The most advanced cloning technology, somatic cell nuclear transfer, has been developed since the first cloning sheep, dolly, in 1996. It is one of the most important scientific breakthroughs in last century and brings many benefits to our society. The cloning of farm animals that has “superior genes” can increase the productivity of meat and milk (1). Also, the technology can be used to protect animals by increase the number of animals with genetic resistance to infectious disease. However, animal cloning also brings many ethical issues because the survival rate of cloning animals is very low. In addition, the high cost of cloning and safety of cloned food are big concerns (2).

In somatic cell nuclear transfer, the nucleus is removed from a somatic cell, and insert in to an egg cell. Then, the somatic cell nucleus is reprogrammed by the host cell. The egg is that contains the nucleus of a somatic cell can divide and produce organisms that have DNA content that identical to the somatic cell(3).

The development of cloning technology has brought huge impact on food market and potential benefit to the society, animal and evironment. The cloning of farm animals such as cattle gives huge benefit to the farmers. They can select cows with “superior gene” that can be fast growing, disease resistant and able to produce high quality meat (1). In addition, cloning can reduce the occurrence of pain and disease among farm animals, and therefore improve their survival rate and overall welfare. Furthermore, cloning can decrease the number of unwanted species that carry infectious disease and harmful to human and environment. For instance, the elimination of pests can increase the crop production and reduce the need of fertilizers, which are harmful to human and various animals (1).

Despite the benefit of genetic cloning, it has many drawbacks and causes different ethical issues. First of all, cloning is an extremely costly process. According to the recent statistics, the average cost of cloning a pet or a farm animal is as high as 50,000 dollars (4). In addition, the survival rate of cloning animals is very low. Only one in five of the clones actually survived and has normal development. Most of the cloning animals are defective and are usually lost early in age. Even successful clones with normal appearance have a small chance of possessing genetic defects that could make them unsafe for consumption (2). Therefore, the food and drug administration should strictly regulate food produced from genetic cloning animals and develop a system to monitor the production of cloning livestock. Another ethical issue involves in the cloning of pet, which is strongly opposed by different groups. The cloned family pet is definitely not identical to the original one because organisms can alter by environmental factors. Also, the cloning pets or even human is especially controversial among different religious groups, who may believes that the fate of lives should never been controlled by human.

I think genetic cloning is an advancement resulting from our modern technology. The technique can potentially benefit our society in terms of food production and natural protection. However, because cloning is still in a developing stage, many issues such as high cost and low successful rate are unsolved. Furthermore, it causes many ethical issues and is strongly opposed by religious groups. Therefore, more research is needed to improve the genetic cloning technology before it can be widely applied for different purposes.

Work Cited

(1) http://www.fda.gov/cvm/Sep-Oct03.htm#2078

(2) http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/scientists-say-cloning.html

(3) http://www.aamc.org/advocacy/library/research/res0003.htm

(4) http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/03/0324_040324_catclones.html