The engineering behind reproductive cloning

Reproductive cloning doesn't require the use of egg cells, just normal somatic skin cells will suffice. This is somewhat amazing in itself; but what is also amazing, and may be taken for granted by many, is the technology behind the equipment used to perform the delicate transfer of cells to oocytes. It is common to show the transfer on screens, where the glass equipment used can clearly be seen. Reference ASME
One must not forget the human oocyte is only about 100 micrometres in diameter, and requires extremely delicate positioning by micromanipulators. These must be precision engineered to achieve reliability in operation.

Is cloning legal in Taiwan?

According to Geography.about.com, Taiwan is not part of the United Nations, and therefore may not have to recognize the United Nations 2005 recommendation, "to adopt all measures necessary to prohibit all forms of human cloning". Taiwan is considered by many to be under the control of China, and therefore is not really a country in its own right. However, Geography.about.com concludes that, "despite the controversy surrounding the island of Taiwan, its status should be considered as a de facto independent country of the world." Interestingly, the USA voted for the declaration, that is they voted against cloning, but only 15 of the 50 states have outlawed the practice back home. The United Kingdom, China and Thailand voted against the declaration. In conclusion, Taiwan then, may be a suitable place to clone humans.

Is cloning legal in the United States?

The USA voted for the adoption of the United Nations Declaration which advises members to prohibit human cloning.

However, back home in the 50 United States of America, only 15 states have made cloning illegal. Source NCSL.org So, Americans are divided on this issue, and therefore, one can imagine America being a country where people could be cloned routinely, if and when the methods are developed and standardized.

Clonaid.com can help you if you want an 'identical twin'

If you’ve just lost, or are about to lose, a beloved family member, and would like to see an 'identical twin' of that person begin a new life, then maybe Clonaid.com can help you.
Identical twins are 'monozygotic', that is, they develop from a single, fertilized egg that later split. Of course, a clone of your loved one shouldn't strictly be called a twin, because twins are the result of one pregnancy, whereas a clone would involve a second pregnancy. Source

Clonaid.com can help you if you can't have children normally

Have you lost hope of having children in the normal way? Are you considered to be clinically sterile? Maybe, the research that has been done and is still being done at Clonaid can benefit you if you would like to have a child. Please, visit the web site and consider filling in the contact form to discuss your requirements. Contact a human cloning specialist

Otzi the Iceman and the woolly mammoth

This is the story of de-extinction: or how to bring back the woolly mammoth etc. Advances in cloning technology over the next decade may finally allow us to visit a real mammoth at the zoo! Thank you SBS.com.au And what about Otzi the Iceman? It should be possible to bring him back to life with the same technological advances. I believe Otzi wanted to live forever and bringing him back to life would make his dream come true! You can read the fascinating story of Otzi the Iceman here.

Americans change their minds about cloning humans

Medical Daily and Gallup report the biggest gains in ethical tolerability for two extremely different issues: the cloning of humans and polygamy. Today, three in every 20 Americans find cloning humans morally permissible, more than double the number from 14 years ago.

Has a human been cloned yet?

It is something of a surprise to me that in this age of supercommunication it is not clear as to whether a human being has been cloned! A clone is defined in the authoritative Oxford dictionary as,

An organism or cell, or group of organisms or cells, produced asexually from one ancestor or stock, to which they are genetically identical.

The problem with this definition is the use of the phrase, 'from one ancestor or stock'. This implies to me that the only true clones are females that are produced by implanting somatic material from the mother into the mother's own egg cell, thus producing an organism from only one stock, i.e. the mother supplies the somatic material and the egg cell.
Consequently, the Oxford definition, although suitable for English students, appears somewhat lacking in terms of usefulness in the scientific world. It is for this reason that I think I should adopt the definition in the American Heritage dictionary as the working definition of clone used on this blog,

An organism developed asexually from another and genetically identical to it, such as an animal produced from an egg cell into which the nucleus of an adult individual has been transferred.

It would appear that the the first clone of a human being was produced before Dolly the sheep in 1995, but not reported formally until 1998 (Saltus, Richard 1998 "News of human-cow cell raises ruckus." Boston Globe; and McFarling, Usha Lee 1998 "Bioethicists warn that human cloning will be difficult to stop," Knight Ridder) The clone was a copy of a scientist named Dr Jose Cibelli. However, the clone was stopped from developing into a human after just 5 cell divisions at the 32 cell stage. Therefore some controversy will always exist about whether this was the first clone because we don't know if it/he was 'genetically identical' to Dr Jose Cibelli. Interestingly, this would not have been a clone using the Oxford definition, because it was a man.
Please let me know your thoughts on this and maybe the truth will out as they say! There is a poll on the top right side of this blog for you to record your opinion.

