Clone

Also spelt clon, a clone can be defined as an individual organism that was grown from a single body cell of its parent by asexual methods and that is genetically identical to it. Cloning is fundamental to most living things, since the body cells of plants and animals are clones ultimately derived from the mitosis of a single fertilized egg.

The first success in cloning an adult mammal was achieved by a team of British researchers led by Ian Wilmut at the Roslin Institute Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1996. After having already produced clones from sheep embryos, they were able to produce a lamb using DNA from an adult sheep.

The practical applications of cloning are economically promising but philosophically unsettling. Animal breeders would welcome the chance to clone top-quality livestock. Genetically engineered animals could be cloned in large numbers to increase the production of drugs or human proteins that are useful in fighting disease. Clones are also highly useful in biological research because of their genetic uniformity.

- In 1990, French Anderson and Michael Blaese performed the world’s first officially approved gene therapy.

- In 1996, the yeast genome was completed.

- In 1997, a team of researchers at Scotland’s Roslin Institute, led by Ian Wilmur, reported the successful cloning of a sheep from the cell of an adult ewe.

- In 1998, two research teams succeeded in growing embryonic stem cells. The genome of a multi-celled animal – a worm called C.elegans – was decoded for the first time.

- In 2001, the sequence of the human genome was released and the "post genomic ear" officially began. Controversies continued over human cloning, research on stem cells and genetic modifications of crops.

- In 2002, gene therapy proved successful in treating severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID).

- And in 2003, Clonaid, the company that claimed to have produced the world’s first cloned babies has, for the first time, released a picture of one of the "clones" The Organization claims that a photograph showcased in its website, showing an infant in an incubator, is the third of the five babies cloned since December 2002. Clonaid is linked to a sect that believes that humans have been created by aliens. The third baby, a boy, according to the company, was born in Japan.

However, scientists are still critical of the Clonaid claims, as they are of the opinion that definite scientific evidence is a must for such assertions.

The cloning of human beings is a subject fraught with ethical and moral controversy. If cloning can ensure the infinite replication of specific genetic traits, a judgment would need to be made as to which traits are desirable and therefore worthy of perpetuation. The persons empowered to exercise such judgment would be in a position to change the course of human development.

References:
India Book of the year 2004 (Encyclopedia Britannica)