) of cells, because their further development occurs in various conditions of the artificial environment in accordance with what kind of tissue is expected to be obtained.
The possibilities of using therapeutic and reproductive cloning technologies have revealed a number of ethical, philosophical, socio-legal and other problems associated with the specifics of each of these types of cloning.

Pros of cloning.

1) Possibility of cloning organs and tissues.
Humanity has always dreamed of a miracle cure that would cure all diseases, or at least something similar. Cloning is one of the closest means to this idea.
Cloning makes it possible to grow human body parts using the host's DNA. Such body parts can be used to replace existing but unusable parts. It is also possible to clone certain organs and replace diseased organs with them. Many people die from organ failure, or lose organs in accidents, or are born with defects. These people could be cured through cloning. A great advantage of cloning organs and tissues is that when transplanting them, you do not have to think about suppressing the rejection reaction and possible consequences in the form of cancer that develops against the background of immunodeficiency. Cloned organs will be a lifesaver for people who have been in car accidents or other disasters, or for people who need radical help due to diseases of old age (worn out heart, diseased liver, etc.).
2) The opportunity for childless people to have their own children.
Millions of married couples around the world today suffer, being doomed to remain without descendants. But what if human reproductive cloning progressed to the point where it was completely safe to have children while being infertile? For people who cannot respond to infertility treatment, reproductive cloning will be a real gift. This will help them avoid many problems, including psychological stress associated with adopted children. This will allow them to live just like everyone else.
3) Cloning will help people suffering from severe genetic diseases.
If the genes that determine any such disease are contained in the father’s chromosomes, then the nucleus of her own somatic cell is transplanted into the mother’s egg, and then a child will appear, devoid of dangerous genes, an exact copy of the mother. If these genes are contained in the mother’s chromosomes, then the nucleus of the father’s somatic cell will be transferred to her egg, and a healthy child will appear, a copy of the father. However, there are some contradictions here. If a child is an exact copy of his father or mother, then it turns out that he does not have the genes of the other parent. Then the role of this parent becomes not entirely clear. And the question arises: is he a parent at all?
4) Cloning of exceptional individuals.
Outstanding people are valuable in many ways, both cultural and financial. Cloning could make it possible to increase the number of such people. For example, cloning brilliant scientists could move progress forward and produce a scientific revolution. It would also be possible to clone great athletes and outstanding actors.

Objections to cloning.

1. “Failed” cloning.
Human cloning has a high probability of failure. Scientists estimate that 50% of cloned children will die in the womb, while 1/5 of those children who are born will die at an early age. Moreover, children born through such technologies will face great difficulties - birth defects, diseases, premature aging and psychological pressure. Given this, human cloning should be considered a crime. No one should seek to reproduce hundreds of human eggs or embryos that are in danger of being destroyed.
2. The danger of new diseases and gene mutations.
There is no guarantee that genes will not undergo mutation or change. If the genetic code is changed, hundreds of varieties of cancer and other previously unknown diseases can arise. It must be taken into account that the donor cell, no matter what genius it belongs to, may have genetic disorders, which are not always possible to recognize, due to the fact that they may not have painful symptoms, or because they are among the 85% " potential" part of genes. In this case, we can acquire not a new number of Einsteins or Alain Delons, but an army of cloned mutants, freaks and Frankensteins. In addition, it must be taken into account that gene reproduction alone is not enough to recreate geniuses or outstanding personalities. Environmental and educational conditions are necessary that have a major influence on the formation of personality, his intelligence, talents and knowledge. Yes, genetics has proven the existence of genes responsible for human behavioral manners: aggressiveness, shyness, etc. But these genes are included in the category of so-called “flexible” genes, which manifest themselves under the influence of environmental conditions and upbringing.

3. Religious contradictions.
From the point of view of the main world religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism), human cloning is either a problematic act or an act that goes beyond the scope of doctrine and requires theologians to clearly substantiate one or another position of religious hierarchs. After human cloning became a common idea, the Bible and Quran were quoted as sayings that were interpreted against cloning. The development of cloning is the same as becoming God. Man creates life using cloning, developing some traits and eliminating others. The creation of life, which was the privilege of God, may be carried out in laboratories and test tubes.
4. Reification of man.
If a person can be grown in a laboratory like a vegetable, it defeats the very purpose of birth. The love, care and pain that a mother goes through to give birth to a child represents a person. It is part of our identity as living organisms. The idea of ​​man as an object that can be produced destroys his individuality.
A child born through cloning is not unique, it is an image of a nuclear donor and has no individuality. Such a child will always be perceived as part of a product that can be produced again and again.
Humans are endowed with intelligence, but using intelligence to produce a "sub-human" is an abuse of power. Will such people be treated with the same respect and dignity in society?

