It is crucial to divide the morula before the cells begin to differentiate into specific tissues. At the perfect moment, the morula is cut apart to form identical twins. Up to one hundred and twenty eight rabbits were twinned in this manner by Dr. Jerry Hall who announced his findings in 1993. This twinning has also been experimentally done in humans as well. Of course all these fetuses were "culled" which really means they were destroyed (Dixon).
The second form is nuclear transfer, as was done in the case of Dolly the sheep. The neucleus contains the DNA, which is the genetic code of an organism. The process by which Dolly was made used an unfertilized sheep's egg. From that egg all genetic material was removed. Then a cell was taken from an adult sheep. Both of these cells were placed in a test tube then given it a small spark of electricity. The egg gains the full genes it needs from the adult cell and goes on to produce an identical twin of the adult. This process sounds simple but it took two hundred and forty six tries before Dolly was finally created.
The third form of cloning is called therapeutic cloning. Therapeutic cloning is done to create new organs and tissues for people who are in need of organ, skin or bone marrow transplants. People want to imagine that cloning for treatment doesn't involve fetuses. But unfortunately one can't grow organs from cells. Organs must be taken from a late pregnancy fetus (Dixon). Whether a clone is implanted to be born, culled for spares, or cannibalize for human embryonic stem cells, the process is the same. Fertilization must occur. Cloning is so pervasive that there are sites on the Internet that tell how to clone a human. Is it Sci-fi or is the future here? .
Dr. Patrick Dixon has been touted as Europe's leading futurist. He is a writer and communicator. All his topics concern where the future is taking us, especially when it comes to science and cloning.
