Human Cloning

            The definition of Cloning is to create a genetic copy or duplicate of a DNA sequence, a cell, or an entire organism. In this essay, I will focus on Human Cloning, otherwise known as Reproductive Cloning and discuss whether or not it is ethical. .
             What is Reproductive Cloning? To some of us, it sounds like a myth or an idea from a science fiction movie. However, this is a technology that through the advancement of science, man has finally come to understand as a possibility. .
             Genes are strings of chemicals that help create the proteins, which make up our bodies. They are found in long coiled chains called chromosomes and are located in the nuclei of the cells in our bodies. Normally, in sexual reproduction, a child gets half of its genes from its mother in her egg and half from its father in his sperm. This combination of genes is the basic foundation for human variation and diversity. In other words, no one will ever be the exact same as another individual. However, in Reproductive Cloning, all of the cloned child's genes would come from a single body cell of a single person. Reproductive Cloning is an asexual form or reproduction. .
             Right now, the best known cloning technique is called Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT). In this technique, like I explained above, the nucleus from a body cell is put into an egg from which the nucleus has been removed. The resulting entity is then triggered by chemicals or electricity to begin developing into an embryo. If that embryo were placed into a woman's uterus and brought to term, it would develop into a child that would be the genetic duplicate of the person from whom the original body cell nucleus was taken, thus creating a clone. .
             Through my research, I learned that there are benefits of Reproductive Cloning. One benefit is that Reproductive Cloning can now provide children for people who unfortunately can't be helped by other fertility treatments.