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The
popular press seems to have a hay day reporting all kinds
of exciting possibilities, some even frightening, with
reference to the new path-breaking research by Ian
Wilmut, at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland,
of "cloning" to produce an adult ewe, wherein
he fused an egg cell with the DNA derived from an
"adult body cell" of the mammary gland of a
sheep by the "jolt of electric current",
eliminating the role of the father in procreation.
Hello, Hello, hold on ! this is not that exciting as it
is made out, neither does this experiment send God
packing back to his abode in heaven, leaving mankind to
make copies of themselves without having to go through
normal sexual reproduction yet ! Far from it !
This experiment is not even the first one in the field of
cloning. Robert Briggs and Thomas J. King, in
Philadelphia, had transplanted nuclear material way back
in 1952. This was first done in amphibians, then extended
to insects and fishes, later in 1980 to mammals. The
oldest living cloner is DiBerardino, who claims that she
devised this experiment long long ago. I am sure the
Swedish Nobel Academy will have a tough time deciding who
should get the Nobel this time around; as most of these
bench experiments are done to bag a Nobel Prize ! I only
hope that the wrong person does not get it as had
happened in the past. To quote only one example in 1927
the Nobel for medicine went to Wagner Juregg, who claimed
that he had developed a new fever therapy, using malarial
parasites, for curing the then dreaded disease, general
paralysis of the Insane (GPI) of syphilis.
In fact, Juregg was not the first to describe fever
therapy, (it was done by Hippocrates, the father of
modern medicine) and he had killed, in the bargain, twice
as many, as he claimed to have saved unknowingly. The
world of awards and prizes will always be the same. The
really deserving would miss the bus time and again !
Be that as it may, let us quickly settle the fear in the
minds of many that human copying is not far away. One can
never clone a "self". A human being is much
more than his genetic material. Even the genetic material
in Dolly, the ewe produced by Ian Wilmut, is not complete
vis-à-vis sexual reproduction. Dolly was the result of
nuclear transplant of DNA derived from the adult mammary
gland cell of a sheep (unfortunately Wilmut does not know
whether the cell was an embryonic pleuripotent cell or a
mature divided functional cell) on to the unfertilized
egg cell with a jab of electric current. That shows that
the whole male cell (spermatazoa) was not transplanted on
to the egg cell. This leaves quite a few other DNA
material from not only the nucleus but from the all
powerful ‘organelle’ which are inside all our
cells and they fuel all our metabolic demands. So Dolly
is not a full lamb in the genetic sense.
That apart the offspring is not wholly the genetic
material of the parents ! The genetic material derived
from the parents has to change a lot in the environment
before it penetrates to show its characteristics, called
gene penetrance. Man, ultimately, is the product of genes
and his environment. To give a few examples to lay
readers, one could easily quote the study of
"identical twins", derived from one single egg
cell of the mother, (uniovular twins), if brought up
separately immediately after birth, develop different
characteristics. The genetic similarity between siblings
is only around 50%. Hold on! it is not yet possible to
produce human beings with their "consciousness"
using cloning experiments.
Cloning in Greek means a twig. A twig will not always be
the same as the parent tree. As the twig is bent ( by the
environment ) so the tree also will grow bent. Another
curious factor is that the ‘organelles’
referred to earlier have their own
"consciousness" inside our cells. They are
genetically not ours !! They are closer cousins of other
micro-organisms in the world! Adult DNA, which Wilmut
used, differs from the foetal DNA substantially and, can
never produce an offspring like its parents. Nature does
not show all her cards to scientists. We only scratch the
surface and when we get to know a small fraction of the
way Nature works, we get excited and claim to have divine
powers !" Man, proud man,
Dress’d with a brief sense of authority,
His glassy essence like an angry ape,
Performs such fantastic tricks against high heavens,
That even make the Angels weep "
said
Shakespeare who was absolutely right with reference not
only to politicians, but also scientists !
Having thus disposed of the Frankenstein’s monster,
let us look at the brighter side of this experiment.
Cloning would certainly help improve the process of
animal husbandry. It will enable us to breed genetically
desirable traits more efficiently. One could possibly
clone the best milk cows. Even here one will have doubts.
"Cloning will never replace selective breeding as a
method of genetic engineering" was the opinion of
Prof. Jon W. Gordon, at the department of Obstetrics, at
Mount Sinai Medical School in New York City. He is right
! Cloning halts further progress. When one has cloned a
cow, the same cow cannot breed further ! So do not worry,
you can not clone a Hitler and make more Hitlers !
It may, however, help in cancer research ! Even that is a
premature hope. Every cell holds within it the capacity
to form every other cell in the body, but in the process,
some messages are lost and others developed. If one could
use cloning to suppress the cancer message , well and
good. Let us hope for the best.
No need to panic. We have gone too far in our fear.
Senator John J. Marchi of New York is ready with a bill
in the senate that would make it a felony to do human
cloning. Dear senator Marchi do not panic, it is not that
bad after all ! Church also seems to be agitated that man
is assuming the role of God. Never !
The people who have a field day and make tons of money
are the science fiction writers selling their books by
the millions C.J. Cherryli’s book Cyteen, Ira
Levine’s book The Boys from Brazil, Arthur
Clarke’s Imperial Earth, Ben Bora’s The
Multiple Man, and Nancy Freedman’s Joshua,
son of None, are a few. Make hay when the sun shines,
boys! Cloning is exciting but poses no danger. "God
gives and forgives. Man gets and forgets" !
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