Download Cloning Around: Genetics Issues

Cloning Around: Genetics Issues
Background:
Cloning is defined in Encyclopedia Britannica as “a population of genetically identical
cells or organisms that are derived originally from a single original cell or organism by
asexual methods... More narrowly, a clone can be defined as an individual organism that
was grown from a single body cell of its parent and that is genetically identical to it.”
By the 1950s, scientists were able to clone frogs, producing identical individuals to only a
single parent. DNA was removed from an egg cell and replaced with frog DNA contained
in the nucleus of a body cell. The fused cells then began to grow and divide like a normal
fertilized egg to form an embryo. Mice were first successfully cloned in the 1980s. The
nucleus from a body cell of a mouse embryo was removed from the uterus of a pregnant
mouse and transplanted into a recently fertilized egg from another mouse whose genetic
contents were eliminated. The cell was cultured artificially until dividing and becoming
an embryo, which was then artificially implanted into the uterus of another mouse. In
1997, scientists were able to clone a sheep from adult cells for the first time, and in 1998,
scientists were able to clone dozens of mice at once, as well as cloning eight copies of
one cow.
Activities / Procedures:
1. WARM-UP. Students discuss the following questions
 What do you think about the idea of cloning (or creating an exact copy of)
animals?
 What positive effects could this have?
 What negative effects could this have?
2. The teacher makes two columns on the board, one labeled “positive” and one labeled
“negative,” under which he or she writes student responses during this brainstorm.
Students should explain their answers thoroughly.
3. Review the history of animal cloning (refer to the Background section for some of the
major developments).
4. Read and discuss “South Korean Scientists Say They Cloned a Human Cell,” focusing
on the questions below..
a) What "legal and ethical implications" may have halted South Korean scientists
from allowing a four-cell embryo, cloned from a human cell from an infertile
woman, to grow "into a genetically identical replica of the woman"?
b) Although this research has not been confirmed, why do many scientists not doubt
the validity of the report?
c) What skepticism is expressed with regard to the report on this research?
d) How did scientists clone an embryo from a somatic cell?
e) Do you feel that laws should be enacted to restrict or prevent such research from
occurring? Why or why not?
f) What similar cloning of animals has occurred in recent months and years?
g) What does Jung Myoung-hee mean by saying, “This is not an advancement for
medical technology and now we have to be prepared to accept international
criticism. The result of this experiment is not something Koreans should be proud
of”? Do you agree or disagree with this statement, and why?
h) Why might this technology and experimentation, in the words of Rhee Shang-hi,
“damage the integrity of human life”?
i) How would other scientists be able to get the information necessary to replicate
this experiment?
j) Why does Lee Bo-yon stress that “the experiment was not related to solving
infertility problems for patients at the clinic, and that they received permission
from the donor to use three of her eggs for experimentation”? What is the
relevance of this statement in the context of the rest of this article, particularly
dealing with the ethical issues presented?
k) Do you feel that “the experiment could be looked upon in the future as a
milestone,” and why or why not?
l) What purpose does creating technology like that discussed in the article serve if
the experiment is halted once it is known that it would potentially work?