What has been cloned now?
Frog:1952, unsuccessful.
Carp:1963, Chinese scientist Tong Dizhou successfully cloned a female carp by injecting genetic material from a male carp into the eggs of a female carp as early as 1963, 33 years before the cloning of the Dolly the Sheep. However, the paper was published in a Chinese-language scientific journal and was not translated into English, so it was not known internationally. (Source: PBS)
The bizarre story of the Monkey King, who used his own sweat to turn into countless little Monkey Kings in ancient myths, expresses mankind's fantasies about replicating themselves. 1938, German scientists first proposed the idea of mammal cloning, and after the birth of the somatic-cell cloned sheep Dolly in 1996, cloning quickly became the focus of world attention. After the birth of the somatic cell cloned sheep "Dolly" in 1996, cloning quickly became the focus of the world's attention, and people could not help but ask: Will we follow the sheep? This doubt has made all of us anxious and uneasy. However, the clamor against cloning did not offset the persistent pursuit of scientists, along with cattle, rats, pigs and even monkeys, which are the most similar to human biological characteristics of primates have been successfully cloned one after another, people already believe that one day, scientists will use a human cell to duplicate a person exactly the same as the person who provided the cell, cloning is no longer a dream in science fiction, but a reality that is on the verge of coming out. At present, there have been three foreign organizations officially announced that they will carry out experiments in human cloning, the United States University of Kentucky, Professor Zavos is working with an Italian expert named Antinori, plans to clone a person within two years.
Because human cloning may bring complex consequences, some biotechnology developed countries, most of them now take this explicitly prohibited or severely restricted attitude. Clinton said, "To clone human beings through this technology is dangerous and should be eliminated!" Hong Guofan, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and director of the National Genetic Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), also made it clear that he was opposed to conducting research on human cloning, and instead advocated distinguishing between cloning technology and human cloning.
Is human cloning really as scary as the devil in Pandora's box?
In fact, the most important reason why people cannot accept human cloning experiments lies in the obstruction of traditional ethical and moral concepts. For thousands of years, human beings have followed a sexual reproduction method, while human cloning is a product of the laboratory, a life created under human manipulation. Especially in the West, cloning, which "abandons God and separates Adam and Eve," is opposed by many religious organizations. Moreover, the relationship between the clone and the cloned person is contrary to the traditional ethical way of determining kinship by blood. All these make it impossible for clones to find a suitable place in the traditional human ethics. However, as Dr. He Joao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, "The ethical problems arising from human cloning should be faced squarely, but there is no reason to oppose scientific and technological progress for this reason." The development of human society itself tells us that it is historical progress for science and technology to drive the updating of people's concepts, while it is rigidity to fetter the development of science and technology with obsolete concepts. Historically, blood transfusion technology and organ transplantation have brought about great ethical debates, and when the first test-tube baby was born in 1978, it even set off an uproar, but now, people have been able to deal with all this correctly. This shows that the constant updating of ideological concepts in the face of scientific and technological development has not brought disaster to mankind; on the contrary, it has benefited mankind. As far as cloning technology is concerned, "therapeutic cloning" will bring about breakthroughs in the production of transplanted organs and in overcoming diseases, revolutionizing biotechnology and medical technology. For example, when your daughter needs a bone marrow transplant and no one can provide it for her; when you have unfortunately lost your 5-year-old child and cannot get rid of the pain; when you want to raise your own child but cannot give birth to a child ...... perhaps you will be able to realize the great scientific value and practical significance of cloning. Research on therapeutic cloning and experiments on complete human cloning are complementary and mutually reinforcing. The end point of therapeutic cloning is the emergence of complete human clones, and if utilized correctly, they can and should both bring a blessing to human society.
Science has always been a double-edged sword. But whether a particular technological advancement is truly beneficial to mankind depends on how mankind treats and applies it, rather than choking on it just because it is temporarily unconscionable. It is true that cloning technology, like atomic energy technology, can benefit mankind as well as cause infinite harm. However, the essence of "technophobia" is the fear of the wrong application of technology, not the fear of technology itself. At present, the attitude of countries around the world towards human cloning is mostly "ambiguous". Last year, the United Kingdom passed a bill allowing the cloning of early human embryos with a majority of more than two thirds of the votes cast, and in the United States, Germany and Australia, we have gradually heard voices calling for the relaxation of the restrictions on therapeutic cloning. It can be said that whichever country is the first to master the technology of human cloning means that this country possesses an advantage and takes the initiative, while the country that starts late may suffer losses that cannot be predicted now as a result. As in the case of the United States, it was the first country to master the atomic energy technology, and although this technology showed its evil side from the very beginning, all countries had to step up their research and experiments in this respect later on. From this point of view alone, it is also worthwhile to discuss the simple negative attitude towards human cloning experiments.
As for people's concern that once cloning technology matures, there will be those with bad intentions who will clone a thousand "Hitlers" or another celebrity to confuse the public, this is a misunderstanding of cloning. Clones are only copied genetic characteristics, but by the acquired environment of many factors, thinking, personality and other social attributes can not be exactly the same, that is, no matter how the development of cloning technology, can only clone the human body, but not clone the human soul, and the clone and the cloned people have an age gap between them. Therefore, the so-called clone is not an exact copy of the person, historical figures will not be resurrected, and real people do not have to worry about an additional "self".
