Cloning now a present situation...?

[Dark Luther]

This all seemed a futuristic science fiction story when I was a boy...
I remember reading Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park at 13, where he stated cloning ould be here at the turn of the century - I though.., wow, that's soon..., but I'll be in my 20s then...
Well, it's 2006, I'm in my 20s, and cloning is here...


In the year 2000 actually, a movie - The sixth day - with Arnold Schwarzenegger, was released. A less than memorable futuristic movie, a scene still managed to catch my attention a few years later. The scene involved a commercial in which after a pet dies, the animal can simply be taken to the clinic and cloned.
I remembered this as I saw a small news cast on ITV news concerning the first commercial cloning of pets....
This was not isolated -
pet cats ( and to a lesser extent dogs ) where cloned for owners in Texas, England, and South Korea...

Several months later - last year actually,
began a court case ( which is still going on ) with a woman in England who wishes to carry on cloning at the embryo level -
where the egg's cell is replaced by another...

Recently, there is controversy with cloned and geneticly guided cod fish failing in Swedish inland fishery ( with fear that the cod could escape and breed with natural cod )...

Now, controversy with cloning champion race horses - with the action not being to stop the cloning itself, but from stopping these horses from competing ( as many see it as cheating...)



Now the discussion,
how real is the cloning situation....
and if it all happened this quick....and became this normal...
what can we expect in only a few years...., and how quickly will it become "normal"...

[Dark Marmosett]

Well...on what you see as normal varies from one to another. But probably the most useful thing I wudl say for cloning is is what I posted in the health forum. Doctors use ones own bodily cells to create new organs. It could go liek that to help with organ donations and what not. And it could take a few years to be "normal" May take decades.

[Pinkie Pie]

Doctors use ones own bodily cells to create new organs.

I'm not too well-read on the subject, but is it possible to "grow" an organ that way without having to kill off a body that came with it? o.O

Now the discussion,
how real is the cloning situation....
and if it all happened this quick....and became this normal...
what can we expect in only a few years...., and how quickly will it become "normal"...

I'd say it's very likely that it will become a real possibility. While I'd assume there would be various debates about the morality of cloning, if it's able to get past that, it may become a much more commonplace thing. While at the moment I assume it takes tons of money to get this done at this time, with how fast technology develops the price of it may very well come down to an affordable level. Computers used to cost thousands of dollars, but now you can get one for around $500*.

I doubt it will be the science-fiction idea of popping out an exact duplicate of yourself immediately, but it's quite possible (even probable) that cloning will become a very real technology in our lifetime.

*Disclaimer : I am in no way comparing a human life to a piece of electronic equipment. I'm simply giving an example of how rapidly any given technology can become affordable for everyday people.

[[PhiberOpticks]]

We have too many people in this world as it is. The last thing we want is more people.

[Pinkie Pie]

We have too many people in this world as it is. The last thing we want is more people.

The question wasn't really whether or not it would be a good idea to clone people, but whether you think the technology to do it on a mainstream level will exist in our lifetime.

Which is not to say that you're wrong, but I don't think this is supposed to be a debate on whether or not cloning is right, at least not yet. >.>

[[PhiberOpticks]]

Well, it is possible already. In fact, I've seen advertisements for pet cloning. It'll probably be a more perfected process in the later part of our lives.

[Pinkie Pie]

Well, it is possible already. In fact, I've seen advertisements for pet cloning. It'll probably be a more perfected process in the later part of our lives.

It's functionally possible, but it's hardly mainstream. There are only isolated cases at this point, and I'm pretty sure such cases have been phenomenally expensive.

[Night]

You can grow human organs inside a pig using genetic engineering, to answer your question, Hotaru. I think that cloning animals is fine, especially if the animal is something special, like the space monkeys! they should live forever.

I think it won't become commonplace and normal until about 2030. After all, it's still an imperfect science.

[Qween B]

yeha i believe its possible, hey they grew a human ear on a mouse's back O.o
Theyre going to have to try a person somtime and they cant be dead or it wont grow. I think its good research, it could save lives, or do a lot of creepy shit like on the x-files =P

[Dark Luther]

We have too many people in this world as it is. The last thing we want is more people.


I don't wish to divert from the subject I originally pointed to...,
but for the sake of counter argument -
I don't personally agree that the world is over populated - while it must also be pointed that nations capable of cloning are not by any means having population based problems.

Most of these problems occur in the third world, and are more a factor resulting from miss-management, war, drought, and geo/political transition than population...

But perhaps that is something for another debate...



In the issue of cloning,
I very much agree that it is the medical and scientific areas in which cloning has advanced the most and show it's realistic uses...

But through commercial...., and almost arbitrary use for mundane things as pets, race horses, etc..., this is where I saw a surprising change...
Because where 10 years ago this would be seen as humorous and far off science fiction, it now would be seen a humorous old news we already have become used to....


I'm sure the cloning of the first human child will make front page news...

....but I also believe it will become old news, and almost normalized within just a few years....if not even months...
probably the butt of a Leno monologue, or Family guy / South park episode...

[Chicken Little]

um cloning has been around since the 'breakthrough' of the cloned lamb which was made by using the genes of the equivilent of an 80 year old one. While the sheep only lasted a few days had a growth suprt then subsequently died of heart failure it was a successful cloning trial. So it has been a practice for far longer then one would think, its just only the breakthroughs get publicity.

Anywho what would be expected as the norm would most probably be transplants considering medical practice nowadays is using someone elses things to transplant into yourself with a risk that it wont work anyway. (1st hand transplant patient ultimately having his hand rejected by his body for example.) Those things would then be welcome by the majority of the community and medical community since effectivly the body wouldnt reject the organs. It was broguth up during a christian march i believe with the phrase 'body harvesting' when they debate first started actually being mainstream.

Subsequently it could end up like Gattaca esque in that as soon as cloning becomes acceptable the next stage would be specific gene splicing to remove common genetic diseases, or like mgs create the 'ultimate soldier'.

Really how far it can go is wholely dependent on how far the people involved are willing to go.

Just a note to everyone though, if you see cloning linked with the name 'Umbrella corp' run for the hills and dont look back cause it cant end in a good way. :P

[Dark Marmosett]

No wait...it died...I thought it was sucessful clone that lived. Why am I the last to find that out. =/

[[PhiberOpticks]]

Yes, however, the clone developed physical deficiencies that the original did not have. One of the ones I remember was that it had arthritis.

[Dark Marmosett]

I am always the last person to know these kinds of things. >.> Oh well. But yeah I saw sucessful dog cloning which the dogs are exactly like the dog they were cloned. They acted the same like the cloned.

[[PhiberOpticks]]

Most likely a lucky chance. Perhaps the more smoothly the procedure is conducted, then the less chance of physical defects will occur. On the matter of the similar behavior, were they raised around eachother? In which case that would explain the similar behavior, as the older original dog would almost be like a parent. And most offspring tend to gain personality traits from their parents.