Cloning

            The basic priciple that allows whole animal cloning to take place would be the cell theory principle that states that "cells can only arise only by division from a preexisting cell" (Karp, 2003). The first evidence of early cloning come from the 1960's, a scientist named John Gurdon who transplanted the nucleus of a specialized cell from one of the adult frogs and fertilized the nucleus in an egg of another frog. Although the experiment did not work because the tadpoles did not pull through. His theories and methods received much skepticism, however the experiment did establish that cell specialization can be altered and even manipulated using the "nuclear transfer" method. .
             The process of nuclear transfer has since then improved somewhat and developed into the "Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT)" or therapeutic cloning which involves the removal of the nucleus of an unfertilized egg cell and replacing it with material from the nucleus of a somatic cell which could be from the heart or skin and stimulating this cell to begin dividing. Once the cell begins dividing, stem cells can be extracted 5-6 days later and used for research. A stem cell is an non specialized, undifferentiated cell which is better known as a cells with the ability to divide for indefinite periods in culture and to give rise to specialized cells. The best example of this is Dolly the sheep. The SCNT technique was used, more specifically this is when the egg of one donor is emptied of its genetic information so that the nucleus is placed within close proximity to the recipient egg. Under the correct circumstances these two samples fuse together and are then placed in a surrogate mother, who has no effect on the genetic information that the offspring will have. This is the current method of whole animal cloning.
             Japanese scientists developed a prototype for the world's first artificial womb. The test subject is a goat fetus taken from the mothers body after 17 weeks and raised for the final three weeks of its term in a clear acrylic tank "Some of the stories printed in the British press are only half true.