Cloning....Why clone anyway?

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

lol lol awww...DSTCHAOS why? C'mon. What about the social benefits of cloning? Like perpetuating the genetic qualities of outstanding people, or like what you said about helping research on human development.

No.

[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

lol lol awww...DSTCHAOS why? C'mon. What about the social benefits of cloning? Like perpetuating the genetic qualities of outstanding people, or like what you said about helping research on human development.

This is evolution. Natural selection and all that. If you want "the genetic qualities of outstanding people" to perpetuate, marry an outstanding person and make babies with them. No cloning is needed.

[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

This is evolution. Natural selection and all that. If you want "the genetic qualities of outstanding people" to perpetuate, marry an outstanding person and make babies with them. No cloning is needed.

Wow Peppy, you're so smart. I didn't think of that one.

You deserve a round of applause and a Scooby snack for posting that. Good for you....

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

Wow Peppy, you're so smart. I didn't think of that one.

You deserve a round of applause and a Scooby snack for posting that. Good for you....

Is this your way of reattaching the bull's eye that had fallen off of your forehead?

[RaggedyAnn]

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

I couldn't agree with this post more. The only thing though is wouldn't we have to clone a human being in order to get the body parts 1st? That's the scary part if I'm thinking correctly. AKA_Monet and BigRedBeta where are you when I need you?

Check out this company...
tengion.com

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

I haven't seen Gattaca before. Is it about extending human life? If it is, I'll rent it tonight. I agree with cloning to replace organs, but at the same time when we start living this long I think it starts getting into the "Playing God role."

It's about a society where people are being genetically engineered and the genetically engineered people are considered far superior to "naturals". The "naturals" essentially become like untouchables but one is trying to pass as a genetically engineered person because he wants to be an astronaut and only the genetically engineered people get to join the space program. It's fascinating and scary...

[AKA_Monet]

I'm so lost in this discussion Cheerful do you need to write a paper or something in Ethics?

Human genes are being cloned everyday AND on a computer chip... Now, that technology, wow. If I had money back in 1994 when Affymetrix started!!!

We can grow organoids in petri plates. We do it with stem cells all the time. Well, depending on how your look at it, the US cannot use Human Embryonic Stems so we scientists are WAAAY behind on that research curve. While Singapore and North Korean gives us bogus data on that subject...

The issue with providing correctional "parts" to damaged tissues is the honing to the area. It's easiest with skin. It's harder with nerves. And add a chronic illness into the mix, like cancer or heart failure, good luck...

And NONE of these studies are being done in the US anymore! So, don't get cancer unless your Senator Kennedy, or lose a limb, or have heart failure because, welp, you are NOT going to be saved with our current healthcare system.

I'd say the US is now 5 years behind other 1st world countries research...

[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by DSTCHAOS

Is this your way of reattaching the bull's eye that had fallen off of your forehead?

lol lol lol....I don't think it ever fell off. Frankly, I really don't care anymore, she gave me a snarky remark, so I gave one right back to her.

[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by AGDee

It's about a society where people are being genetically engineered and the genetically engineered people are considered far superior to "naturals". The "naturals" essentially become like untouchables but one is trying to pass as a genetically engineered person because he wants to be an astronaut and only the genetically engineered people get to join the space program. It's fascinating and scary...

Thanks! I'm renting this today. After I watch it, I'll let you know.

Originally Posted by AKA_Monet

I'm so lost in this discussion Cheerful do you need to write a paper or something in Ethics?

Human genes are being cloned everyday AND on a computer chip... Now, that technology, wow. If I had money back in 1994 when Affymetrix started!!!

We can grow organoids in petri plates. We do it with stem cells all the time. Well, depending on how your look at it, the US cannot use Human Embryonic Stems so we scientists are WAAAY behind on that research curve. While Singapore and North Korean gives us bogus data on that subject...

The issue with providing correctional "parts" to damaged tissues is the honing to the area. It's easiest with skin. It's harder with nerves. And add a chronic illness into the mix, like cancer or heart failure, good luck...

