Human cloning possible or not ?

What is cloning ? 

Cloning is the process of producing individuals with identical or virtually identical DNA, either naturally or artificially. In nature, many organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. Cloning in biotechnology refers to the process of creating clones of organisms or copies of cells or DNA fragments.

HUMAN CLONING

Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy (or clone) of a human. The term is generally used to refer to artificial human cloning, which is the reproduction of human cells and tissue. It does not refer to the natural conception and delivery of identical twins. The possibility of person cloning has raised controversies.

 

History of human cloning

The building blocks of human cloning was laid by J.B.S.Halden. He introduced the idea of human cloning for which he used the term clone. In 1963 he gave a speech on the biological possibilities of human species of next 10,000 years at Novartis foundation (known as Ciba foundation) in which he said 

"It is extremely hopeful that some human cell lines can be grown on a       medium of precisely known chemical composition. Perhaps the first step will be the production of a clone from a single fertilized egg. Assuming that cloning is possible, I expect that most clones would be made from people aged at least fifty, except for athletes and dancers, who would be cloned younger. They would be made from people who were held to have excelled in a socially acceptable accomplishment."

The first successful cloning experiment led to the  successful  production of a cloned sheep named as "Dolly" in 1996 by the technique called SCNT (Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer). 

The first Hybrid human clone was created using the same technique that was used to create "Dolly" that is SCNT but the effort was soon destroyed. Nucleus was taken from man's leg cell and was introduced in a cows egg cell but the embryo was destroyed after 12 days of observation, this was due ethical implication associated with cloning which will be talked about in later paragraph.

How was cloning done ?

There are many techniques for cloning a human but the most commonly used techniques is SCNT (Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer).

SOMATIC CELL NUCLEAR TRANSFER

This technique involves isolation of egg cell and cell with desired set of genes. Nucleus is isolated from the cell with the desired set of genes this is done because the genes are present in DNA and DNA is embedded in nucleus. Nucleus is isolated from the egg cell and kept aside. We do not  require nucleus from the egg cell so as to avoid mixing of genes. The nucleus from the cell of desired genes is embedded in the cell aperture so as to provide nourishment.

The cell thus obtained is cloned via two methods :-

1) Reproductive cloning - In this technique the cell obtained from the above procedure is transferred for surrogate mother for growth and development of the cell 

2) Therapeutic cloning - In this technique the cell obtained is transferred to a cell culture for growth and development of cell. 

  

 conclusion

We would conclude by saying that human cloning is possible but in the next Blog we would discuss that why it isn't practiced today?