raised by ad vances in bi ol ogy and med i cine, stands out for its re marka ble

growth and the num ber of dis ci plines that it eng ages. This growth has been the
res ult of two fac tors: frst, ad vances in med i cine have brought into fo cus is sues
at the lim its of life is sues rel at ing to prol ongi ng life, eut han as ia, non-natu r
al means of con cept ion and abor tion, all of which im pinge on the sanc tity of life,
hu man dig nity, right to life and free dom of choice; sec ond, ad vances in ge netic
tech nol ogy, in - clud ing the com plete de cod ing of the hu man ge nome and un
der stand ing the bi ol ogy of em - bryo nic cells with their po tent ial to form any
type of tis sue, now pro vide us with the abil ity to tail or the struct ure and func tion
of cells, tis - sues and even en tire in di vid u als. This, ob vi - ously, has trem end
ous moral imp lic at ions. loni ng is one techn ol ogi c al adv ancem ent that e!e
mp li fes these is sues, and a brief e! am - i na tion may be worthw hile.
" hat is loning# $ group of ge net i cally iden ti cal cells com prise a clone. $ll our
body cells are ge neti - cally uni form and are theref ore clones of each other. %r
gan isms re pro duc ing by ase! ual means like amoeb ae, bact er ia or hyd ra also
give rise to clones the en tire or gan ism be ing a clone of its par ent. The plants
that we grow from cut tings in our gard en are also clones of the mother plant. &n
the '()*s scie nt ists learnt to clone mice by transf er ring the nuc leus of an emb
ryo nic cell into a mouse ovum from which the nu cleus +con tain ing ge netic ma te
rial, had been re moved. This fu sion cell, when im - planted into the mouse uterus,
started di vid - ing and led to the form a tion of a mouse pup with all its ge netic mat
er ial de rived from one pa rent al source. &n '((-, &an " ilmut man aged to clone
an ent ire sheep the fam ous .olly by this method of /nu clear transf er0. " hat
was novel about " ilmut0s proc ess was that he obt ained the nuc leus from the ud
der cell of a do nor sheep, and ud der cells are ter- mi nally dif fer ent ia ted cells,
that is, they are
ma ture tis sue cells that were till then thought in ca pab le of taki ng part in fresh
tiss ue for ma - tion. The chemi cal env i ronm ent of the ovum ap pare ntly /tricked0
the genes in the trans- ferred nu cleus into be hav ing like the ge netic ma ter ial of
an em bryo nic cell +called a /pluri- potent stem cell0 as it can par tici pate in the
for- ma tion of all types of tis sues,. This pro cess, called /adult so matic cell nu clear
transf er0, thus led to the for ma tion of a clone with ge netic mat er ial der ived
from a non-rep rod uct ive tis- sue. This type of clon ing, called /re pro duc tive clon
ing0 be cause it is used for re pro duc tive pur - poses, raised a fu rore among
ethicists who be - lieved that such meth ods ap plied to hu mans can be badly misu
sed. 1opu l ar imagi n at ion took this to be /play ing 2od0, and pop u lar writ ers
warned of the pos si bil ity of planned crea tion of 3ran kens tein0s mon sters; if one
4it ler was enough to rav age the world, what would hap pen if ten 4it ler clones
were let loose5 on cerns were also raised about the psy cho log i cal ef fects on the
cloned o6 spring aris ing from its ar ti f cial birth and its to tal ge- netic iden tity
with one pare nt. 7ost of these spec ul a tions do not stand up to sci ent ifc scru
tiny for the sim ple reas on that clones are highly unl ikely to show be hav - iour iden
tic al to their pare nts, for beh av iour is heavily inf lue nced by env ir onm ent al
fact ors. The growth of the hu man brain is mark edly in 8u enced by the type of
stimu l a tion it re- ceives in the years af ter birth and this stim ul a - tion keeps
mould ing the brain in adult life too. 9o di6 ere nces in env ir onm ent al fact ors will
thems elves ens ure against beh avi oural iden - tity. 7oreo ver, 4it ler was as much
a prod uct of his tory as he was of his genes and his up - bring ing; and a si mul ta
neous re pro duc tion of all these fac tors can safely be ruled out. :ven iden ti cal
twins that are natu ral clones rarely show ident ic al beh avi our des pite simi l ar
up- bring ing. ;or has their gen etic iden tity been found to cause any ad verse psyc
ho log i cal ef - fect<'=