gum disease
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- Posted: Wed, 18 Apr 2012 02:33:09 +0000
It depends, really. Cloning has it's benefits, but of course - ethics and other issues come into play as well.
Cloning and cell culture techniques could potentially mean an end to the current issues pertaining to the long waiting lists for organ donors available for transplantation. Theoretically, there's no more risk of rejection from an autoimmune response, so people won't need to take immunosuppressant drugs. I'm specifically quite interested in seeing how cloning can be beneficial in the regeneration of the myelin sheath and whether it'll be a potential treatment for Multiple Sclerosis.
There's still a lack of understanding of how cloned cells will behave over time. Will they have a higher predisposition to mutation or not?
I haven't researched this extensively, due to time constraints with school, but it's still something to consider.
One main issue with cloning is that it cuts down on variation. Therefore, excessive genetic uniformity in a species makes it highly unlikely to be able to to deal with/adapt to environmental changes. What if a new strain of pathogen were to appear? If we were all clones - there's the possibility that we'd all be susceptible to disease.
Cloning and cell culture techniques could potentially mean an end to the current issues pertaining to the long waiting lists for organ donors available for transplantation. Theoretically, there's no more risk of rejection from an autoimmune response, so people won't need to take immunosuppressant drugs. I'm specifically quite interested in seeing how cloning can be beneficial in the regeneration of the myelin sheath and whether it'll be a potential treatment for Multiple Sclerosis.
There's still a lack of understanding of how cloned cells will behave over time. Will they have a higher predisposition to mutation or not?
I haven't researched this extensively, due to time constraints with school, but it's still something to consider.
One main issue with cloning is that it cuts down on variation. Therefore, excessive genetic uniformity in a species makes it highly unlikely to be able to to deal with/adapt to environmental changes. What if a new strain of pathogen were to appear? If we were all clones - there's the possibility that we'd all be susceptible to disease.