Sheep:1996, Dolly
Macaques:January 2000, Tetra, female
Pigs:March 2000, five Scottish PPL piglets; August, Xena, female
Cattle:2001, Alpha and Beta, males
Cats:2001, CopyCat (C), end of year. End of year, CopyCat (CC), female
Rat:2002
Rabbit:March-April 2003, independently realized in France and Korea, respectively;
Mule:May 2003, Idaho Gem, male; June, Utah Pioneer, male
Deer:2003, Dewey
Horse. Prometea, female, 2003
Dog: Snoopy, Seoul National University Experimental Team, 2005
Pig: China's first donor-cell cloned pig, Aug. 8, 2005
Despite the progress made in cloning research, the success rate of cloning is still quite low: researchers made 276 unsuccessful attempts to clone Dolly before she was born. Dolly was born after 276 failed attempts; 70 calves were born after 9,000 attempts and a third of them died at a young age; Prometea took 328 attempts to be born. And for some species, such as cats and orangutans, there are no reports of successful cloning. In the case of dog cloning, it took hundreds of repeated attempts.
An age test after Dolly's birth showed she was born old. By the time she was 6 years old, she had developed arthritis, which is usually found in old age. Such aging is thought to be caused by wear and tear on telomeres. Telomeres are chromosomes located at the ends. As cells divide, telomeres wear out during replication, which is usually thought to be a cause of aging. However, researchers who cloned successful cows found that they were actually younger. Analyzing their telomeres showed that not only were they back to their birth length, but they were longer than the telomeres that are typically found at birth. This means they can live longer than the average cow, but many of them die prematurely due to overgrowth. The researchers believe related studies could eventually be used to change human lifespans.
Human cloning violates human life ethics
Modern science and technology, especially modern life science and technology, should we respect ethical principles and listen to ethical voices? Relevant experts pointed out in response to some science maniacs in the United States secret human cloning - human cloning contrary to the ethics of human life, there is a great controversy and difficult to solve a series of legal and other issues.
Many media in China have recently reprinted a shocking news reported by foreign media: a group of scientific maniacs manipulated by cult organizations are conducting a secret experiment of human cloning in the depths of the desert in Nevada, the United States. Based on the same principle used by British scientists to create the world's first cloned sheep, "Dolly," they are extracting cells from a 10-month-old American baby girl who died in February of this year to create a human clone. "If things go well, the world's first human clone will be born by the end of next year," it said.
After the news was disclosed, cloning technology and the ethical issues it raises once again became a hot topic of discussion. If this news is true, how should we look at this matter, how to correctly evaluate and think about this issue, the reporter visited the National Human Genome South Research Center, director of the Ethics, Law and Society Department, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Philosophy Shen Mingxian researcher.
Professor Shen said: Since 1997, when the Rosslyn Institute in the UK successfully cloned the "Dolly" sheep, there have been people abroad who have proposed and attempted to engage in human cloning research, driven by fame and fortune. Although governments have explicitly prohibited it, human cloning-related reports have appeared in the press more than once in the past two years. However, it is indeed shocking that this time it is so fast and linked to a cult organization.
It is understandable that parents who have lost their daughters would want to bring them back to life through cloning. But if scientists use it to conduct experiments on human cloning, it is worth discussing. Prof. Shen believes that even if we put aside the cult, this practice is not desirable. As far as the individual "clone" is concerned, he will live in the shadow of "I am a copy of a dead person", what kind of effect will this have on his psychology?
According to bioethics, science and technology should be used for the long-term benefit of all mankind. It must follow the four internationally recognized ethical principles of "doing good, doing no harm, autonomy and justice". The successful cloning of the "Dolly" sheep has gone through more than 200 failures, and there have been deformed or aborted sheep. Human cloning is even more complicated and will undoubtedly encounter more failures, and it would be a violation of human rights if unhealthy, deformed or short-lived people were created.
Professor Shen pointed out that the scientific community now divides cloning into two types: therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning. The former is the use of embryonic stem cells to clone human organs for medical research and to solve the problem of insufficient organ transplantation donors, which is supported by the international scientific and ethical communities, but there is a prerequisite, that is, embryos used for therapeutic cloning can not go beyond the 14-day gestation limit. As for reproductive cloning, commonly known as human cloning, the mainstream opinion of scientists is firmly against it because it violates the principle of bioethics in general. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Human Genome Ethics Committee (IHGE), as well as the governments of various countries, have also made it very clear that they are against reproductive cloning. Even if clones are really born, we still have to stick to this basic position.
Modern science and technology is a double-edged sword, and while it benefits mankind, it also brings some negative effects. This raises a question to us: should modern science and technology, especially modern life science and technology, respect the principle of ethics and listen to the voice of ethics? Prof. Shen pointed out that: nowadays, some scientists propose that as long as it is scientifically possible to do so, it should be done. In fact, this is the wrong view. If it is technically possible for us to create a kind of super-life that would seriously jeopardize mankind, is it also possible to go ahead and do it? It is under the banner of "scientific freedom" that some science nuts do things that are harmful to mankind. Therefore, we have to be vigilant against modern science and technology being utilized by people with ulterior motives. In addition, we should not oppose scientific freedom to ethics and morality. The facts of the development of modern life sciences show that ethical norms and guidance have not bound the development of science, and listening to the voice of ethics is conducive to the healthier and smoother development of science.