Results.

Most analysts agree that cloning in one form or another has already become a part of our lives to a certain extent. But forecasts regarding human cloning are made quite cautiously.
In some countries, the use of these technologies in relation to humans is officially prohibited - France, Germany, Japan. These prohibitions, however, do not mean the intention of legislators of these states to refrain from using human cloning in the future, after a detailed study of the molecular mechanisms of interaction between the cytoplasm of the recipient oocyte and the nucleus of the somatic donor cell, as well as improving the cloning technique itself.
A number of public organizations (Russian Transhumanist Movement, WTA) advocate lifting restrictions on therapeutic cloning.
Although reproductive cloning of adult mammals has long been carried out in practice (the first such clone was the sheep Dolly, who was born in the summer of 1996), no one has yet managed to achieve the birth of clones of even the most primitive primates, not to mention the great apes, the closest genetic relatives of a person. At the current level of science, the probability of successful cloning of an already living person, according to the most optimistic estimates, does not exceed 0.1%.
I believe that we should continue to actively study and research in the field of cloning, but it would be a crime to conduct this research on humans without achieving success in cloning mammals. It is still too early to talk about the real practical use of cloning. However, humanity inevitably moves forward, and no legislative prohibitions can resist human curiosity. To satisfy their interests, people are capable of going to great lengths, including human sacrifices, but the question is: will these sacrifices be justified? Should we today trample all moral prohibitions in order to step into nowhere?

Bibliography.
1. http://www.infoniac.ru/
2. Popular science magazine “Knowledge is power”, No. 4, 1998
3. Russian newspaper, article by Stephen Wear: “Human cloning arguments in defense.”
4. http://www.epochtimes.ru/

It is already possible to clone a person, but not yet. Why and is it necessary?

You live in a world where you can clone animals, flirt with virtual girls and play with robot dolls that are increasingly difficult to distinguish from humans. When you return home one day with a gift for your daughter, you find a copy of yourself. Your clone who took your place and took your life. If the first sentence fits well with reality, then the next ones are the plot of the film “The 6th Day” with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Do you feel how this line between reality and fantasy oozes?

Short. What are we talking about here?

In January of this year, scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences reported the successful cloning of primates using the same nuclear transplantation method that was used to clone the already legendary sheep Dolly. She died back in 2003, and many of my peers watched news broadcasts about this event with undisguised surprise, delight and a bit of fear.

Cloned sheep. No joke! In the teenage mind, she turned into something comparable to an alien cyborg, the eighth wonder of the world in an organic shell. After all, in those years the Internet was provided in extremely limited and expensive portions, and therefore it was not easy to unearth information about the animal, but on TV they spoke rather generally and vaguely...

In general, since then science has not stood still over the corpse of a cloned sheep, which has become a world celebrity. Humanity has advanced from experiments with tadpoles to primates and human embryos. But first things first.

Who are the clones?

Clones are obtained as a result of cloning, no matter how surprising it may sound. Let's start with the fact that even identical twins can safely be called clones, because they developed from the same fertilized egg. Clones are also the cells of multicellular organisms, and even plants that were obtained as a result of vegetative (asexual) propagation: cuttings, tubers, bulbs, rhizomes, etc. This is a rather ancient plant breeding tool, thanks to which we eat tolerable vegetables and fruits.

But if everything is clear with plants, then you cannot propagate a person or a cow with an onion. We receive a set of genes from our parents, these sets are different, since our mothers and fathers are different. And therefore we turn out to be different from just dad or just mom. Each of us is unique! From a genetic point of view, of course. And this is wonderful: the more different people there are, the wider the diversity of the species and the more protected it is from any environmental shocks.

How to create a clone using the example of Dolly the sheep

Dolly was born on July 5, 1996 in Scotland. This happened in the laboratory of Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell at the Roslyn Institute. She was born as an ordinary sheep. But her mother was already long dead at the time of her birth. Dolly came from the nucleus of the somatic cell of the udder of her genetic mother. These cells were frozen in liquid nitrogen. A total of 227 eggs were used, 10% of which eventually grew into embryos. But only one managed to survive.

