PART 1: WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF “CLONING”? (3 students)
Are there different types of cloning?
When the media report on cloning in the news, they are usually talking about only one type called reproductive cloning. There are different types of cloning however, and cloning technologies can be used for other purposes besides producing the genetic twin of another organism. A basic understanding of the different types of cloning is key to taking an informed stance on current public policy issues and making the best possible personal decisions. The following three types of cloning technologies will be discussed: (1) recombinant DNA technology or DNA cloning, (2) reproductive cloning, and (3) therapeutic cloning.
Recombinant DNA Technology or DNA Cloning
The terms "recombinant DNA technology," "DNA cloning," "molecular cloning," and "gene cloning" all refer to the same process: the transfer of a DNA fragment of interest from one organism to a self-replicating genetic element such as a bacterial plasmid. The DNA of interest can then be propagated in a foreign host cell. This technology has been around since the 1970s, and it has become a common practice in molecular biology labs today.
Scientists studying a particular gene often use bacterial plasmids to generate multiple copies of the same gene. Plasmids are self-replicating extra-chromosomal circular DNA molecules, distinct from the normal bacterial genome (see image to the right). Plasmids and other types of cloning vectors were used by Human
Genome Project researchers to copy genes and other pieces of chromosomes to generate enough identical material for further study.
To "clone a gene," a DNA fragment containing the gene of interest is isolated from chromosomal DNA using restriction enzymes and then united with a plasmid that has been cut with the same restriction enzymes. When the fragment of chromosomal DNA is joined with its cloning vector in the lab, it is called a "recombinant DNA molecule." Following introduction into suitable host cells, the recombinant DNA can then be reproduced along with the host cell DNA.
Plasmids can carry up to 20,000 bp of foreign DNA. Besides bacterial plasmids, some other cloning vectors include viruses, bacteria artificial chromosomes (BACs), and yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs). Cosmids are artificially constructed cloning vectors that carry up to 45 kb of foreign DNA and can be packaged in lambda phage particles for infection into E. coli cells. BACs utilize the naturally occurring F-factor plasmid found in E. coli to carry 100- to 300-kb DNA inserts. A YAC is a functional chromosome derived from yeast that can carry up to 1 MB of foreign DNA. Bacteria are most often used as the host cells for recombinant DNA molecules, but yeast and mammalian cells also are used.
Reproductive Cloning (Cloning whole organisms)
Reproductive cloning is a technology used to generate an animal that has the same nuclear DNA as another currently or previously existing animal. Dolly was created by reproductive cloning technology. In a process called "somatic cell nuclear transfer" (SCNT), scientists transfer genetic material from the nucleus of a donor adult cell to an egg whose nucleus, and thus its genetic material, has been removed. The reconstructed egg containing the DNA from a donor cell must be treated with chemicals or electric current in order to stimulate cell division. Once the cloned embryo reaches a suitable stage, it is transferred to the uterus of a female host where it continues to develop until birth.
Dolly or any other animal created using nuclear transfer technology is not truly an identical clone of the donor animal. Only the clone's chromosomal or nuclear DNA is the same as the donor. Some of the clone's genetic materials come from the mitochondria in the cytoplasm of the enucleated egg. Mitochondria, which are organelles that serve as power sources to the cell, contain their own short segments of DNA. Acquired mutations in mitochondrial DNA are believed to play an important role in the aging process.
Celebrity Sheep Died at Age 6 
 
 Dolly, the first mammal to be cloned from adult DNA, was put down by lethal injection Feb. 14, 2003. Prior to her death, Dolly had been suffering from lung cancer and crippling arthritis. Although most Finn Dorset sheep live to be 11 to 12 years of age, postmortem examination of Dolly seemed to indicate that, other than her cancer and arthritis, she appeared to be quite normal. The unnamed sheep from which Dolly was cloned had died several years prior to her creation. Dolly was a mother to six lambs, bred the old-fashioned way. OVER 
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Dolly's success is truly remarkable because it proved that the genetic material from a specialized adult cell, such as an udder cell programmed to express only those genes needed by udder cells, could be reprogrammed to generate an entire new organism. Before this demonstration, scientists believed that once a cell became specialized as a liver, heart, udder, bone, or any other type of cell, the change was permanent and other unneeded genes in the cell would become inactive. Some scientists believe that errors or incompleteness in the reprogramming process cause the high rates of death, deformity, and disability observed among animal clones.
Therapeutic Cloning (Cloning embryos)
Therapeutic cloning, also called "embryo cloning," is the production of human embryos for use in research. The goal of this process is not to create cloned human beings, but rather to harvest stem cells that can be used to study human development and to treat disease.
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PART 2: HOW IS CLONING DONE? (3 students)
How is cloning of a whole organism done?
You may have first heard of cloning when Dolly the Sheep showed up on the scene in 1997. Cloning technologies have been around for much longer than Dolly, though.
How does one go about making an exact genetic copy of an organism? There are a couple of ways to do this: artificial embryo twinning and somatic cell nuclear transfer. How do these processes differ?
