Nova Programs - Cloning

I found the Nova programs very interesting. They opened up my eyes to a whole new world of science and medicine that has the potential of saving lives. By allowing researchers the chance to clone human embryonic cells, we could cure such diseases as diabetes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and maybe countless other diseases that have been crippling the people of our nation. These embryonic stem cells can become nerve, heart, blood or any of a thousand cells we all carry. If we could watch these cells become sick too, then maybe we could stop these diseases before they even happen. People just need to realize that they are cloning cells not organisms.

The one clip showed of a possibility that we could find out everything about ourselves from the time of birth to death. We can have tests that let us know if we have a genetic predisposition to certain diseases and then we could have the choice of what to do, do something before we get the disease or simply wait or cross that bridge when we get to it.

The clips covered both sides of the issue. I believe that stem cell research and embryonic cloning should be allowed and used as an everyday procedure to find out a problem like an MRI or an X-ray. I know many feel this is "Playing God," but like they stated in the clips, these blastocysts that are created are not able to develop into a person because they are not going to be implanted into a woman's uterus. What it is going to take is for the power's that be to be faced with the decision of clone some cells to save someone they loves life or let them die because we are scared to face reality.

As the human population of the world continues to increase the flora and fauna of the planet are becoming an increasingly smaller part of the picture. Environmentalist and conservationists all over the globe are working hard to find strategies and methods for the preservation of disappearing creatures and species. An increasingly popular idea that would allow for great benefits in the field of conservation became apparent in 1996 with the cloning of sheep by the name of Dolly. Since then the scientific debate on the relationship between cloning and conservation has ensued. Although the answer to that question remains on the horizon, cloning for helping endangered species is a process that may become a frequent procedure in the future.

When one thinks of cloning generally the first idea that pops into your mind is a large tube filled with some creature attached to a lot of tubes. Cloning actually, is a much more complicated and difficult process. Cloning, scientifically defined is, "asexual reproduction or as the creation of genetically identical individuals" (1). In the cloning process the DNA of one individual creature is "copied" into the cell, or embryo, of another and then that embryo develops into a baby and proceeds down the process of birth and