TinWiki: Clones

Cloning is the process of producing an identical genetic copy of a human, animal, plant or other organic object. Cloning is a highly discussed topic at most of the world wide ethic commitees. No one can conclusively say whether it is ethical to clone a human being or not. At present there is one question that everyone wishes to know: How did we come to exist? Now that question is arguably the biggest of all time, so would the theories of a God or higher being be blown out of the water if it came to light that we could make humans?

Dolly the sheep

Dolly the sheep is one of the most famous cloning projects. Dolly was the first animal cloned by an adult somatic cell, using a nuclear transfer. Dolly was cloned by the work of two scientists with the help of the Roslin Institute which is in Edinburgh, Scotland. The project that created Dolly took a long time to work on and was funded via the British Government. Dolly, after her creation, mated with a ram and gave birth to one lamb; the next year she gave birth to two lambs, twins; the third birth was to three lambs. After developing arthritis, Dolly was no longer bred.

Dolly was the first successful clone to last into adulthood, living a total of six years. Dolly was not the only clone, many attempts had been made before, 276 attempts to be precise. Dolly is considered a breakthrough due to the fact that mankind created another living being from one cell, a living thing with the ability to breed.

Officially Dolly was born on Feb/22/1997, her death was on Feb/24/2003. She died from a progressive lung disease. This was not a shock to the creators since many of the prior clones had died from this, a common disease amongst sheep. Although the common age of the Finn desert sheep is twelve to fifteen years, it is still considered a success that Dolly lasted six years.

It is thought by some that Dolly was born at the age of six and had six years of life which made Dolly twelve when she died, but after extensive age screening test it came back that Dolly was six years old, not twelve. So after the tests it came to light that Dolly could NOT of died from advanced aging. After the success of Dolly, horses and bulls have been cloned in her wake, some successful, others not.










External Websites

Dolly the Sheep Information
A site about cloning Ethics