In the past, there have been rumors from the conspiracy theorists, claiming that the real Hillary Clinton was killed in 1998 and the one alive right now is Barrak Obama’s clone. The big question though, is that at the moment is cloning humans even possible?
Even though it has remained a popular theme in many sci-fi movies, there is a lot about human cloning that is still very far from us and our complete comprehension.
What Cloning is
In the simplest explanation of what it means, cloning humans is the artificial recreation of human cells and tissue. Through this, science is able to produce the genetically identical copy of humans. Using this, both living and people that have previously lived can be recreated using the same genetic components.
The human cloning is completely different from identical twins, but it can allow for the recreation of many copies of humans, although not in the exact nature.
History of Human Cloning
The original idea has gone back to the 1880s with the simple thought of twinning the artificial embryo.
The first attempt at cloning was in the early 1950s when Robert Briggs and Thomas King made an attempt to clone a Rana pipiens frog. Even though it was not successful, it opened up more questions and curiosity that would not end even many years later.
The next attempt came close to 20 years later when John B. Gurdon cloned a frog, but it ended at the tadpole stage. Karl Illmenese and Peter Hope succeeded in cloning a mouse in 1981.
Neal First tried to clone a sheep in 1994 and this was followed in 1995 by the cloning of 2 sheep by Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell, but the problem was that the cells from which the nucleus was taken from a cell culture and not from that of any animal.
The first mammal to be fully cloned came in 1996 when Dolly the sheep was cloned from by Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell they did this from mammal cells.
As regard the cloning of humans, science is still yet to make any headway as it was only in 2018 that it was able to clone the first primate.
Facts about cloning
- The first record of cloning was pulled back to the 1800s when German biologist Hans Driesc cloned a sea urchin. He did this using an embryo cell.
- Snuppy was an Afghan hound cloned in 2005, was named the most amazing invention of that year by the Time Magazine. The dog died 10 years after its creation in 2015.
- There is no known human that has already been cloned even though conspiracies claim that many famous people including Obama and the Clinton family have all been cloned. Megan Fox, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Britney Spears, and Eminem are all said to be among the cloned humans by the conspiracy theorists.
- Anything that has been cloned cannot have what can be described as biological parents as such it is entirely a creation on its own. This is because it is a product of asexual reproduction. In essence, it has no father, mother, brother, sisters, or any relatives.
- Once cloning humans become possible and unfortunately legal, the cloned person would have to start life from the infant stage even though it is from the cells of an adult. What is more is that even though many people have made us to believe that cloning produces the exact thing, there are differences which make the cloned not the exact replica of the donor and they are two different entities.
- Cloned animals are shown to have some defects in the form of certain genetic sicknesses or other things. Most often, they are seen to have heart, liver, and brain problems.
- Huge sums of money have been spent for the purpose of cloning. These amounts rise from $25,000 to as much as $200,000 and even more.
- According to scientists, after many years of trial, they have now created the first cloned primates, following the cloning of two monkeys that have been named Hua Hua and Zhong Zhong. They were created by scientists in China.
- There are still many animals that have been cloned that are still living. The longest cloned animal to have survived thus far has lived close to 20 years. Yang Yang was born in 2000 and as of 2015, it was already a great-great-grandmother to five generation of goats.
- Through cloning, many animals that are already extinct can be brought back to life. The problem is that no one knows for how long they may be able to survive and the diseases and other problems they may come with.
- The thing about their soul is still one question that remains unanswered just as we still struggle to explain the human soul.
Animals that have been cloned
Even though human cloning has still not been accomplished partly because of the legal and ethical concerns that exist, there are already animals that have successfully been cloned already through the years:
- Injaz (2009): This is the first female camel that was cloned. The camel later got pregnant and gave birth to its first cloned offspring in 2015 in Dubai.
- Pyrenean ibex (2009): This was significant as it recorded the first time that an extinct animal was brought back to life through cloning. The only problem was that it only lived for a few minutes before it finally died.
- Labrador dog (2008): This dog was cloned
- Snuwolf and Snuwolffy (2007): These cloned wolves were created by South Korean scientists. The wolves were cloned from their species that were already going extinct.
- There have been a good number of cattle that have also been created.
In general, there are over 60 animals that have already been cloned.
Legality of Cloning Humans
Even though cloning of animals is not banned in many countries around the world, there are laws against cloning humans in many countries. Among the countries that have banned this are Argentina, Australia, Canada, Colombia, India, Russia, European Union, Serbia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom and the United States.
In 2005, there was a non-binding United Nations Declaration on Human Cloning that aimed to ban the cloning of humans.
See Also: Scientists Playing God: 8 Times Science Has Done The Unthinkable
There are many that have a problem with human cloning on religious grounds. This class of people believes that cloning humans is the creation of life in another way, which is something that only God should do.
Another problem is that gene mutation is considered to be dangerous because what will be created may be dangerous to itself. This is because considering the genetic material used in cloning, a newborn creature may be way older than it is and that will cause a health problem for it.
There is another thing that has to do with people watching themselves being replicated and growing. Apart from the emotional challenges, it is also seen as an abuse of technology by interfering with the natural flow of things.