1. Artificial Embryo Twinning
Artificial embryo twinning is the relatively low-tech version of cloning. As the name suggests, this technology mimics the natural process of creating identical twins.
In nature, twins occur just after fertilization of an egg cell by a sperm cell. In rare cases, when the resulting fertilized egg, called a zygote, tries to divide into a two-celled embryo, the two cells separate. Each cell continues dividing on its own, ultimately developing into a separate individual within the mother. Since the two cells came from the same zygote, the resulting individuals are genetically identical.
Artificial embryo twinning uses the same approach, but it occurs in a Petri dish instead of in the mother's body. This is accomplished by manually separating a very early embryo into individual cells, and then allowing each cell to divide and develop on its own. The resulting embryos are placed into a surrogate mother, where they are carried to term and delivered. Again, since all the embryos came from the same zygote, they are genetically identical.
2. Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer
Somatic cell nuclear transfer, (SCNT) uses a different approach than artificial embryo twinning, but it produces the same result: an exact clone, or genetic copy, of an individual. This was the method used to create Dolly the Sheep.
What does SCNT mean? Let's take it apart:
Somatic cell : A somatic cell is any cell in the body other than the two types of reproductive cells, sperm and egg. Sperm and egg are also called germ cells. In mammals, every somatic cell has two complete sets of chromosomes, whereas the germ cells only have one complete set.
Nuclear : The nucleus is like the cell's brain. It's an enclosed compartment that contains all the information that cells need to form an organism. This information comes in the form of DNA. It's the differences in our DNA that make each of us unique.
Transfer : Moving an object from one place to another.
To make Dolly, researchers isolated a somatic cell from an adult female sheep. Next, they transferred the nucleus from that cell to an egg cell from which the nucleus had been removed. After a couple of chemical tweaks, the egg cell, with its new nucleus, was behaving just like a freshly fertilized zygote. It developed into an embryo, which was implanted into a surrogate mother and carried to term.
The lamb, Dolly, was an exact genetic replica of the adult female sheep that donated the somatic cell nucleus to the egg.
She was the first-ever mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell.
How does SCNT differ from the natural way of making an embryo?
The fertilization of an egg by a sperm and the SCNT cloning method both result in the same thing: a dividing ball of cells, called an embryo. So what exactly is the difference between these methods?
An embryo is composed of cells that contain two complete sets of chromosomes. The difference between fertilization and
SCNT lies in where those two sets originated.
In fertilization, the sperm and egg both contain one set of chromosomes. When the sperm and egg join, the resulting zygote ends up with two sets - one from the father (sperm) and one from the mother (egg).
In SCNT, the egg cell's single set of chromosomes is removed. It is replaced by the nucleus from a somatic cell, which already contains two complete sets of chromosomes. Therefore, in the resulting embryo, both sets of chromosomes come from the somatic cell.
Nuclear Transplantation
This procedure is known as nuclear transplantation, or somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). It involves removing the nucleus, which contains a cell's DNA, from an egg cell and transplanting the DNA from an adult cell into the enucleated egg. Under certain conditions, the egg then begins to replicate as though it were a fertilized embryo.
After the egg divides for several days, it produces embryonic stem cells, which are primitive cells that can theoretically develop into virtually any type of cells in the organism, from blood cells to skin cells. Scientists believe that research on human stem cells could lead to new cures for many diseases. The use of nuclear transplantation to produce human stem cells is often referred to as "research cloning" or "therapeutic cloning."
If this entity is implanted into a uterus, it has the potential to develop into a full organism, which would have the same DNA as the donor of the adult cell. In other words, the organism would be a "clone." This procedure is known as "reproductive cloning."
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PART 3: WHY CLONE? (4 students)
Research advances over the past decade have told us that, with a little work, we humans can clone just about anything we want, from frogs to monkeys and probably even ourselves! So, we can clone things, but why would we want to? Let's look at some of the reasons people give to justify cloning.
1. Cloning for medical purposes
Of all the reasons, cloning for medical purposes has the most potential to benefit large numbers of people. How might cloning be used in medicine?
Cloning animal models of disease 
 Much of what researchers learn about human disease comes from studying animal models such as mice. Often, animal models are genetically engineered to carry disease-causing mutations in their genes. Creating these transgenic animals is a time-intensive process that requires trial-anderror and several generations of breeding. Cloning technologies might reduce the time needed to make a transgenic animal model, and the result would be a population of genetically identical animals for study.
Cloning stem cells for research 
 Stem cells are the body's building blocks, responsible for developing, maintaining and repairing the body throughout life. As a result, they might be used to repair damaged or diseased organs and tissues. Researchers are currently looking toward cloning as a way to create genetically defined human stem cells for research and medical purposes. To see how this is done, see C r e a t i n g St e m C e lls f o r
R e s e a r c h , a component of the St e m C e l ls i n t h e Sp o t li g h t module.
