New scientific research shows that scientists have been able to create a living embryo in a laboratory without using either egg or sperm in ground-breaking but hugely controversial experiments.
ViaGen is a U.S. company with the ability to clone pets in addition to livestock.
Sometimes I look around when on a walk in the city or out of town and just think to myself, 'what will the world be like and look like in 10 or even 20 years?'
Based on my understanding of the research being conducting in the fields of AI, robotics, genetics and supercomputing, I have no doubt things will be extremely different. Will there be clones walking our streets or androids or robots of different sorts and types? Probably.
Will we actually walk in cities or will they be too polluted or radiated? Possibly but I hope not...
My mind wanders in all sorts of places when thinking about this topic.
In order to limit my ideas to a particular idea or focus for this article I spent quite a few hours combing the web for interesting stories in the field of technology.
And I thought to myself, wow, this would be so much easier if I had a clone of myself and could divide the labor. One of us could research and outline an article, the other could write it up.
Then the more sensible part of me told the less sensible part of me to stop dreaming and get to work! But something stuck... How long will it take for my idea to enter the realm of possibility and move from science fiction to reality?
I don't really want to clone myself or see anyone cloned but is it possible? The answer is question may shock and amaze you. So without further delay, lets have a look at where modern science is currently at in regard to cloning...
Through my reserach I found a few recent developments that point to a real possibility that cloning technology is now at a point where it is possible to clone a human being and beyond that its even more likely that this technology has already been used to do so albeit in secrecy.
In a recent article published by Express, it was stated that scientists have already created a living embryo in a laboratory without using either egg or sperm. This research is considered to be both ground-breaking and incredibly controversial at the same time.
The experimental research combined two types of stem cells and created a viable embryo – which the team say would provide an unlimited stock for medical research.
The created embryos would also be used for medical treatment testing and help shed light on one of the biggest infertility enigmas - why embryos fail to implant in the womb.
I will be the first to admit my knowledge of science is vastly more limitied than I would like it to be. For example, what exactly is an embryo and how close is it to being a human being?
I needed to consult with a dictionary to find the answer to this:
em·bry·o
ˈembrēˌō/
noun
noun: embryo; plural noun: embryos- an unborn or unhatched offspring in the process of development, in particular a human offspring during the period from approximately the second to the eighth week after fertilization (after which it is usually termed a fetus).
Now we are getting somewhere. The real question we need to consider from a philosophical point is 'does an embryo have a soul?'
I don't want to take this article into the territory of religious debate so I'll leave my readers to think about the question above and move on for now...
Finally according to this article published in the Express, researchers believe that their new method of creation could see mice being cloned in three years time, and humans two decades later.
This is in contrast to my firm belief that technology has progressed a lot further than the general public has been made aware of but alas without proof this gut feeling remains in the realm of conspiracy... For now...
So perhaps let me educate my readers about the real life cloning taking place. Let me tell you a little story about puppies... Don't worry, I'm not taking you down another side track. This is relevant to the topic here...
Do you have a pet? Have you ever thought about how fragile and short your pet's lifespan is when compared to our own human lifespans? Would you like to have your pet forever or at least a pet that looks and acts very similar to your own? Well the impossible is now possible in that regard.
There once was a woman from Bel Air who loved her chihuahua with long-hair. She loved him so much and made such a fuss and paid a Texas animal cloning company a large sum to copy her dog. Now it's no doubt this story is a bit odd but the question remains, would you clone your loved one?
She paid $50,000 so that her dog — or a version of him — will be at her side forever.
I find a story like this to be quite interesting indeed. First the fact that this is even possible startles and amazes me. Beyond that I've got mixed feelings about this whole cloning business as it feels to be a bit on the fringe of right and wrong, should human beings really have this power? What may we end up using it for in the future?
According to my source, five puppies genetically identical to her dog, named Bruce Wayne, were born in October and thrived.
Four went to live with Bruce and his owner, Meesha Kauffman, while the fifth has a home now with a friend of Kauffman’s in Baltimore.
“I was expecting one puppy or maybe two,” Kauffman said. “When I heard that five puppies were born, I thought, ‘Wow, I hit the jackpot.’ Having five dogs has definitely been a lifestyle change. But goodness, they bring me so much joy I can’t imagine parting with any of them now.”
Well take a look at those cute puppies above. They look completely healthy and normal. Would you ever have any inkling of a suspicion that they were cloned and look almost identical to their genetic donor? I wouldn't have a clue if you showed me one individually that it was a clone!
Apparently a company called ViaGen is the only company in the U.S. to clone pets in addition to livestock.
Since expanding from livestock into pet cloning more than two years ago, ViaGen, a subsidiary of the Gaithersburg biotechnology firm Intrexon, has cloned more than 100 pets, Rodriguez said, and more than half are dogs. Though the chihuahua pups aren’t the first cloned pets to live in Maryland — Rodriguez said the company has previously cloned cats for Free State residents — they are the company’s first cloned canines in the state.
Cloning pets is no big deal now. So I'll have to guess that what's around the corner for this new fringe science will most likely include human beings. Would you like to have two wives or two husbands indentical to the first? Would you decide to backup your son or daughter so just incase something happpened to them you could recreate them in their likeness? Does this just completely freak me out or have I stirred something in you as well?
If you've got a strong opinion on cloning either way, I am open minded and I would love to hear it in the comments below!
Thanks for reading.
In-text citations sources:
"Cloning horror: Human clone fears as Euro scientists CREATE LIFE from ‘nothing’" - Express
"These puppies might be Maryland's first cloned dogs" - Baltimore Sun
Image Sources:
Express
Baltimore Sun
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