He grew up in the body of his surrogate mother, into whom he entered by transplanting a cell nucleus from a donor into the nucleus-free cytoplasm of the egg of his future carrier. The test subject received a double set of chromosomes only from her mother, whose genetic copy she was.

Dolly lived like a normal sheep. True, she spent most of her time locked up and away from her relatives. Still a laboratory specimen. By the age of six, the sheep developed arthritis and then a retroviral lung disease. Usually these animals live up to 10-12 years, but they decided to euthanize Dolly halfway, which caused a lot of rumors in the media.

Some scientists, as well as the media, suggested that cloning could be the cause of the early death of the sheep. The fact is that the cell of an adult with already shortened telomeres was chosen as the base material for Dolly. These are the ends of chromosomes that shorten with each division. This process is called one of the main causes of aging.

But okay, let scientists succeed on one of the Earths in numerous parallel universes. What's next? What about the egg? Where can I find a related species close enough in structure that it can support future dinosaurs? And can they even exist in the modern environment? Some people can't stand rearranging their room, and the poor dinosaurs will have to breathe air that is 21% saturated with oxygen instead of the 10-15% they were used to millions of years ago.

That’s why it’s worth looking at species that are closer to us along the timeline. For example, the last wonderful bird, the dodo, left this cruel world back in the 17th century, but even schoolchildren know about it (I’m not sure about today’s). All thanks to Lewis Carroll's cartoonish self-portrait from Alice in Wonderland.

Several specimens of this bird in the form of stuffed animals have been preserved in various museums. Their soft tissues have also been preserved, and among the relatives is the Nicobar dove, which could bear the offspring of dodos. True, so far all this is just talk.

Among the famous, but, unfortunately, failed attempts to revive a dead species is the Pyrenean ibex, which disappeared relatively recently - in 2000. In 2009, his clone was born, who lived only seven minutes.

Why do I need a clone?

So far, in theory, but not always in practice, two types of human cloning are discussed: therapeutic and reproductive. The first involves cloning cells of certain tissues (not organs) for the purpose of transplantation. The tissues obtained in this way will not be rejected by the patient’s body, because they are essentially his own. Useful thing.

How it works? A patient's cell is taken, the nucleus of which is transplanted into the cytoplasm (internal environment) of the egg, which has already lost its nucleus. This egg multiplies and develops into an early embryo five days old. Then, in Petri dishes, the resulting stem cells are transformed into tissues needed by scientists and doctors.

Who might need a reproductive clone? People who have lost their loved ones and want to bring them back in this way? But clones are not born at the right age. This only happens in science fiction.

Ethical Issues

Cloning still has too many unresolved ethical problems. And working with embryos, even at a very early stage of their development, leads to waves of criticism against geneticists. In particular, from religious organizations. Still, they cannot approve of the artificial creation of life and likening to gods.

In addition, human reproductive cloning is expressly prohibited in many countries around the world and faces criminal liability. Yes, methods tested on animals exist and scientists do not see any obstacles to human cloning, except moral ones. However, the problem is that animals are not persons. No, I love and respect animals (not all), but the fact remains that they are built into our digestive chain. And no one asks a cow clone for her opinion on how well a steak is cooked.

Reproductive cloning of a person assumes that he will not be a simple set of organs, but over the years will be formed into a personality that can be radically different from the original (this, in particular, is demonstrated by twins). And the legal status of the clone will be uncertain: what rights and responsibilities should it have? How should it interact with its original? For whom will he be a grandson or heir?

As for therapeutic cloning, it is also banned in many countries around the world. Although for scientific purposes an exception can always be made.

She spoke out about human cloning and the UN. Negative. In the 2005 Declaration on Human Cloning, the organization stated that the application of biological sciences should serve to alleviate suffering and promote the health of individuals and humanity as a whole. The document calls for a ban on all forms of human cloning to the extent that they are incompatible with human dignity and the protection of human life.

Despite this, timidly, bashfully, but inexorably, more and more research institutes are starting to study therapeutic cloning. When the time comes, humanity will still have to weigh the pros and cons, resolve ethical issues and resolve moral dilemmas. Because progress can be delayed, but not undone.

Cloning is the formation of identical descendants (clones) through asexual reproduction. The result of cloning is a population of cells or organisms with the same set of genes (genotype).

Cloning concept

Two ways to approach the cloning problem and analysis.

