The Pros And Cons Of Animal Cloning

In 1996 Dolly the Sheep shocked the world when she became the first successfully cloned animal. This magnificent breakthrough for science rippled through the entire world. The success has inspired a generation of scientists captivated by the breakthrough, as well as scientists skeptical of the new amelioration in cloning. All scientists agree modern cloning technologies need improvement as they all are intrigued on the advancements to be made. However, there are still several scientists who are hesitant the practice of cloning, not for fear of what we can do now, but for fear of what we can do in the future. While some scientists have expressed concern over the large scale use of cloned animals, the proposed benefits of cloned livestock could

What was first considered biologically impossible could now be the future of the livestock industry. Even with the countless years of research all scientists agree the success rate is extremely low, only around 4% of all embryos end up developing into healthy adult animals. In fact, the success of Dolly came about after 277 previous attempts, (Edwards et al. 2003) and even now other livestock species experience the same low success rates. Another researcher adds the fact that most of the live offspring die within 24 hours due to several medical complications such as, “respiratory distress; increased birth weight; or cardiovascular anomalies…” (Hare 2003). Despite all these problems researchers face, Dr. Wells admits that his goal, as well as the goal of his colleagues, is for cloning success rate to be equal if not better than natural birth rates, “It is desirable that the health and wellbeing of cloned animals should be equal to non- clones and that any deficit should be minimized… Achieving this goal will only result from improvements in the efficiency of the cloning process. This is the prime focus of many international groups presently working in this field.” (Wells 2005). All evidence suggests that the efficacy of somatic cloning is slowly being improved in order to lead society to a place where one may eat the same cow twice. The indisputable fact of the matter is that somatic cell nuclear transfer is a scientific breakthrough that could introduce a Huxleyesque method of animal