2. "Pharming" for drug production Farm animals such as cows, sheep and goats are currently being genetically engineered to produce drugs or proteins that are useful in medicine. Just like creating animal models of disease, cloning might be a faster way to produce large herds of genetically engineered animals. Pharming: it's not just another misspelled word! The term "pharming" comes from a combination of the words "farming" and "pharmaceuticals" - a melding of the most basic methods of agriculture with the most advanced biotechnology.
Gene pharming is a technology that scientists use to alter an animal's own DNA, or to splice in new DNA, called a transgene, from another species. In pharming, these genetically modified (transgenic) animals are mostly used to make human proteins that have medicinal value. The protein encoded by the transgene is secreted into the animal's milk, eggs or blood, and then collected and purified. Livestock such as cattle, sheep, goats, chickens, rabbits and pigs have already been modified in this way to produce several useful proteins and drugs.
How do you change an animal's DNA?
Producing a whole transgenic animal with the same new piece of DNA incorporated into every single cell may seem like a difficult feat. In reality, it is quite simple, because every animal begins as one cell that divides over and over again until the animal is fully developed. To ensure that every cell in an animal contains the same new piece of DNA, all a scientist needs to do is add the DNA to a single cell (such as a fertilized egg) before it starts dividing. This can be done by microinjecting the cell with a very fine needle.
The injected embryos are then tested to see which ones have the transgene in their DNA. The ones that do are put in a surrogate mother's uterus to develop. A successful transgenic animal will produce the desired protein without damaging its own health and pass this ability on to its offspring.
Before the advent of cloning techniques, microinjection of fertilized eggs was the only method for producing transgenic livestock. Using this approach to produce a herd or flock of transgenic animals was a long and expensive process, though, because only a small number of animals end up with the transgene in their genome, and not all of these will pass on the transgene to their offspring. Cloning changes the face of pharming technology, however: when one suitable transgenic animal has been raised, it is then possible to produce an unlimited number of genetically identical animals quickly.
What types of products are made using transgenic technology?
The first successful products of genetic engineering were protein drugs like insulin, which is used to treat diabetes, and growth hormone. These proteins are made in large quantities by genetically engineered bacteria or yeast in large "bioreactors." Some drugs are also made in transgenic plants, such as tobacco.
Some human proteins that are used as drugs require biological modifications that only the cells of mammals, such as cows, goats and sheep, can provide. For these drugs, production in transgenic animals is a good option.
Using farm animals for drug production has many advantages because they are reproducible, have flexible production and are easily maintained. They also have a great delivery method: just milk them.
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2. Reviving Endangered or Extinct Species
Have you seen Jurassic Park ? In this feature film, scientists use DNA preserved for tens of millions of years to clone dinosaurs. They find trouble, however, when they realize that the cloned creatures are smarter and fiercer than expected.
Could we really clone dinosaurs?
In theory? Yes. What would you need to do this?
A well-preserved source of DNA from the extinct dinosaur, and
A closely related species, currently living, that could serve as a surrogate mother
In reality? Probably not. It's not likely that dinosaur DNA could survive undamaged for such a long time. However, scientists have tried to clone species that became extinct more recently, using DNA from well-preserved tissue samples.
For an example, see "Can we really clone endangered or extinct animals?" on the right side of this page.
3. Reproducing a Deceased Pet
No joke! If you really wanted to, and if you had enough money, you could clone your beloved family cat. At least one biotechnology company in the United States offers cat cloning services for the privileged and bereaved, and they are now working to clone dogs. But don't assume that your cloned kitty will be exactly the same as the one you know and love. Why not?
4. Cloning Humans?
To clone or not to clone: that is the question. The prospect of cloning humans is highly controversial and raises a number of ethical, legal and social challenges that need to be considered.
Why would anyone want to clone humans? Some reasons include:
To help infertile couples have children
To replace a deceased child
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PART 4: CLONING MYTHS (3 students)
We are learning what it means to clone an individual organism. Given its high profile in the popular media, the topic of cloning brings up some common, and often confusing, misconceptions.
Misconception #1: Instant Clones!
Let's say you really wanted a clone to do your homework. After reviewing W h a t is C l o n i n g ? and C l ic k a n d
C l o n e , you've figured out, generally, how this would be done. Knowing what you know, do you think this approach would really help you finish your homework...this decade?
A common misconception is that a clone, if created, would magically appear at the same age as the original. This simply isn't true. You remember that cloning is an alternative way to create an embryo, not a full-grown individual.
Therefore, that embryo, once created, must develop exactly the same way as would an embryo created by fertilizing an egg cell with a sperm cell. This will require a surrogate mother and ample time for the cloned embryo to grow and fully develop into an individual.
Misconception #2: Carbon Copies!
Your beloved cat Frank has been a loyal companion for years. Recently, though, Frank is showing signs of old age, and you realize that your friend's days are numbered. You can't bear the thought of living without her, so you contact a biotechnology company that advertises pet cloning services. For a fee, this company will clone Frank using DNA from a sample of her somatic cells. You're thrilled: you'll soon have a carbon copy of Frank - we'll call her Frank #2 - and you'll never have to live without your pal! Right?