Glossary of Terms

Asexual reproduction - a form of reproduction that does not involve meiosis, ploidy reduction or fertilization, and the offspring is a clone of the parent organism because there is no exchange of genetic material. Source Biology-online.org
Reproduction requiring one parent. Offspring are identical to the parent. Source TheFreeDictionary.com
A mode of reproduction by which offspring arise from a single organism, and inherit the genes of that parent only; it is reproduction which almost never involves ploidy or reduction. The offspring will be exact genetic copies of the parent, except in the specific case of automixis. A more stringent definition is agamogenesis which is reproduction without the fusion of gametes. Source Wikipedia.org

Clone - An organism or cell, or group of organisms or cells, produced asexually from one ancestor or stock, to which they are genetically identical. Source Oxford Dictionaries
A plant or animal that has the same genes as the original from which it was produced. Source Cambridge Dictionary

Eugenics - the science of improving a population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics. Source Oxford online dictionary
A pseudoscience with the stated aim of improving the genetic constitution of the human species by selective breeding. Source Medicinenet.com

Euglycaemic - Pertaining to normal blood glucose levels. Source Medical dictionary at TheFreeDictionary

Fibroblast - A cell found in the connective tissue of animals. It is responsible for making collagen and wound healing. Source Wikipedia

Identical twins - two people who are 'monozygotic', that is, they developed from a single, fertilized egg that split. Source Diffen.com
Two babies of the same sex who were born at the same time, developed from the same egg, and look the same. Source Dictionary.cambridge.org
Two children produced in the same pregnancy. Twins who develop from a single ovum are called monozygotic or identical twins. They have identical genomes. Source Medicinenet.com

Meiosis - a form of cell division happening in sexually reproducing organisms by which two consecutive nuclear divisions (meiosis I and meiosis II) occur without the chromosomal replication in between, leading to the production of four haploid gametes (sex cells). Source Biology-online
Meiosis is a type of cell division that reduces the number of chromosomes in the parent cell by half, and produces four gamete cells. This process is required to produce egg and sperm cells for sexual reproduction. Source Nature.com
A type of cell division that results in four daughter cells each with half the number of chromosomes of the parent cell, as in the production of gametes and plant spores. Source Oxford Dictionaries

Micromanipulators - equipment used to manipulate the delicate glass micropipettes which perform the injection of donor somatic cells into oocytes in the production of human clones.

Normotensive - Having normal blood pressure. Source Medical dictionary at TheFreeDictionary

Orphan Black - the name of a series on Canadian and American television about human clones. Source Temple Street Productions

Osteophytosis - A disease in which the bones of joints modify themselves as a result of damage within the joint. Source University of Michigan Medical School

Pluripotent stem cell - a stem cell that has the potential to become any one of the three different germ layers of cells. Source Wikipedia

Primates - an order of the class Mammalia, in the Kingdom of Animalia. Source Wikipedia
primate(s) - a member of the order Primates. Source Wikipedia
A very high-ranking member of the Church i.e. a bishop or an archbishop. Oxford Dictionary

Reproductive cloning - reproductive cloning gives life to a new human being. Until recently only sexual reproduction or artificial reproduction techniques, e.g. IVF existed. Reproductive cloning represents a new reproduction technique by which life can be given to an identical twin of the original cell donor. Source Clonaid.com
The cloning of organisms with the goal of planting the blastula produced by the technique into the uterus of an adult female and thus creating a new organism. Source Dictionary.com
The reproductive cloning of a sentient human being; generally considered ethically unacceptable. Source TheFreeDictionary.com
The genetic duplication of an existing organism especially by transferring the nucleus of a somatic cell of the organism into an enucleated oocyte. Source American Heritage Dictionary 5th Ed.
Human cloning for the purposes of creating a human being. Source Medicinenet.com

Sterile - not able to produce children or young. Source Oxford Dictionaries
Incapable of reproduction; unfitted for reproduction of offspring. Source Biology-online.org

Therapeutic cloning - enables the creation of embryonic stem cells. Source Clonaid.com
The process of creating new organs or other body parts that a patient’s body will accept because they are made from cells that contain their own DNA. Source Macmillandictionary.com
Cloning designed as therapy for a disease. In therapeutic cloning, the nucleus of a cell, typically a skin cell, is inserted into a fertilized egg whose nucleus has been removed. The nucleated egg begins to divide repeatedly to form a blastocyst. Scientists then extract stem cells from the blastocyst and use them to grow cells that are a perfect genetic match for the patient. Source Medicinenet.com

From Dolly the sheep

Cloning has been around for some years, I can remember seeing Dolly the sheep, (the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell) on TV a long time ago. She was born in 1996. New research is proceeding all the time, and advancements are made in leaps and bounds.

Animalresearch

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