The Pros And Cons Of Animal Cloning

Definition Cloning solves many problems within the scientific community. Cloning can alter animals to have better characteristics and can also solve extinction in many cases. The cloning debate regarding de-extinction has risen in the past few years. While the technology is readily available it is not being used because of the economic and ethical problems surrounding it. Cloning can also be used to engineer farm animals, such as cattle and sheep, with more desirable qualities. It can also be used by animal breeders, whether one is breeding dogs or race horses. If a horse, such as the famous racehorse Barbaro, a scientist can use the technology to essentially clone the horse and create another world-renowned race horse. Consequently,

Weismann theorized that differentiation occurred when the differential and sequential portioning of the cells divides (Salisbury, 2000). Although Weismann’s theory was disproven and discarded in the scientific community, it opened up doors for other scientists to further investigate cells and how they may be cloned. The first successful cloning was in 1943 in Pennsylvania by an embryologist names Briggs (Salisbury, 2000). Briggs studied frog embryos for 9 years and founded much of the microsurgical technologies that would further lead to nuclear transfer. Finally, in 1952, Briggs was able to clone the first metazoan animals (Salisbury, 2000). Cloning then developed into amphibian cloning, insect and fish cloning, and finally ended with mammalian cloning (Salisbury, 2000). The first successful mammalian clone was Dolly the Sheep in 1997. Dolly was the first mammal cloned from adult animal instead of an embryo in the womb (Salisbury, 2000). Since Dolly’s cloning other animals such as cattle, mice, and a German Shepherd, Trackr, that served in finding people in 9/11 was cloned and resulted in 5 cloned

Cloning is a technology that is still being debated and revised today. Cloning has the possibility of improving livestock, breeding programs, and may even lead to de-extinction in already extinct or endangered animals. While a human clone has not yet been possible it is not to say that one day the technologies associated with cloning could cure many diseases and discover new things in modern medicine. Cloning has many pros and cons and the technology should be researched and funded further to find all the possibilities it may