A new idea to make the same old thing: Cloning

Imagine being invaded by millions upon millions of genetically engineered super soldiers, all of
which look exactly the same. They look the same because they have been perfected in every way to be
the optimal killing machines. Scary to think of such a situation outside of a science fiction novel, but
some people seem to think that this could become a reality if cloning research is allowed to proceed in
the future. While one day very far from now this could be a viable concern, it is doubtful that
production of an army through cloning would ever become practical. If ever the technology was
available, the resources such a project would demand would be much greater than simply training
children from birth to become soldiers.

Whether or not cloning armies of super soldiers is something to consider in the future, it is not
worth worrying about because it is not going to be an issue anytime soon. The real problem behind
many people who feel that cloning is unethical is that they don’t know what cloning is all about, nor do
they realize the potential it has for good. Just a few benefits cloning could provide are curing diseases,
creating organs, saving animal species, and increasing food supplies. However, before you can begin to
understand how things like this are possible from cloning, it is important to know what is cloning?

Cloning is something that has been taking place for nearly as long as the natural word has
existed. Since a clone is nothing more than an offspring which is genetically identical to the parent,
many things are technically considered clones. A self pollinated plant, an asexually reproducing
bacterium, or even an earthworm that was cut in half, will all result in “cloned” organisms. This,
however, is much different from purposefully creating a clone in the laboratory.

It was only about sixty years ago that the thought of cloning organisms in the lab was nothing
more than science fiction. However when the German
scientist, Hans Spemann, successfully performed the first
somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) in 1924, a tool was
created to make this thought a reality. In 1952 the first
successful cloning experiment was documented at the
Institute for Cancer Research in Philadelphia, PA. This
facility is located in Northeast Philadelphia, and is now
part of the Fox Chase Cancer Center. The experiments
performed by Robert Briggs and Thomas King paved the
way for an intriguing new field of study. The potential of
cloning in the future is almost limitless.
 Generally speaking, cloning is a
biological process which yields individuals
that are genetically identical to the parent.
Performing this in a laboratory was a novel
idea which employed Spemann’s technique
developed nearly 30 years prior. The
experiments performed by Briggs and King
utilized SCNT to clone a frog embryo
successfully in 1952. Simply stated, the goal
of SCNT in cloning is to first remove the
nucleus from an egg cell, and then to
replace it with the nucleus from another cell
in order to see if a normal embryo develops.
This experiment utilized a blastula cell for
the donor nucleus, and a frog’s egg cell as
the recipient. SCNT is a complicated
process for which Briggs and King had to create their own instruments by hand. The following
paragraph helps to describe the procedure with as little “excruciating detail” as possible.

The process first involves removal of the nucleus from the egg cell. This is achieved by first
pricking the egg with a needle, which causes the egg to orient itself in a way that allows a syringe to
enter the egg cell and extract
the nucleus. The next step is to
inject the enucleated egg cell
with the nucleus from a blastula
cell. This is a complicated
procedure which involves using
a syringe to first draw up a
single blastula cell. Pressure in
the syringe causes the cell wall
to rupture, but at the same
time keep the intracellular
contents intact. Next, the
syringe can then be expelled
into the enucleated egg cell, and because the cell wall had been broken, the blastula nucleus diffuses
into its new home.

The difficulty of the procedure lies in making sure that neither the recipient cell nor the donor
nucleus gets damaged anytime during the transplant. These concerns were the main reason Briggs and
King chose to use an undifferentiated blastula nucleus for transplantation. Blastula cells are those
present in the early stages of embryonic development. Before Briggs and King attempted to clone a
completely different cell type, they thought it would be smart to first clone a cell for which the donor
and recipient were equivalent. By using a blastula cell, the end result, assuming no damage had
occurred, would be the formation of a normal frog embryo. From there they could use nuclei of various
cell types in order to see if they could clone any variety of cells.

After Briggs and King conducted this “fantastical experiment” it opened the doors for other
scientists to follow in their footsteps. As experiments took place
with nuclei from cells further along in development, it was realized
that the clones were less likely to survive. The observation that
adult cells were unable to produce viable offspring was most
prevalent in species such as insects, fish, and amphibians.
Surprisingly, it was found that adult mammalian cells were more
successful in creating clones than these other animal species. For
example Ian Wilmut et al were the first team of scientists to
successfully perform SCNT to produce a healthy cloned mammal
using a mammary cell for the donor nucleus. This famous
experiment, which produced the well known Dolly the sheep, led
to an explosion of cloned mammals over the last 20 years. Species
such as mice, horses, cattle, and pigs, albeit at low percentages,
have all been cloned.

The future of cloning presents many challenges to overcome, but the rewards will benefit
human kind in a countless number of ways. One of the potential applications cloning could provide is
the ability to clone human organs. This could be done using stem cells to create the desired organ, or
even by creating pigs genetically modified to have organs fit for human transplant. A few other medical
applications of cloning include synthesis of vaccines, and production of cells to replace those destroyed
by degenerative diseases. As mentioned earlier, cloning also could provide a method to increase food
supplies, and help save, or even bring back, certain animal species.

While cloning has much potential for good, many people are concerned for ethical reasons. The
success rates observed for cloning is often under 5%, which raises issues with attempting to clone
humans. Furthermore, if this became possible, commercialization of human embryos would lead to
extreme controversy. These reasons are just part of the quandary behind cloning research, and it would
be interesting to find out the stance Briggs and King would take on the subject after all these years. It is
truly amazing to think how those two pioneers have changed the course of history just 58 years ago in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Bible said “To him that knows to do good and does not, to him it is sin,”
but, the author of that quote did not likely see this dilemma arising in the future.