And NONE of these studies are being done in the US anymore! So, don't get cancer unless your Senator Kennedy, or lose a limb, or have heart failure because, welp, you are NOT going to be saved with our current healthcare system.

I'd say the US is now 5 years behind other 1st world countries research...

I think what's interesting is the recent ability to "reprogram" skin cells into a state that is similar to stem cells. That's going to be the future of the cloning debate and it will be interesting to see what theraputic advantages this technique can yield.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=16470482

http://www.wired.com/medtech/stemcel...7/11/skin_cell

Kitso
KS 361

[RU OX Alum]

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

I posted this in the Medical Thread I started, but I thought it would be a good topic to chit chat about so I thought I would start a whole thread about it.

So what do you think? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? How far can we go with it? Given the problems associated with animal cloning, why would anyone want to do it at all?

Personally, I think it can be a good thing, if people don't over do it. I mean, apart from making human medicines, I think cloning could help boost the numbers of some endangered animal species. I think it would really be amazing to clone extinct animals. Of course doing this would be a much greater challenge than cloning endangered animals, because unfortunately the egg needed to create the cloned embryo has to be from a different species. Kind of like Jurassic Park. They used DNA from frogs to fill in the missing links in order to make dinosaurs.

I think bringing back the extinct animals would be taking things a bit too far, but I do think the good thing about cloning, is we would be able to bring back a lost pet. If it died, we could bring it back and it would more than likely have the same personality as the original. I know this wouldn't be true for all cloned animals though.

I want to be cloned and also have my memories/brain backed up on computer chip so I can install the chip into my "next" brain and therefore be effectively immortal.

It's been the dream of humanity since forever to live forever. Now that we have the technology, I feel we owe it to our ancestors.

[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by AKA_Monet

I'm so lost in this discussion Cheerful do you need to write a paper or something in Ethics?

Human genes are being cloned everyday AND on a computer chip... Now, that technology, wow. If I had money back in 1994 when Affymetrix started!!!

We can grow organoids in petri plates. We do it with stem cells all the time. Well, depending on how your look at it, the US cannot use Human Embryonic Stems so we scientists are WAAAY behind on that research curve. While Singapore and North Korean gives us bogus data on that subject...

The issue with providing correctional "parts" to damaged tissues is the honing to the area. It's easiest with skin. It's harder with nerves. And add a chronic illness into the mix, like cancer or heart failure, good luck...

And NONE of these studies are being done in the US anymore! So, don't get cancer unless your Senator Kennedy, or lose a limb, or have heart failure because, welp, you are NOT going to be saved with our current healthcare system.

I'd say the US is now 5 years behind other 1st world countries research...

Nope. I don't have to write another paper until the fall. My 1st year is done...

Yeah, this is true about the human genes, but these kinds of studies are usually done with genes affected by diseases with a known faulty protein or something. I was talking about more on the lines of being able to generate an identical genetic copy of a whole organism. I don't think we really are able to do it with people yet. I'm thinking with us it would be much harder, because humans have about 25,000 different genes, probably each made up of between a few hundred to a few thousand base pairs of DNA code I'm sure.

[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by RU OX Alum

I want to be cloned and also have my memories/brain backed up on computer chip so I can install the chip into my "next" brain and therefore be effectively immortal.

It's been the dream of humanity since forever to live forever. Now that we have the technology, I feel we owe it to our ancestors.

There are some people who risk their lives to be frozen, and then thawed out in about 100 years. Have you ever seen that Sylvester Stallone movie? I forgot what it was called. He and this other guy accidently slipped into one of these things and they were thawed out in the future. They were like 75 years old or something, but they still had 30 year old youth.

[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by RaggedyAnn

Check out this company...
tengion.com

Cool website. How did you hear about them?

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

lol lol lol....I don't think it ever fell off. Frankly, I really don't care anymore, she gave me a snarky remark, so I gave one right back to her.

Your paranoia has become pathetic.