Not exactly. Are you familiar with the phrase "nature versus nurture?" Basically, this means that while genetics can help determine traits, environmental influences have a considerable impact on shaping an individual's physical appearance and personality. For example, do you know any identical twins? They are genetically the same, but do they really look and act exactly alike?
So, even though Frank #2 is genetically identical to the original Frank, she will grow and develop in a completely different environment than the original Frank or will have a different mother, and she will be exposed to different experiences throughout her development and life. Therefore, there is only a slim chance that Frank #2 will closely resemble the Frank you know and love.
Most cloning misconceptions arise from a lack of knowledge. Most people do not understand he basic principles of cloning, and are likely to make rash generalizations about whether cloning is natural or not. Other misconceptions focus on the societal problems resulting from cloning. Many of these misconceptions are only valid in a society without regulations or laws of any kind. People forget that along with new technological developments come rules and guidelines to prevent the kind of scenarios here. Each misconception results from a distortion of the truth, which is presented here with each incorrect belief.
A clone would not be a normal human:
Whatever the methods of production are, a clone would be as "human" as an identical twin. Both are derived from a single fertilized egg.
Cloning is "playing God":
Cloning does not create life, as this stigma implies. Cloning merely produces life from existing life. Cloning can be thought of as an extension of procedures like in-vitro fertilization.
Cloning is not a natural process:
Cloning utilizes elements that already exist in the natural reproduction process. Embryo cloning pulls apart a zygote at the two-cell stage and creates two one-celled organisms. Although some might say that cloning is not an intended form of reproduction, the same might be said of in-vitro fertilization, and the use of fertility drugs.
A clone will not have a soul:
This implies that the soul is a quantifiable physical element of someone’s genetic makeup that can be altered or taken away. In this case, cloning does not present more of a religious problem than identical twins. Despite them being identical, it is agreed that both twins have souls.
A clone will have the same feelings and emotions as its genetic parent:
An overused example of this idea is a Hitler clone starting a new Holocaust. While genes and genetic structure can give certain characteristics and possibly basic emotional tendencies, environment and upbringing play a much larger role in shaping someone’s emotions and outlook. A Hitler clone that had been raised in the United States and had lived in a period of stability and prosperity would not act the same way as a Hitler raised in Germany living amongst post-war devastation and hatred.
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Someone could own a clone:
Although cloning is being considered as a future infertility remedy, and essentially, a clone would be "made" for the parents, no one could own a clone. Ownership of a clone would be no different than slavery. People that predict a massive working underclass produced from cloning forget that despite the methods of their birth, clones would carry the same rights as a person produced through normal reproduction.
An unconscious clone could be produced to supply organs:
Despite being morally questionable, producing a clone with no self-awareness requires a deeper knowledge of where the consciousness resides. Consciousness is not a certain trait that can be erased through genetics, and there is no isolated
DNA that determines its existence. Furthermore, just proving that a clone is not self-aware would be difficult. People with debilitating neurological disorders may appear mentally incapacitated but retain full consciousness. However, researchers have theorized the possibility of cloning only certain organs to use as replacements for an individual in dire need of a transplant. Scientists believe that if the cells of an organ have the same genetic make up as those of the host organism, the organ would be much less likely to be rejected after a transplant.
Great individuals of the past could be re-born:
All current techniques to clone an adult cell use the method of nuclear transfer, which requires the donor cell to be alive.
In this process a LIVE adult adult cell it fused with an egg cell or it's nucleus is extracted and inserted into the egg. At this time, and most likely far into the future, clones of dead organisms can not be created. Also, even if such an individual is cloned, the development of the person is largely dependent upon its upbringing and childhood surroundings. Just as a theoretical Hitler clone would most likely not grow up to start a new Holocaust, an Einstein clone would probably not become a world renowned physicist.
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PART 5: WHAT ARE THE RISKS OF CLONING? (3 students)
When we hear of cloning successes, we learn about only the few attempts that worked. What we don't see are the many, many cloning experiments that failed! And even in the successful clones, problems tend to arise later, during the animal's development to adulthood.
Cloning animals shows us what might happen if we try to clone humans. What have these animals taught us about the risks of cloning?
1. High failure rate
Cloning animals through somatic cell nuclear transfer is simply inefficient. The success rate ranges from 0.1 percent to 3 percent, which means that for every 1000 tries, only one to 30 clones are made. Or you can look at it as 970 to 999 failures in 1000 tries. That's a lot of effort with only a speck of a return!
Why is this? Here are some reasons:
The enucleated egg and the transferred nucleus may not be compatible
An egg with a newly transferred nucleus may not begin to divide or develop properly
Implantation of the embryo into the surrogate mother might fail
The pregnancy itself might fail
2. Problems during later development
Cloned animals that do survive tend to be much bigger at birth than their natural counterparts. Scientists call this "Large
Offspring Syndrome" (LOS). Clones with LOS have abnormally large organs. This can lead to breathing, blood flow and other problems.
Because LOS doesn't always occur, scientists cannot reliably predict whether it will happen in any given clone. Also, some clones without LOS have developed kidney or brain malformations and impaired immune systems, which can cause problems later in life.
