Cloning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Cloning - Essay Example Natural cloning has been going on for billions of years. Natural cloning occurs when an organism reproduces asexually or when two genetically identical twins are produced by a splitting of a fertilized egg. For example, when one takes a stem from a yam plant and plant it in the ground, a new plant would grow as it takes root. The new plant can be considered a clone in the sense that it is identical to its parent. Similar cloning takes place in grass, potatoes and onions. This is a technique for propagating plants asexually. Humans have been using this vegetative technique in agriculture for thousands of years. The process has been helpful in environments where flowering and seedling establishment are infrequent. Another example of natural animal cloning is identical twins. Even though they are genetically different to their parents, they are naturally occurring clones of each other. Artificial cloning of animals is now normal in laboratories. The most famous example of animal cloning is Dolly the Sheep, born in the UK in 1997 using a technique called cell transferring. Â   It could be very useful and practical for us to be able to clone animals because they could provide extra food and could help find cures for diseases and further the research of medicines and vaccines. There are many reasons as to why cloning is important today, and in the years to come. First of all, food shortage is increasingly becoming a major global dilemma. This is due to the high demand on food as the global population increases dramatically (the population is thought to rise from 6.5 billion to 9 billion in the next 10 years) this indicates that food is going to be a very important aspect in preventing world hunger. Presently, almost 1 billion people eat less than three times every day and approximately 400,000 die daily due to starvation. There are other factors such as extinction of species that have to be taken into account as well, but