The effects of human cloning - Essay Example

Human cloning is also faces the risk of being misused, and is shows a lack of respect for the individuals involved as well as respect for the mystery of procreation of human beings. Moreover, it lead to serious psychological problems for both the parent and the child. Other problems have to do with that its long-term effects are unidentified, it poses concerns regarding lack of originality, individuality, identity formation, gender identity, identification, as well as problems to do with cognitive development and social emotional development.

Introduction Cloning is a reproduction method that refers to the asexual production of genetically identical organisms either through nuclear transfer, which has to do with the substitution of a nucleus in the egg by another nucleus, or through the division of an embryo. Cloning involves copying or duplicating an individual or a cell from its DNA, and the result is a clone. Cloning in animals is attained through embryonic cloning where a fertilized egg is split into two or more parts at a very early embryonic stage, yielding two or more identical beings.

It is also attained through somatic cloning where identical beings are produced from adult animals’ cells – under specified conditions, an anucleated ovum fertilizes a somatic cell’s nucleus leading to cell division, and it becomes a fetus. For decades, people have done cloning in dozens plants (vegetables and fruits) by deliberately reproducing genetic replicas of parents with desirable qualities as well as quantities. However, the first successful attempt of cloning in mammals is exemplified by formation of a Scottish sheep called Dolly through a process known as somatic cell nuclear transfer.

This grabs the attention of scientists – they thought that if plants and animals could be cloned, there was a possibility that humans too could be cloned (Yadav & Sharma, 2011 and Islam, et al. 2012). Yadav and Sharma (2011) explain that a geneticist known as Joshua Lederberg, is credited coming up with the prospects and promise of human cloning. Today, “human cloning has become a real possibility” with the rise of reproductive cloning technology – through it, parents are given the ability “to choose a desirable genotype for one’s offspring” (Shapshay, 2012) or the ability to exercise their control/desires on the identity of the children they want to have.

Yadav and Sharma (2011) identify three types of cloning. The first one is reproductive cloning, which produces an individual that has identical nuclear DNA as the parent. Reproductive cloning uses somatic cell transfer process as discussed in previously. The second type of cloning is DNA Cloning or Recombinant DNA Technology, which is done by cell- based technique, a process that involves cutting off DNA fragment from the chromosomal DNA and attaching it to a plasmid. The gene of interests is attached to its vector forming a recombination DNA molecule.

DNA Cloning or Recombinant DNA Technology, is also done using polymerase chain reaction technique whereby when all cells divide, enzymes known as polymerases create a copy of the whole DNA in every chromosome. The two DNA chains of the double helix are separated making a copy, each strand acting as a template. This technique is faster and uses a very small portion of target DNA. The third type of cloning is therapeutic cloning, referred also to as embryo cloning, somatic cell nuclear transfer, research cloning, cloning for biomedical research or cell