3. Abnormal gene expression patterns
Are the surviving clones really clones? The clones look like the originals, and their DNA sequences are identical. But will the clone express the right genes at the right time?
In C l ic k a n d C l o n e , we saw that one challenge is to re-program the transferred nucleus to behave as though it belongs in a very early embryonic cell. This mimics natural development, which starts when a sperm fertilizes an egg.
In a naturally-created embryo, the DNA is programmed to express a certain set of genes. Later on, as the embryonic cells begin to differentiate, the program changes. For every type of differentiated cell - skin, blood, bone or nerve, for example - this program is different.
In cloning, the transferred nucleus doesn't have the same program as a natural embryo. It is up to the scientist to reprogram the nucleus, like teaching an old dog new tricks. Complete reprogramming is needed for normal or nearnormal development. Incomplete programming will cause the embryo to develop abnormally or fail.
4. Telomeric differences
As cells divide, their chromosomes get shorter. This is because the DNA sequences at both ends of a chromosome, called telomeres, shrink in length every time the DNA is copied. The older the animal is, the shorter its telomeres will be, because the cells have divided many, many times. This is a natural part of aging.
So, what happens to the clone if its transferred nucleus is already pretty old? Will the shortened telomeres affect its development or lifespan?
When scientists looked at the telomere lengths of cloned animals, they found no clear answers. Chromosomes from cloned cattle or mice had longer telomeres than normal. These cells showed other signs of youth and seemed to have an extended lifespan compared with cells from a naturally conceived cow. On the other hand, Dolly the sheep's chromosomes had shorter telomere lengths than normal. This means that Dolly's cells were aging faster than the cells from a normal sheep.
To date, scientists aren't sure why cloned animals show differences in telomere length.
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PART 6: WHAT ARE SOME ISSUES WITH CLONING? (3 students)
The success rate in cloning is quite low. Even if we can increase the odds of success, problems can arise during the clone's development, both before and after pregnancy. Despite these risks, supporters of human reproductive cloning see it as a possible solution to infertility problems. Others support therapeutic cloning to create embryonic stem cells for research and medicine.
What are the possible implications of cloning to society? All of us - researchers, policymakers and the public - have a responsibility to explore the potential effects of cloning technologies on our lives so that we can make informed decisions.
For each new application of cloning technologies, we must consider:
What are the benefits?
What are the risks?
Whom will the technology help? Does it have the potential to hurt anyone?
What does this mean for me? For my family? For others around me?
Why might others not share my view?
Ethical, legal and social issues.
There are several types of issues to consider as we think about cloning.
Ethical issues are those that ask us to consider the potential moral outcomes of cloning technologies.
Legal issues require researchers and the public to help policymakers decide whether and how cloning technologies should be regulated by the government.
Social issues involve the impact of cloning technologies on society as a whole.
Some questions to ponder.
The questions raised here have no clear right or wrong answer. Instead, your response will depend on your own set of values, as well as the opinions of those around you.
Who has the right to have children, no matter how they are created?
Who doesn't? Why?
Is human cloning "playing with nature?" If so, how does that compare with other reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization or hormone treatments?
Does cloning to create stem cells, also called therapeutic cloning, justify destroying a human embryo?
Why, or why not?
If a clone originates from an existing person, who is the parent?
What are some of the social challenges a cloned child might face?
Do the benefits of human cloning outweigh the costs of human dignity?
Should cloning research be regulated?
How, and by whom?
Legislative Debate
There is widespread opposition in the U.S. to the birth of a human clone (reproductive cloning). While a few groups argue that cloning is a legitimate form of reproduction, opposition to these arguments is nearly unanimous among scientists and policy-makers, due to both ethical and safety concerns. To quote the National Academies 2002 report on cloning, "Human reproductive cloning should not now be practiced. It is dangerous and likely to fail."
However, both the U.S. as a whole and the U.S. Congress in particular are heavily divided on the issue of research cloning. Some in Congress support legislation criminalizing nuclear transplantation in humans, whether for reproductive or research purposes, which is a position supported by President Bush. Others in Congress have proposed legislation that would criminalize only reproductive cloning while allowing research cloning. Although various legislation on this issue has been introduced in Congress from 2001 through the present, no agreement has been reached.
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Arguments Against Nuclear Transplantation Research
Proponents of a comprehensive ban on nuclear transplantation for research and reproductive purposes raise two main arguments. Religious conservatives argue that human embryos should be afforded a moral status similar to human beings and should not be destroyed, even in the course of conducting research. They also argue that permitting nuclear transplantation would open the door to reproductive cloning, because a ban only on implantation would be difficult to enforce. In this second argument, conservatives are joined by a coalition of environmental, women's health, and bioethics groups who are not unalterably opposed to nuclear transplantation, but believe that it should not be permitted until strict regulations are in place.
