What is cloning?
Cloning is a method of obtaining several identical organisms through asexual (including vegetative) reproduction. These days, the term "cloning" is usually used in a narrower sense and means copying cells, genes, antibodies and even multicellular organisms in the laboratory. Instances that appeared as a result of asexual reproduction are by definition genetically the same, but they also exhibit hereditary variability, which is caused by random mutations or created artificially in the laboratory.
What is a clone?
According to the scientific clone (from the Greek klon - branch, offshoot) - "this is a series of successive generations of hereditarily homogeneous descendants of one original individual (plant, animal, microorganism), which are formed as a result of asexual reproduction." A classic example of such a vegetation can be the reproduction of an amoeba, the cell of which divides, and each of the 2 formed divides again, forming 4, etc. The cloning technique is based on a reproduction model in which the division of genetic material takes place inside the cell.
A clone is not a photocopy or double of a person
Most people do not really understand how the cloning process itself takes place. Moreover, many people think that a clone of an animal or a person is like a photocopy: once - and your (or someone else's) ready-made double came out of the laboratory.
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Since it is possible to copy living organisms by cloning, vegetatively (asexually) to grow clones-copies of living beings, including mammals, to the class of which humans belong, then a human clone is thus simply an identical twin of another person, delayed by time. Say, in order to get a clone of a person at the age of, for example, 40 years, it is necessary that these 40 years have passed.
But science fiction novels and films have given people the impression that human clones will turn out to be dark zombies, monsters. This is certainly not the case.
Human clones will be ordinary human beings. An ordinary woman will carry them for 9 months, they will be born and will be brought up in a family, like any other child. The twin clone will be several decades younger than its original, so there is no fear that people might confuse them. The clone will not be able to inherit any of the memories of the original individual. That is, a clone is not a photocopy or double of a person, but a younger identical twin. There is nothing dangerous in this circumstance.
What to expect from cloning
As mentioned above, many people think that cloning can lead to the creation of human monsters or freaks. But cloning is not genetic engineering that can actually create monsters. During cloning, DNA is copied, and the result is a person - an exact twin of an existing individual and, therefore, not a freak.
What is important - every clone, however that may be, will have at least one parent - the mother who bore and gave birth to him, and, as a result, the born child from a legal point of view will not differ in any way from other children.
Now it becomes clear that neither now nor in the near future our planet will be flooded with crowds of clone geniuses, armies of clone soldiers will not appear anywhere, no one will be able to create clone slaves, harems from clone concubines, etc.
Why clone a human?
There are at least two good reasons for this: to enable families to conceive children - twins of outstanding personalities, and so that childless families can have children.
At first glance, the answer is simple, but the problem itself has many pitfalls. It would seem - why not allow the cloning of famous scientists, representatives of the creative intelligentsia, sports? It would be worth cloning all the Nobel laureates for the future contribution that their twins could make to science.
But a clone, for example, Albert Einstein, in fact, will in any case be a relative of all the descendants of the great scientist. And the big question is how they can relate to the fact that their relative appeared in the world, outwardly like two drops of water similar to their genius ancestor, but at the same time, due to different upbringing, education and other things, suddenly after 18 years old he wants to become not a physicist, but let's say … a shoemaker! But the whole world will expect brilliant discoveries from Einstein's double.
Also with other prominent figures. It is almost impossible to calculate what event in the life of, for example, Mahatma Gandhi or Jules Verne prompted the former to lead the Indian struggle for independence, and the latter to become a famous visionary writer.
Or even worse - all the fans of Merlin Monroe will fold, say, collect money and pay for the cloning of their idol, and the new sex diva will look around and say: “God, in what a dark world I was born! I'm leaving for a monastery. And that's all …
It should be noted, according to research by the Gallup Service, 9 out of 10 Americans believe that human cloning, if it becomes possible in the near future, should be prohibited, and 2/3 of Americans oppose animal cloning.
We live in a society in which the opinion of the majority can be decisive, and besides, this opinion can be easily formed with the help of modern PR technologies. And then the child - a clone of an outstanding personality from childhood will become hostage to the reputation of his long-dead twin, and this is already a direct violation of human rights to a number of freedoms.
Thus, the only real and conditioned argument in favor of cloning is the desire of parents who have lost their child, to recreate, or, more precisely, to revive their child.
And this kind of precedent already exists - a certain American company "Clonaid" is already going to start fulfilling the order of one married couple to clone their daughter, who died at the age of 10 months. Payment for the forthcoming operation in the amount of 560 thousand dollars has been made, the work seems to be already underway. According to the project manager, the company has many other applications.
Cloning and church opinion
If everything seems to be in order with human laws, then the law of God is resolutely against cloning.
Representatives of almost all world religions are in favor of banning human cloning. Scientists' studies on the cloning of living beings and humans undermine the idea of the Divine creation of everything on Earth in the minds of believers, insult the person and the institution of marriage.
Pope John Paul II declared the implacable position of the Catholic Church, which has more than a billion followers in the world, regarding the cloning of human organs and the person himself, in his speech back in August 2000 at the International Congress of Transplant Specialists in Rome.
So scientists who have swung at the divine are at great risk. At least - to be excommunicated from the church, but as a maximum … There are many religious fanatics, and pogroms in laboratories are not the worst thing they can do.
Pros and cons
Empirically, it was possible to establish that even copying DNA does not make it possible to obtain an identical living being. So, for example, a cloned cat had a different color than its mother - a donor of genetic material. Many believed that this technology would make it possible to "resurrect" pets, the most daring hoped even to reproduce dead people.
Considering cloning as a branch of reproductive medicine, no one undertakes these days. But it is possible to develop its potential in the therapeutic field. If you follow this path exclusively, then the number of opponents of cloning sharply decreases. To do this, you can consider all the nuances affecting the process called cloning.
The pros and cons can be summarized as follows. The main advantages include the opening possibility of treating many serious diseases, restoring skin affected by burns, and replacing organs. However, opponents insist that we must not forget about the moral and ethical side of the issue, that such technologies are designed to kill the incipient life (embryos from which stem cells are taken).
Interesting fact
• 1997, February 23 in Great Britain, in the laboratory, under the guidance of genetic scientist Ian Wilmuth, after 277 unsuccessful experiments appeared "the world's first artificial mammal" - Dolly the sheep. Her photographs went around almost all the world's newspapers. But it turns out that back in 1987 in a Russian laboratory a mouse was artificially created, named Masha.