Genetic Engineering : A CLONE IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING,Scientific American, March 3, 1997

 A CLONE IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING,Scientific American, March 3, 1997 : 


                           In February 1997, an announcement made by researchers near the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, stunned the world. It seemed simple enough. They announced that a baby ewe named Dolly had been born the previous July. But this young female sheep was special. She was a clone of her mother, a six- year-old adult sheep—the first mammal successfully cloned from an adult. Scientists had tried many times to clone anim als, without success, and many people assumed it couldn’t be done. Dolly was living proof that they were wrong. Cloning admittedly steps outside the expected processes for reproduction. Dolly looks like a normal sheep. Yet she did not come from a normal egg and no sperm was involved. Dolly is an exact copy of her mother. Her mother supplied the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the material in genes that provides the blueprint for building a living thin,. flnIlv had no father

                           This may make Dolly sound like Frankenstein’s monster, but she was a completely normal sheep in every way.Dolly was not stitched or bolted together, and by 1998 she became a morn herself—the usual way. After mating with a handsome Welsh mountain ram she gave birth to Bonnie, a normal, 6.7-pound (3-kg) lamb.Sadly, Dolly had to be euthanized at the age of six on February 14, 2003, after coming down with a respiratory illness. Still, the researchers at Roslin Institute in Scotland, led by embryologist Ian Wilmut, had done the impossible. That is, they did what everyone up until that moment had thought was impossible. Other researchers had tried, and they all had failed.


                           Suddenly, as of 1997, genetic engineering and its ethical issues took center stage in the news. With the birth of Doll) many “what-if” questions swiftly became much more real. Today, opinions are still many and varied—not just about cloning, its pros and cons, and the future, but also about the entire field of genetic engineering. Controv ersies swirl around its many faces. People are concerned about the use of genetic engineering with plants, food, viruses, endangered species, medical therapies for humans, and more. Dolly dramatically brought these questions and controversies into the public eye for the first time.

Today, public policy about genetic engineering continuesto he a major area of discussion and intense debate worldw ide. As scientific knowledge and skills in manipulating genes have advanced, the issues have become more and more complex. In Britain, as well as in France and other countries of the European Union, many people oppose the use of gen etic engineering for improving foods. Policymakers in many countries, including the United States, are concerned about the prospect of cloning humans. In 1998, nineteen European

                          countries signed the first binding international treaty to ban the cloning of human beings. On August 9, 2001, u.s. President George W. Bush announced his decision to limit availability of federal funds for research using human stem cells—among the first few cells developed in a human emhry because use of these cells prevents life from forming in the embryo that supplies them. Are some or all of these reactions too extreme? Or are they wise and ethical? Most people agree that thoughtful decisions must be made. But should the growth of this technology be stopped, as some people believe? Or should it continue with appropriate thoughtfulness and consider non? what are the cases for and against continued res search and use of the various types of genetic engineering? This book explores some of the moral, ethical, and social questions surrounding these issues. Decisions made today may well affect—for good or bad—all future citizens and inhabitants of Earth.