At the very beginning, I want to understand that the topic of cloning itself, as one of the achievements of science, is not new; back in 1943, successful fertilization of an egg “in vitro” was carried out, and in 1973, Professor L. Shettles from Columbia University in New York stated that it was ready to give birth to the first “test tube baby,” which was followed by categorical prohibitions from the Vatican and the Presbyterian Church in the USA. In 1977, zoology professor J. Gurdon cloned frogs. In 1978, the first test tube baby was born. In 1981, Shettles obtains three cloned human embryos, but stops their development.
In 1997, humanity was shocked by the birth of the Scottish sheep Dolly, who, according to her creators, is an exact genetic copy of her mother. The prospect of carrying out work on human cloning was publicly discussed.

Attitudes towards cloning experiments

At the moment, a controversy arises around the attitude towards experiments on human cloning; there are several questions here:
1. Do we even have the right to human cloning;
2. Any experiments consist of mistakes and achievements, but in this case, a mistake will be the birth of a clone of a person (a fully formed personality) with any deviations, the question arises: “What to do with “HIM”?” Do we have the right to destroy such consequences, i.e. destroy the clone, and this will be tantamount to killing a person;
3. Does science have the necessary information to conduct such experiments;
4. Is it possible to predict the consequences of such experiments now? Indeed, if successful, such a breakthrough in science can have the most unpredictable consequences for humanity.

Only if you clearly and reasonably formulate the answers to these basic questions can you give a specific answer “FOR” or “AGAINST”, but at the moment no one can do this. Therefore, we can only analyze all the pros and cons, and also by considering the arguments of experts to form our attitude towards cloning at this stage of development.

Arguments in support of cloning

Many arguments are given in support of cloning, here are a few of the most common ones:

1. Man is characterized by a fear of the new and unknown, but cloning constantly occurs in natural conditions, when identical twins with the same genotype are born, which is easily proven by the possibility of transplanting organs and tissues between them;
2. The protests of the church are rejected by a simple example, i.e. appendicitis was also created by God, but even the Pope cannot do without medical help. Scientists are talking about “correcting” those genetic defects that arose due to God’s “oversight.”
Thus, emotional objections to human cloning do not have any rational basis, according to supporters of this theory.
3. Also, an undeniable argument in favor of cloning is the resulting possibility of growing organs for transplantation into the body, which will help defeat a lot of diseases such as cancer, save the lives of people affected by disasters, etc.;
4. And yet, the development of cloning will make it possible for childless people to have their own children (in Russia, every seventh married couple is infertile);
5. Further, cloning will help people suffering from severe genetic diseases. If the genes that determine the disease are contained in the father’s chromosomes, then her own somatic cell is transplanted into the mother’s egg, and then a child appears, devoid of dangerous genes, an exact copy of the mother and vice versa.

Arguments against cloning

There are also arguments against cloning:

The Polish writer of science-philosophical fiction Stanislaw Lem in one of his books writes how his hero Ijon Tichy, with the help of cloning, acquired a double, then another, and finally, when he came to his senses, the cabin was filled with people, as it seemed, they were all his different days, weeks, and one from next year. But the complications that arose for Iyon the Quiet in connection with his doubling and tripling are only a pale shadow of those formidable problems that may face humanity. To challenge nature (or God), to violate the prohibitions it has established - this is what cloning an adult organism means. Nature has developed a very complex mechanism for preparing germ cells to perform their function: to give rise to a new life. Cloning, i.e. Reproducing a copy of an adult creature and its non-reproductive cells is an attempt to break through the prohibitions of nature, opponents of cloning believe.

There are many arguments both for and against cloning. But basically, such opinions are formed on the basis of incomplete study of this problem, and both sides do not have the full range of information on this issue, and often replace the gaps with guesses that are not valid from a scientific point of view.

Opinion of Doctor of Biological Sciences

In support of the above, I would like to cite the opinion of Sergei Vyacheslavovich Savelyev, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Head of the Laboratory of Human Nervous System Development at the Institute of Human Morphology of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. I want to say right away that this opinion is shared by the majority of scientists involved in the development and research of cloning problems:

From the genetic structure of DNA, a three-dimensional organism is created. No one knows how this happens. There is a linear record of the genetic code in DNA molecules; it is a record of the sequence of amino acids for molecules of various proteins. Amino acids are assembled into proteins. But a gene is a linear structure, there is no record of ear shape, no record of eye shape, nose shape or leg length. They record only the proteins from which everything is built, and, at a maximum, the time of appearance of proteins or, as geneticists say, the time of gene expression. Some genes are inactive, and some are active. During embryonic development, different proteins appear at different times. There are genes that regulate the timing and rate of synthesis or the amount of protein synthesized. That's all. This has nothing to do with the shape of the body. For example, we can take a cheek cell, multiply it and get a kilogram of such cells, but we will not be able to get even the tip of a nose from these cells, because science does not yet know the laws by which a three-dimensional form arises from the linear structure of proteins.

