Animal Cloning: Process, Applications, and Bioethics

What is Animal Cloning?

Cloning is the process by which we obtain an identical copy, or clone, from the genetic point of view of any living entity, such as a cell or an organism.

How Do You Clone an Animal?

The first time that clone cells were obtained from an adult animal was in 1996. As a result, the sheep Dolly was born, the first mammal cloned in history. The technique used is called nuclear transfer.

Stages of Animal Cloning

1. A differentiated cell is taken from the individual that is to be cloned. These cells contain the entire genome of the organism, with the difference that it is a specialized cell that has lost the ability to reproduce.
2. An egg is taken from a female donor.
3. The egg nucleus is removed.
4. The nucleus of the differentiated cell is transferred to the egg without a nucleus.
5. The cell is grown in the laboratory in a special medium so that the embryo begins to develop.
6. When it reaches the morula stage, or a little further ahead, it is transferred to the uterus of a recipient mother.
7. After the gestation period, a new individual is born, a clone of the individual that provided the nucleus, the genetic information.

Applications and Ethical Constraints of Cloning

Possible applications are related to:

• Agriculture and Livestock: Obtaining copies of animals and plants that possess some characteristic that is of interest to maintain.
• Research: Having laboratory animals that can be used as models to study human diseases.
• Ecology: The restoration of species that are in danger of extinction.
• Medicine: Cloning animals to obtain organs for transplant.

Bioethics

Bioethics is the branch of ethics that provides the guiding principles of human behavior in the biomedical field. This biomedical criterion is respect for fundamental human rights as inalienable, in short, the dignity of the person.

Therapeutic Cloning

1. A biopsy is taken from a patient who needs a transplant, and the nucleus of some of the cells obtained is extracted.
2. The nucleus is inserted into an egg from a donor from which its own nucleus has been removed.
3. It is allowed to develop under laboratory conditions to the blastocyst stage. Somatic embryos are obtained, so-called because their genetic material comes from a somatic cell and not from germ cells.
4. Embryonic stem cells are obtained from the cell mass of the blastocyst and cultured in vitro to increase their number.
5. Once a sufficient number of stem cells are obtained, they are placed in suitable media for differentiation.