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Cloning is a technology that allows humans to create organisms with the desired DNA. The combination of DNA decides the physical attributes of people; if the technology is more advanced or scientists discover the component that determines people's intelligence, it is possible to "create" theoretically smarter organisms.

However, the usage of this technology is controversial because of its nature of "creating" organisms and the potential danger of the wrong usage.

I am interested in the different points of view and if it is possible to find policies or rules that can still implement this technology without causing too much disagreement.

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Many people first heard of cloning when Dolly the Sheep showed up on the scene in 1997. Artificial cloning technologies have been around for much longer than Dolly, though.

There are two ways to make an exact genetic copy of an organism in a lab: artificial embryo twinning and somatic cell nuclear transfer.

1. Artificial Embryo Twinning

Artificial embryo twinning is a relatively low-tech way to make clones. As the name suggests, this technique mimics the natural process that creates identical twins.

In nature, twins form very early in development when the embryo splits in two. Twinning happens in the first days after egg and sperm join, while the embryo is made of just a small number of unspecialized cells. Each half of the embryo continues dividing on its own, ultimately developing into separate, complete individuals. Since they developed from the same fertilized egg, the resulting individuals are genetically identical.

Artificial embryo twinning uses the same approach, but it is carried out in a Petri dish instead of inside the mother. A very early embryo is separated into individual cells, which are allowed to divide and develop for a short time in the Petri dish. The embryos are then placed into a surrogate mother, where they finish developing. Again, since all the embryos came from the same fertilized egg, they are genetically identical.

2. Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), also called nuclear transfer, uses a different approach than artificial embryo twinning, but it produces the same result: an exact genetic copy, or clone, 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 sperm and egg, the two types of reproductive cells. Reproductive cells are also called germ cells. In mammals, every somatic cell has two complete sets of chromosomes, whereas the germ cells have only one complete set.

Nuclear: The nucleus is a compartment that holds the cell's DNA. The DNA is divided into packages called chromosomes, and it contains all the information needed to form an organism. It's small 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 removed the nucleus and all of its DNA from an egg cell. Then they transferred the nucleus from the somatic cell to the egg cell. After a couple of chemical tweaks, the egg cell, with its new nucleus, was behaving just like a freshly fertilized egg. It developed into an embryo, which was implanted into a surrogate mother and carried to term. (The transfer step is most often done using an electrical current to fuse the membranes of the egg and the somatic cell.)

The lamb, Dolly, was an exact genetic replica of the adult female sheep that donated the somatic cell. She was the first-ever mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell.

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Many people first heard of cloning when Dolly the Sheep showed up on the scene in 1997. Artificial cloning technologies have been around for much longer than Dolly, though. There are two ways to make an exact genetic copy of an organism in a lab: artificial embryo twinning and somatic cell nuclear transfer.

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What make people think cloning is possible

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What make people think cloning is possible

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In 1996, Ian Wilmut and his colleagues at the Roslin Institute successfully cloned a sheep called Dolly from an ewe. At that time, people discovered that cloning was possible, not a theoretical method to produce organisms.

People started to discuss the possibility of cloning animals and humans. Cloning animals will give labs a deeper understanding of DNA formation and create unlimited test subjects for different tests that can improve society. However, there are more controversial and multiple perspectives on cloning humans. This technology has changed what people think about reproduction and touches controversial areas with no correct answer.

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Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership

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Op-ed: The dangers of cloning - Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership

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In this op-ed: cloning is a risky, imperfect procedure, it does not create an exact copy of an individual, and it poses ethical concerns…

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"Therapeutic cloning involves creating a cloned embryo for the sole purpose of producing embryonic stem cells with the same DNA as the donor cell. These stem cells can be used in experiments aimed at understanding disease and developing new treatments for disease." ("Cloning Fact Sheet")

Stem cells are premature cells that can develop into various kinds of cells, but they usually stop producing after five years old. If cloning can produce stem cells for a particular type of DNA, patients will have unlimited cells to cure their injuries and diseases.

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The term cloning describes a number of different processes that can be used to produce genetically identical copies of a biological entity. The copied material, which has the same genetic makeup as the original, is referred to as a clone. Researchers have cloned a wide range of biological materials, including genes, cells, tissues and even entire organisms, such as a sheep.

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The term cloning describes a number of different processes that can be used to produce genetically identical copies of a biological entity. The copied material, which has the same genetic makeup as the original, is referred to as a clone.

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If the technology is more advanced and scientists have discovered the DNA that corresponds to physical or intellectual attributes, it is possible to create people who are more athletic and smarter.

These people can contribute to fields with heavy workloads, making society more efficient. Smarter people may be able to solve global problems such as global warming, world peace, etc.

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Protection: protect nearly extinct species

Study purposes: Many species are essential to the study of evolution but unfortunately become extinct, leaving little clue for the scientists. Cloning can bring back those animals and allow scientists to understand the mechanism of species better.

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As the technology is not mature yet, the success rate of cloning the desired product is low. "the scientists who cloned Dolly failed 276 times," and "ninety-five to ninety-seven percent of animal cloning" fail. ("Op-ed: The dangers of cloning"). Since humans have more complex structures, the success rate will be lower.

The failed products can have more genetic mutations, which cause more diseases. The cloned people will suffer from diseases that go against the goal of cloning: to cure diseases.

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Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership

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Op-ed: The dangers of cloning - Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership

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In this op-ed: cloning is a risky, imperfect procedure, it does not create an exact copy of an individual, and it poses ethical concerns…

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Since scientists have not created cloned humans, it is impossible to predict their behavior. There are concerns that they might behave without ethics, emotions, or important components of born humans.

In response to creating humans specialized in a certain fields, if their behavior go out of hand, it is harder to regulate the more "advanced humans".

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With the progress of our technology, the cloned product will be produced through an embryo like all babies are born. Even though they have the same DNA, people are shaped differently by their experiences growing up. Twins are an example of being a different person with identical DNA. It indicates that cloned humans may not turn out to help society as expected which gives more evidence of the uncertainty of cloning.

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Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership

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Op-ed: The dangers of cloning - Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership

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In this op-ed: cloning is a risky, imperfect procedure, it does not create an exact copy of an individual, and it poses ethical concerns…

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Is embryo considered as a living or non-living thing?

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Is embryo considered as a living or non-living thing?

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To cure diseases, scientists need to extract stem cells from the embryo. However, there is no clear definition of whether an embryo is a living thing. An embryo is a developing human body but has not become a baby.

If it is considered a living thing, it violates human rights to extract stem cells without the baby's permission. However, the embryo is not able to give consent given that it can't speak. Therefore, scientists should not use embryo has their tool for any purposes.

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In many religions, creating organisms is considered a sacred thing to do. They believe God makes all humans, and only he has the right to decide who we are. It would be disrespectful to have the same job as God, and humans have no right to "create" another human being.

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Are people allowed to decide a child's fate?

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Are people allowed to decide a child's fate?

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Creating certain types of DNA for people and expecting them to make society more efficient is deciding their fate before birth. In modern society, everyone is expected to have free will as a basic human right. If cloning decides their fate, like physical attributes and intelligence, the product is not living by free will. Especially when the cloned product is "expected" to contribute to society as the purpose of cloning smarter people, it decides their fate and gives them limited choices as to how they want to live their lives.

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Not able to adapt to the environment: if they are recreated, they still won't be able to adapt to the new environment. That will cause it to become extinct again.

Overhunt: some species become extinct by overhunting; if they are recreated, then overhunting will become more uncontrollable and not be valued.