The problem is not only very complex, but also complicated by the fact that no one is currently addressing it. In fact, science has not advanced much in this area over the past ten years. Moreover, the further we go, the clearer it becomes that there is no genetic determination of development, the fate of cells is not encoded by the gene, it is probabilistic. The laws of morphogenesis in embryogenesis play no less a role than genetic inheritance.

At this stage of development, science has a more or less decent idea of ​​the genetics of organisms, cells, events, final anatomy, but the mechanisms of development remain a mystery.

The genetic approach has exhausted itself. Therefore, geneticists today are trying to attract funds into their field from an area that has nothing to do with them. That is why we are discussing the issue of cloning today.

The cloning of a sheep happened in the following way: they took the nucleus of a somatic cell, removed the nucleus of the mother's egg, and put the somatic nucleus there - such an experiment is not directly related to genetics, this is veterinary medicine. Nuclear transplantation was performed using primitive technology. There is absolutely nothing new in this.

There is also the question of whether an adult somatic cell is transplanted during cloning, and how it begins to go through all the stages of embryogenesis again is unclear, and science cannot explain this.

If we directly concern human cloning, then it looks like a science fiction novel, interesting, absolutely unrealistic at this stage of the development of science. For example, sexual differentiation, if the normal process of organ development does not cope with it, there will be an abnormal embryo. Hormonally unbalanced, he will develop into an idiot.

Even stranger is the idea of ​​the possibility of growing individual organs for the purpose of transplantation. After all, for this you need to grow the whole organism. In human organogenesis, it is impossible to form the k-l part separately, because there is a dynamic of complex relationships and inductive processes. You need to make the whole body, and then cut off the desired part. There is no need to comment on the social aspect of such actions.

Conclusion

From all of the above, let's summarize.

At the present stage of development of science, it is impossible to grow individual organs, and the creation of a whole organism by cloning with a predictable development process is very questionable, and in some cases is not scientific and needs serious justification. There are fundamental questions, without knowing the answers to which, it is impossible to seriously talk about cloning the human body. The level of today's understanding of the laws of formation makes this problem unsolvable in the near future.

As for the sensational story with the statements of Professor Richard Seed, who gave impetus to all the talk about SOON CLONING, it looks like the script for the thriller movie “The Nutty Professor”. R. Sid, a professor, a physicist by training, a former teacher, said that he will soon be able to clone a person. This statement was made in 1997. immediately after the appearance of the sheep Dolly, and therefore it was taken so seriously, no one then paid attention to the fact that the experiment with the sheep itself was successful out of 277, and a person is still not a sheep and there are a lot of embryological, physiological differences. Everyone was overcome by a feeling of miracle; all that was missing was a miracle worker. And demand stimulates supply. The experiment with Dolly itself showed only a very illusory possibility of performing such actions with a person in the future, but only after studying all the problems mentioned and substantiating all the hypotheses.

And so, let’s sum it up, although there’s really nothing to sum it up, because... the whole problem is simply overblown today, but humanity will still have to face it someday:

The idea of ​​human cloning poses a problem for human society that it has never faced before. This problem is the possible danger of losing the uniqueness of the human personality. This is how science develops, such is the peculiarity of knowledge that each new step brings with it new, previously unknown possibilities, but also formidable dangers. Mastery of atomic energy brought cheap electricity - but also weapons capable of destroying all of humanity. And here comes cloning. For infertile families and seriously ill people, this is salvation, but what about the even remote prospect of the appearance of many biological “Copies” of living people? The very possibility of such a turn of events encourages reflection. Professor Boris Konyukhov believes: “The norms of bioethics, which are so much debated now, are needed not only by scientists. Those moral commandments that humanity has used for centuries, unfortunately, do not provide for new opportunities that science brings to life. That’s why people need to discuss and adopt new laws of social life that take into account new realities.”

In conclusion, I would like to say that today experiments on human cloning are prohibited (or a moratorium has been imposed) in almost all developed and developing countries, in addition, there is a special resolution of the UN Security Council introducing a moratorium on any experiments on cloning of humans and embryos older than two weeks of development .

Cloning Pros and Cons