6.4.7 Uses of Animal Cloning Flashcards
What are the arguments for animal cloning?
Embryo cloning is well accepted and noncontroversial in the field of livestock farming
Many animals with desirable characteristics can be cloned, ideal for maximising agricultural output eg. milk yield in cattle
Cloning can also:
Remove less desirable characteristics from the gene pool over time, much in the way that selective breeding has done
Help preserve endangered species, ahead of possible reintroduction of those species to the wild
Provide regenerated organs for patients suffering from degenerative disease. Such organs will be a direct genome match to the patient so would have no risk of rejection by the immune system
What are the arguments against animal cloning?
The process of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is very hit-and-miss
It took hundreds of unsuccessful attempts to clone Dolly the sheep
There are also unknown long-term effects of the cloning process
Subsequent cloning attempts have led to a high number of early deaths and genetic abnormalities in the clones
Some cloned animals that survive birth and infancy tend to grow abnormally large (Large Organ Syndrone - LOS)
LOS can cause breathing and circulatory problems in adult animals
Other clones have developed abnormalities in other large organs eg. kidneys, or in their immune systems
No precise ‘cause and effect’ has been ascribed to the cloning process, but research has indicated that cloning disrupts the normal mechanisms or regulation of gene expression
Cloning destroys embryos which could in theory develop into a healthy adult animal - the argument put forward by groups such as Pro-Life
For these reasons, animal cloning has not gathered as much pace as many scientists thought it would
