Top 7 Pros and Cons of Cloning | Reproductive Cloning | BioExplorer (2023)

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As many organisms in the planet approach endangerment and extinction, cloning appears to be a possible solution to restore populations. By utilizing the genetic material of already dead organisms, cloning can even expand gene pool diversity.

• Aside from that, the cloning of extinct animals and their successful revival will also allow scientists to fully study the species as living organisms, instead of just studying their remains.
• Although considered an artificial reproduction mode, cloning is widespread in a natural setting. The oldest form of cloning, asexual reproduction, is exhibited by various organisms like insects, and microorganisms.

Another major advantage of cloning is that it can serve as a means to increase agricultural production, particularly livestock and fresh produce. By manipulating their biological processes, existing traits of interest are ensured with the absence of the genetic “lottery” and random arrangements in the genes during meiosis.

• During cloning, the gene of interest, as well as the organism bearing that gene of interest, is replicated faster than those undergoing the natural process.
• Because of this, the number of organisms produced at a given time also increases.

Last but not the least is the use of cloning as a means to produce children for infertile and same-sex couples. Normally, couples would want to have children that are biologically theirs. Interestingly, the genetic manipulations could now be targeted at giving the children the genetic traits of both parents.

• Children can now be produced even without donor eggs or donor sperms. Same-sex couples would only need a “surrogate” parent to carry the clone until its birth.
• Scientists who support this method believe that it would become justifiable for these couples to reproduce in this method, assuming the procedures could be done safely.

Despite being genetically identical with each other, clones will not be the same regarding behavioral attributes. Aside from that, their similarities regarding physical appearance are not guaranteed.

• It should be important to note that genetic material is not the sole determinant of these characteristics.
• Of course, chances that a pair of clones will be subjected to different habitats and have varying nutritional loads are very high, thus imprinting different changes and contributions to each one.
• Aside from that, most clones produced have had reduced longevity and developed health problems. For instance, Dolly the sheep had abnormalities in her DNA (i.e., shortened telomeres), suggesting that some of her own cells bear the “age” of the source organisms.

One of the strongest arguments against cloning is about its ethical concerns. Aside from the idea of manipulating living organisms, critics say that the mere process of clone production requires the exploitation of life.

• In the case of Dolly, the sheep, more than 277 attempts were conducted before a viable clone was produced. This only suggests that if humans were to be cloned, scientists would need to conduct numerous “failed” attempts.
• With that, critics highly believe that it would be unethical to clone humans unless these problems become known and be resolved at a level of certainty.

Majority of the concerns against cloning are based on the absence of unique nuclear DNA in the child’s genome. However, as mentioned above, the notion that cloning would only result in the absence of genetic uniqueness would no longer be justifiable, assuming that the procedures are conducted safely.

• Again, the process of cloning still needs further studies.

To date, many scientists will agree that the process of cloning is not yet fully developed to be used as a way to promote the conservation of species. Some researchers need to acknowledge cloning as it fails to recognize the main drivers of extinction in the first place: the destruction of habitats and hunting.

• Critics also argue that even if cloning could help in desperate times, present techniques to execute these goals are deemed ineffective in making a difference.
• As compared with cloning domestic organisms (e.g., cattle), the process of cloning endangered species is more difficult and would likely take years (and even decades) to complete.
• While there are many reasons why countless attempts to revive endangered and extinct species have failed, they all exhibited one major trouble: they were not exact copies of their supposed-to-be counterparts.

• “BBC – GCSE Bitesize: Advantages and disadvantages of cloning”. Accessed January 31, 2018. Link.
• “Cloning: Definitions And Applications – Scientific and Medical Aspects of Human Reproductive Cloning – NCBI Bookshelf”. Accessed January 31, 2018. Link.
• “Human Cloning Ethics: The Pros and Cons | EnergyFanatics.com”. Accessed January 31, 2018. Link.
• “Will Cloning Ever Save Endangered Animals? – Scientific American”. Accessed January 31, 2018. Link.

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