Scientists have announced
that they have cloned the first human embryo. This has caused much debate round
the world. On the one hand, some scientists point out that if you clone an
embryo, you can produce valuable human tissues—such as bone or lung tissue—that
could be used to save human lives. On the other hand, many people, including
some scientists, disagree and are afraid that, if mankind toys with nature in
this way, we may be on our way to producing a real-life Frankenstein's monster.
Cloning is producing an
exact copy of a plant or an animal using its cells. The first mammal to be
cloned successfully from an adult cell was Dolly the sheep. She was born in
1996 and died in early 2003, at a much younger age than normal. When she was
born, many people were worried that cloning would lead to more diseases in the
animal world. However, in general the scientists were praised for their
wonderful scientific advance.
Ian Wilmut, the Scottish
scientist who created Dolly, is shocked that some scientists are now
considering cloning human beings. Although he researches cloning, his intention
has never been to create copies of humans. Instead, he thinks research efforts
should concentrate on creating new tissues and organs that can be used to cure
diseases like cancer. However, some people believe that cloning human embryos
with the intention of destroying them shows no respect for human life.
Even though human cloning
is causing a lot of anxiety, it is good news for Faye Wilson, a 41-year-old
saleswoman who cannot have a baby. "I am anxious to have a child of my
own," she says. "I don't want to adopt someone else's child—if I had
the chance, I would have a cloned baby right now."
While cloning human embryos
is not legal in many countries, some scientists are already pushing ahead with
research in order to produce a cloned human baby. Severino Antinori, an Italian
physician, has declared that he wants to be the first to clone a human being.
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