Arguments For Nuclear Transplantation Research
Proponents of a ban solely on reproductive cloning that would permit nuclear transplantation research, include a coalition of science organizations, patient groups, and the biotechnology industry. These groups argue that the moral status of a human embryo is less than that of a full human being, and must be weighed against the potential cures that could be produced by research using nuclear transplantation. They contend that a ban on implantation on the product of nuclear transplantation would be no more difficult to enforce than a ban on nuclear transplantation itself. They argue further that criminalizing scientific research, which has been done only very rarely in the past, would set a bad precedent.
The States' Perspective
In the United States, the absence of a national policy in regards to cloning has resulted in states leading the way, pursuing policies either for or against cloning. Opinions vary among the states. As of 2006, fifteen states had laws dealing with human cloning. All either prohibit reproductive cloning entirely or prohibit the use of government funding for reproductive cloning. There is less agreement when it comes to research cloning. Some ban it entirely and some prohibit the use of government funding for it, but others allow it. 
 
 While the federal government has not addressed the overall issue of whether cloning is allowed, it has addressed the funding of research via the Dickey Amendment (H.R. 3010,
Sec. 509) which prohibits the NIH from funding research utilizing human embryos derived by cloning. 
 
 Please click here for details.
The International Perspective
There is as little consensus among nations as there is among Congress members when it comes to the issue of cloning.
In fact, nations are so divided that the United Nations abandoned efforts to create a worldwide treaty on human cloning.
Instead, in 2005 the U.N. adopted a resolution aiming to provide guidance to countries attempting to arrive at a position on cloning and stem cell research. Many nations, including the UK, China, and South Africa, have explicitly prohibited reproductive cloning while allowing research cloning. Fewer nations have explicitly prohibited research cloning, which (as of 2006) is allowed in 10 countries.
eth-i-cal: (adj.) 1. Relating to morals, especially as concerning human conduct. 2. Morally correct.
le-gal: (adj.) 1. Of or based on law. 2. Appointed or required by law. 3. Permitted by law.
so-cial: (adj.) 1. Of or relating to society and its organization. 2. Concerned with the mutual relations of human beings. 3. Living in organized communities.
pol-i-cy: (n.) 1. Course or principle of action adopted or proposed by a government, party, business or individual, etc.
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PART 7: HOW ARE STEM CELLS LINKED TO CLONING? (3 students)
Therapeutic Cloning (Cloning embryos)
Therapeutic cloning, also called "embryo cloning," is the production of human embryos for use in research. The goal of this process is not to create cloned human beings, but rather to harvest stem cells that can be used to study human development and to treat disease. Stem cells are important to biomedical researchers because they can be used to generate virtually any type of specialized cell in the human body. Stem cells are extracted from the egg after it has divided for 5 days. The egg at this stage of development is called a blastocyst. The extraction process destroys the embryo, which raises a variety of ethical concerns. Many researchers hope that one day stem cells can be used to serve as replacement cells to treat heart disease, Alzheimer's, cancer, and other diseases.
In November 2001, scientists from Advanced Cell Technologies (ACT), a biotechnology company in
Massachusetts, announced that they had cloned the first human embryos for the purpose of advancing therapeutic research. To do this, they collected eggs from women's ovaries and then removed the genetic material from these eggs with a needle less than 2/10,000th of an inch wide. A skin cell was inserted inside the enucleated egg to serve as a new nucleus. The egg began to divide after it was stimulated with a chemical called ionomycin. The results were limited in success. Although this process was carried out with eight eggs, only three began dividing, and only one was able to divide into six cells before stopping.
Stem cell research and research cloning are closely linked. Scientists in the private sector have conducted experiments on human embryonic stem cells after extracting them from excess embryos left over from fertility treatments. They hope one day to use these cells for treating diseases, and one of the potential obstacles for such a procedure is rejection of the implanted cells by the patient's immune system. Through nuclear transplantation, stem cells could be created with the same genetic makeup as the patient, which some scientists believe would reduce or eliminate the risk of immune rejection.
Recently, various alternatives to nuclear transplantation have been proposed, including:
deriving stem cells from embryos that are already dead - some consider this procedure to be ethically analogous to removal of organs from a person who has recently died
deriving stem cells by extracting blastomeres (cells formed in the first stages of embryonic development, when the fertilized ovum is split) from living embryos - this procedure is currently used to test IVF embryos for genetic and chromosomal abnormalities, but long-term effects of this extraction on a person's health are unknown
altered nuclear transfer - this procedure alters the somatic cell nucleus before transfer such that it would not have the developmental potential of a human embryo
It is important to keep in mind that nuclear transplantation and its alternatives are very recent developments - the science is still in its early stages and there remains much to be learned. While nuclear transplantation has been tested in animals with some success, such tests have not been conducted for many of the alternatives to nuclear transplantation. Similarly, ethical implications have been more thoroughly discussed in regards to nuclear transplantation than its alternatives. Each method poses its own set of ethical concerns.
Cloning/Embryonic Stem Cells
The term cloning is used by scientists to describe many different processes that involve making duplicates of biological material. In most cases, isolated genes or cells are duplicated for scientific study, and no new animal results. The experiment that led to the cloning of Dolly the sheep in 1997 was different: It used a cloning technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer and resulted in an animal that was a genetic twin -- although delayed in time -- of an adult sheep. This technique can also be used to produce an embryo from which cells called embryonic stem (ES) cells could be extracted to use in research into potential therapies for a wide variety of diseases.
