Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V: Genetic Cloning

byYousefYasser

Imagine having an identical copy of you, he could stand-in at your job while you go out and have fun. It seems like science fiction, isn’t it?

Well, you thought wrong. Cloning already happens in nature all the time! This is called asexual reproduction where gametes (the sperm and the egg) are not required. This form of reproduction is commonly used by bacteria and offspring have the same set of genes as their parent, creating what is essentially a clone.

Now you might be wondering “I didn’t come here to know how bacteria have children, I came here to have a clone of myself.” Well, don’t worry just yet, the technology is already here.

Dogs are being cloned so that man’s best friend gets to chase squirrels up trees for just a little bit longer. The

Company Sinogene offers services in dog cloning and only requires a tissue sample from the dog. The dog cloned is a genetic twin of the donor, and the genes remain the same. The clone will have the same attributes, and it will look the same and be just as smart as the donor.

The first step in cloning a dog is to transfer the genetic information from the donor’s tissue into an egg cell without a nucleus. With stimulation, the zygote begins to divide into an embryo, and when it develops enough, it gets implanted into a surrogate mother. The rest happens like it would in nature.

The matter with human cloning is whether or not we could, it’s whether or not we should. The process of cloning has a high chance of death on humans as shown by the 100 failed attempts of very promising. The creators of Phoenix 99 are now applying for permission to do clinical trials on humans.

The Phoenix 99 is a very ambitious project that truly tries to help people but is in fact not the first of its kind. The company second sight has 2 cloning a macaque in 2007, so scientists deem it unethical and even if it was ethical it is estimated to cost 1.7 million dollars to clone a person, so it’s impractical. In science we always need to consider the ethical morality of what we’re trying to do, of course, we can’t clone humans, but your best friend can still be by your side till death splits you apart.

Indeed, looking on the bright side, this technology is ambitious and hopeful; however, on the downside, the issue with this emerging technology is its affordability. Argus II for example costs 150000 USD, which is way beyond what normal people can afford. The products are also not perfect since they can only allow people to see light, shadows, and, to some rudimentary degree, shapes. But we do not limit this product’s capability to be improved by inventors more economically and technologically efficient considering the people living with visual impairments who will benefit most from it.

All in all, the bionic eye is a very promising technology that shows very hopeful results but is still in its infantile stage with hopefully many developments ahead of it.