Are Clones the Future?

Scientists have changed most of God’s creations. Scientists have genetically engineered animals, fish, and plants. Genetically engineering something means to change its DNA and genes and to mix it with other genes.

Cloning is also a form of genetic engineering. There are two ways of cloning, natural and artificial. The natural clones are identical twins, and the artificial way of cloning is separating an earl embryo into individual cells and the cells are put in Petri dishes. They are left to divide and develop. The embryos that are formed are then put in a surrogate mother, where they are carried to term and delivered. Dolly is a successfully cloned sheep from 1996 using SCNT, or Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer. Dolly is an exact genetic copy of the adult female sheep that gave the somatic cell nucleus to the egg. Dolly died at an early age since she was a clone of an older sheep and she prematurely aged. This is also a possibility for human clones. As seen with Dolly, if we clone humans, then there is a chance they will die earlier because of premature aging.

Scientists have already started to genetically engineer plants, animals, and fish. They genetically engineer them for faster growth, and better consumption. For example, a chicken has been genetically engineered to be featherless. Scientists made it featherless so it can grow faster, and so it can live in warmer countries. Scientists genetically engineer crops to make them grow faster and in the winter. This can be beneficial for growth and production, however, a health hazard is that genetic engineering can cause mutations in an organism which can cause higher levels of toxins in foods. Other health hazards are decreased nutritional value and even death.

Another form of genetic engineering is the human stem cell research. Stem cells are cells that can divide without limit and each new cell can either stay a stem cell or become another type of cell. For example, the cell can change into a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell. Two types of stem cells that are used in stem cell research are embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are derived from early embryos.

In conclusion, there are many types of genetic engineering in the world today. Many of them however, are still in the early stages of development, and therefore have many consequences. Among these consequences is death. Scientists however, are continuing their work to perfect this. In the future, genetic engineering might be very beneficial for us, without consequences.