Thus, in the past five years, much of the scientific and ethical debate about somatic cell nuclear transfer has focused on its two potential applications: 1) for reproductive purposes, i.e., to produce a child, or 2) for producing a source of ES cells for research.
Cloning for the Isolation of Human ES Cells
The cloning debate was reopened with a new twist late in 1998, when two scientific reports were published regarding the successful isolation of human stem cells. Stem cells are unique and essential cells found in animals that are capable of continually reproducing themselves and renewing tissue throughout an individual organism's life. ES cells are the most versatile of all stem cells because they are less differentiated, or committed, to a particular function than adult stem cells.
These cells have offered hope of new cures to debilitating and even fatal illness. Recent studies in mice and other animals have shown that ES cells can reduce symptoms of Parkinson's disease in mouse models, and work in other animal models and disease areas seems promising. OVER 
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In the 1998 reports, ES cells were derived from in vitro embryos six to seven days old destined to be discarded by couples undergoing infertility treatments, and embryonic germ (EG) cells were obtained from cadaveric fetal tissue following elective abortion. A third report, appearing in the New York Times, claimed that a Massachusetts biotechnology company had fused a human cell with an enucleated cow egg, creating a hybrid clone that failed to progress beyond an early stage of development. This announcement served as a reminder that ES cells also could be derived from embryos created through somatic cell nuclear transfer, or cloning. In fact, several scientists believed that deriving ES cells in this manner is the most promising approach to developing treatments because the condition of in vitro fertilization (IVF) embryos stored over time is questionable and this type of cloning could overcome graft-host responses if resulting therapies were developed from the recipient's own DNA.
Ethical Concerns
For those who believe that the embryo has the moral status of a person from the moment of conception, research or any other activity that would destroy it is wrong. For those who believe the human embryo deserves some measure of respect, but disagree that the respect due should equal that given to a fully formed human, it could be considered immoral not to use embryos that would otherwise be destroyed to develop potential cures for disease affecting millions of people. An additional concern related to public policy is whether federal funds should be used for research that some Americans find unethical.
Policy and Regulation
Since 1996, Congress has prohibited researchers from using federal funds for human embryo research. In 1999, DHHS announced that it intended to fund research on human ES cells derived from embryos remaining after infertility treatments. This decision was based on an interpretation "that human embryonic stem cells are not a human embryo within the statutory definition" because "the cells do not have the capacity to develop into a human being even if transferred to the uterus, thus their destruction in the course of research would not constitute the destruction of an embryo." DHHS did not intend to fund research using stem cells derived from embryos created through cloning, although such efforts would be legal in the private sector.
In July 2001, the House of Representatives voted 265 to 162 to make any human cloning a criminal offense, including cloning to create an embryo for derivation of stem cells rather than to produce a child. In August 2002, President Bush, contending with a DHHS decision made during the Clinton administration, stated in a prime-time television address that federal support would be provided for research using a limited number of stem cell colonies already in existence (derived from leftover IVF embryos). Current bills before Congress would ban all forms of cloning outright, prohibit cloning for reproductive purposes, and impose a moratorium on cloning to derive stem cells for research, or prohibit cloning for reproductive purposes while allowing cloning for therapeutic purposes to go forward. As of late June, the Senate has taken no action. President Bush's Bioethics Council is expected to recommend the prohibition of reproductive cloning and a moratorium on therapeutic cloning later this summer.
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PART 8: HOW CAN CLONING TECHNOLOGIES BE USED? (3 students)
If the low success rates can be improved (Dolly was only one success out of 276 tries), reproductive cloning can be used to develop efficient ways to reliably reproduce animals with special qualities. For example, drug-producing animals or animals that have been genetically altered to serve as models for studying human disease could be mass produced.
Reproductive cloning (cloning whole organisms) also could be used to repopulate endangered animals or animals that are difficult to breed. In 2001, the first clone of an endangered wild animal was born, a wild ox called a gaur. The young gaur died from an infection about 48 hours after its birth. In 2001, scientists in Italy reported the successful cloning of a healthy baby mouflon, an endangered wild sheep. The cloned mouflon is living at a wildlife center in Sardinia. Other endangered species that are potential candidates for cloning include the African bongo antelope, the Sumatran tiger, and the giant panda. Cloning extinct animals presents a much greater challenge to scientists because the egg and the surrogate needed to create the cloned embryo would be of a species different from the clone.
Therapeutic cloning (cloning embryos) technology may some day be used in humans to produce whole organs from single cells or to produce healthy cells that can replace damaged cells in degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's or
Parkinson's. Much work still needs to be done before therapeutic cloning can become a realistic option for the treatment of disorders.
What animals have been cloned?
Scientists have been cloning animals for many years. In 1952, the first animal, a tadpole, was cloned. Before the creation of Dolly, the first mammal cloned from the cell of an adult animal, clones were created from embryonic cells. Since Dolly, researchers have cloned a number of large and small animals including sheep, goats, cows, mice, pigs, cats, rabbits, and a gaur. All these clones were created using nuclear transfer technology.
