Animal cloning, the science, the benefits, the opportunity to do great. We have dreamed about something as magnificent as this and now we finally have the ability. Animal cloning can change the world if perfected; I will explain not only why it is a good idea, but also how it is beneficial to both the animals and us humans. If you have a negative opinion when it comes to animal cloning, it may very well be changed after this presentation.
To begin, we must understand how animal cloning is accomplished. You must take the DNA of the animal you want to clone and put into an egg. The egg is then placed into a surrogate mother. The clone is then born later. The first animal to be successfully cloned was a tadpole.
There can be some problems however, cloning has a very small success rate. Scientists need more funds to fully understand why the rate is so small. According to Michael Bishop, Wisconsin Biotech company Infigen's President: “Studies put the success rate of cloning at a mere 3 percent to 5 percent”. However, Infigen boasts about their patented method of cloning that has shown a 17-percent success rate. How Infigen's method differs from the normal method is unknown, they claim however to undergo the same process.
Benefits of animal cloning, now for the stuff we have all been waiting for. To begin, I want to show how animal cloning can help save endangered species. With time, money, and patience, we can save endangered animals via cloning; we just have to do it correctly. Animals like the Gray Wolf and the Tiger have dwindling numbers, with the right cloning techniques, we can prevent their extinction. To prevent extinction, we would have to preserve the genetic diversity in the animals, what we do is clone and breed them in a fashion that avoided the production of genetically identical animals.
Animal cloning also has farming benefits as well. Let’s discuss a real-life example shall we? Let’s say a farmer has a prized cow, and this cow produces a lot of milk in a year; 3,000 gallons (which is way above average for a cow). Now say this cow becomes very ill and is about to die. The farmer is then presented the opportunity to clone his prized cow. Let us examine the outcomes of the farmer's choice in this situation: Option one, the farmer moves on without trying to clone the cow. The cow dies and now the farmer is at a loss, he must try to work with the other cows who produce much less milk, the farmer then loses money until he can acquire another cow of similar ability. Option two, the farmer takes the chance of cloning his ill cow, the cloning succeeds, and now the farmer has a perfect clone of his prized cow. The original dies, but the farmer now has a newborn version of the same cow, and he can raise it and continue profiting the same as before, thanks to cloning. This can work for any kind of farm animal that needed to be cloned; we just need more funds going towards the research of animal cloning.
Now, a lot of people have opposing views on animal cloning. One of the main opposing arguments that people try to use is religious approach, especially on websites like debate.org. Saying things like “Cloning goes against god's will”. In my personal opinion, using religious views as a counter argument is an attempt at a below-the-belt hit. However, people may also use the same tactic to negate the original counter argument, for example, they may say, “If God hadn't intended for us to clone, he would have stopped us”. I am not using this as part of my argument, it is just an example.
All points aside, there is still one more positive outcome of animal cloning; Bringing extinct species back to life. If you have ever seen Jurassic park, you will probably think this is a horribly bad idea; however dinosaurs are a bit out of our reach at the moment. We have successfully brought animals back to life, as pointed out by the University of Utah's Genetic Science Learning Center; the most successful clone of an extinct animal was the cloning of a guar, which was a rare ox-like creature from Asia. Its clone was named Noah. However two days after birth, Noah died from common bacterial disease. This disease had nothing to do with the cloning process. Bringing an extinct species back to life has only one roadblock you need a mother who is genetically similar to the animal you want to clone. This is why dinosaurs could be quite difficult to clone, asides from finding perfectly preserved dinosaur DNA.
Cloning animals is a great ability that us as human being have. We have advanced from banging rocks together out of curiosity to replicating a living creature on a genetic level. We have the capability to advance even farther and do amazing things; all we need is time, money, and patience. If could perfect animal cloning, we could do so much more, we could do things like creating clones of your favorite pet after it's death or bringing some of the most magnificent creatures back from extinction.
When we think back to my original statement, animal cloning is a good thing we have been presented with the opportunity to do great. The door has been opened for us; all we have to do is take the time to walk through. When you review the major points of this presentation, you realize how much good this can do. Saving endangered animals, preventing the loss of essential farm animals, bringing extinct animals back to life. All of these things can do so much good, not only for the animals, but for us as well. It's a win-win situation here. Now that you know more about the advantages of animal cloning, I want us to push for more funds for animal cloning research. We can change the world, we have the science, we just need the innovation. As a wise man once said: “Science isn't about why, it's about why not.”