Cloned Monkey Living Without Health Problems Sparks Debate: What This Means for Humans

The Debate Over Cloned Monkey Raises Ethical Questions for Humans

News circulating about a cloned monkey that managed to live for two years without any health problems has sparked widespread debate about what this might mean for humans.

Cloned Monkey Grows Up Healthy

The monkey, a rhesus macaque named ReTro, was born in China on July 16, 2020. This species shares about 97.5% of its genes with humans.

The cloned rhesus monkey has entered the age of three, Dr. Falong Lu, a member of the cloning team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, told New Scientist. “So far, we have not noticed any health problems in him through our routine physical examinations.”

Challenges of Cloning Mammals

Historically, cloning monkeys has proven difficult, despite success with other mammals, such as Dolly the sheep in 1996. Scientists were able to clone the monkey by modifying the process that led to the production of Dolly the sheep, which was very special because, unlike the baby monkey, it was cloned from an adult cell, which is the desired goal for those hoping to recreate living (or extinct) animals. Most cloning successes occur when small embryonic cells are cloned at a very early stage, a simpler challenge, but by no means simple.

One of the major problems with cloning living mammals is the age and complexity of their DNA. From the moment the egg is fertilized by the sperm, it goes through many complex stages.

Complexity of Cloning Technology

From early in the womb, cells begin to specialize and transform into one type or another (muscle cell, nerve cell, skin cell). Now, experts in the field are working on how to “reset” these epigenetic marks, essentially wiping their memory so you can go back to the beginning and start the whole process again. But this is not the only problem scientists have found with mammalian cloning.

Despite decades of research in this field, cloning technology is still far from reliable. There are far more failures than success stories.

Implications of Cloning for Humans

Rules and laws prohibiting the cloning of human embryos vary in different parts of the world, but scientists will not be allowed anywhere to implant a cloned embryo into the uterus, and there is little evidence so far that cloning human embryos is successful.

According to experts, cloning is not just about recreating a living person or pet. However, one of the main hopes for human health is the cloning of stem cells for medical treatment, transplanting cells, tissues and even entire organs into the person from which they were cloned.

Source: Metro

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