Hundreds of cloned animals exist today, but the number of different species is limited. Attempts at cloning certain species have been unsuccessful. Some species may be more resistant to somatic cell nuclear transfer than others. The process of stripping the nucleus from an egg cell and replacing it with the nucleus of a donor cell is a traumatic one, and improvements in cloning technologies may be needed before many species can be cloned successfully.
Can organs be cloned for use in transplants?
Scientists hope that one day therapeutic cloning can be used to generate tissues and organs for transplants. To do this,
DNA would be extracted from the person in need of a transplant and inserted into an enucleated egg. After the egg containing the patient's DNA starts to divide, embryonic stem cells that can be transformed into any type of tissue would be harvested. The stem cells would be used to generate an organ or tissue that is a genetic match to the recipient. In theory, the cloned organ could then be transplanted into the patient without the risk of tissue rejection. If organs could be generated from cloned human embryos, the need for organ donation could be significantly reduced.
Many challenges must be overcome before "cloned organ" transplants become reality. More effective technologies for creating human embryos, harvesting stem cells, and producing organs from stem cells would have to be developed. In
2001, scientists with the biotechnology company Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) reported that they had cloned the first human embryos; however, the only embryo to survive the cloning process stopped developing after dividing into six cells.
In February 2002, scientists with the same biotech company reported that they had successfully transplanted kidney-like organs into cows. The team of researchers created a cloned cow embryo by removing the DNA from an egg cell and then injecting the DNA from the skin cell of the donor cow's ear. Since little is known about manipulating embryonic stem cells from cows, the scientists let the cloned embryos develop into fetuses. The scientists then harvested fetal tissue from the clones and transplanted it into the donor cow. In the three months of observation following the transplant, no sign of immune rejection was observed in the transplant recipient.
Another potential application of cloning to organ transplants is the creation of genetically modified pigs from which organs suitable for human transplants could be harvested . The transplant of organs and tissues from animals to humans is called xenotransplantation.
Why pigs? Primates would be a closer match genetically to humans, but they are more difficult to clone and have a much lower rate of reproduction. Of the animal species that have been cloned successfully, pig tissues and organs are more similar to those of humans. To create a "knock-out" pig, scientists must inactivate the genes that cause the human immune system to reject an implanted pig organ. The genes are knocked out in individual cells, which are then used to create clones from which organs can be harvested. In 2002, a British biotechnology company reported that it was the first to produce "double knock-out" pigs that have been genetically engineered to lack both copies of a gene involved in transplant rejection. More research is needed to study transplantation of organs from "knock-out" pigs to other animals.
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Is cloning an organism the same as cloning a gene?
You've heard about cloning animals - sheep, mice, even house pets - in the news. From time to time, you may have also heard about researchers cloning, or identifying, genes that are responsible for various medical conditions or traits.
What is the difference?
Cloning an animal, or any other organism, refers to making an exact genetic copy of that organism. Cloning a gene means isolating an exact copy of a single gene from the entire genome of an organism. Usually this involves copying the DNA sequence of that gene into a smaller, more accessible piece of DNA, such as a plasmid. This makes it easier to study the function of the individual gene in the laboratory. Combining genes from different organisms can also be done and is known as recombinant DNA technology. The resulting organism is said to be "genetically modified," "genetically engineered," or "transgenic." GM products (current or those in development) include medicines and vaccines, foods and food ingredients, feeds, and fibers.
Locating genes for important traits —such as those conferring insect resistance or desired nutrients—is one of the most limiting steps in the process. However, genome sequencing and discovery programs for hundreds of organisms are generating detailed maps along with data-analyzing technologies to understand and use them.
Cloning a gene
Constructing Gene Clones for Sequencing
Cloned DNA molecules must be made progressively smaller and the fragments sub-cloned into new vectors to obtain fragments small enough for use with current sequencing technology. Sequencing results are compiled to provide longer stretches of sequence across a chromosome.
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N a m e : _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ D a t e : _ _ _ P e r i o d : _ _ _ H . G e n e t i c s
WH AT IS C LO NI NG? http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/tech/cloning/cloningornot/
Cloning is the creation of an organism that is an exact genetic copy of another. This means that every single bit of DNA is the same between the two! You might not believe it, but there are human clones among us right now. They weren't made in a lab, though: they're identical twins, created naturally.
Vocabulary to know: enucleated egg: an egg cell that has had it's nucleus removed transferred nucleus : a nucleus that has been removed from one cell and injected into another enucleated cell
TOPIC NOTES
Part 1: What are the different types of cloning?
Part 2: How is cloning done?
Part 3: Why clone?
Part 4: Cloning Myths
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TOPIC
Part 5: What are the risks to cloning?
Part 6: What are the issues to cloning?
Part 7: How are stem cells linked to cloning?
Part 8: How can cloning technologies be used?
NOTES
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http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/tech/cloning/cloningresources/
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