Help me understand cloning

cliona8969

I just saw on the news that a goat was cloned. I know a sheep was cloned also before. Basically an exact copy of the goat was made without being born or made from natural ways (sexual reproduction) what I dont understand is... If a human was cloned, who would that person be? It would have a different mind to the original person so who would it be? Like is it just a robot or the Same person twice? Would it have a soul life us? For those who believe in god, would the clone go to heaven. Is it real and living or not? Does it have emotions and feelings like any other human? Where does the personality come from. Let's say a girl called Sarah is cloned and Sarah dies a few years later, would get clone be the same girl the same person loved by her family or would sarah be dead?

darjeeling

cliona8969 wrote: »

I just saw on the news that a goat was cloned. I know a sheep was cloned also before. Basically an exact copy of the goat was made without being born or made from natural ways (sexual reproduction) what I dont understand is... If a human was cloned, who would that person be? It would have a different mind to the original person so who would it be? Like is it just a robot or the Same person twice? Would it have a soul life us? For those who believe in god, would the clone go to heaven. Is it real and living or not? Does it have emotions and feelings like any other human? Where does the personality come from. Let's say a girl called Sarah is cloned and Sarah dies a few years later, would get clone be the same girl the same person loved by her family or would sarah be dead?

Clones are genetically like identical twins. Identical twins have their own minds, personalities and emotions, and so do clones.

Identical twins actually share more of their environment, both pre- and post-birth, than is generally the case with the cloned animals so far. Because the environment affects personality and other aspects of individuality, that means that these clones would in fact be less like the animals from which they were cloned than if they were identical twins.

cliona8969

so it's possible to just MAKE humans? MAKE souls without reproducing naturally... ?

darjeeling

cliona8969 wrote: »

so it's possible to just MAKE humans? MAKE souls without reproducing naturally... ?

No-one's tried cloning humans yet, and it would be very unethical, given the failure rates and health problems seen in cloned animals. However, IVF has been used to produce human embyos from eggs and sperm, and to implant these into women, where they grow into normal babies and then go on to lead normal lives. Biology is silent on whether or not we have souls, so I'm sorry I can't answer that.

darjeeling

cliona8969 wrote: »

Basically an exact copy of the goat was made without being born or made from natural ways (sexual reproduction)

Sorry, I didn't spot this when I first replied. All clones develop in the womb and are born like any other animal. However, the earliest stages of the cloned embryo happen outside the womb, as is also the case in IVF.

The difference between cloning and IVF is that in cloning, the nucleus is removed from the egg cell and replaced with a nucleus from a cell from the donor animal to be cloned. This means that all of the genetic material comes from this donor animal. The embryo is then implanted in the womb of a surrogate mother animal, as with IVF, and allowed to develop naturally from there on.

Jimoslimos

cliona8969 wrote: »

I just saw on the news that a goat was cloned. I know a sheep was cloned also before. Basically an exact copy of the goat was made without being born or made from natural ways (sexual reproduction) what I dont understand is... If a human was cloned, who would that person be? It would have a different mind to the original person so who would it be? Like is it just a robot or the Same person twice? Would it have a soul life us? For those who believe in god, would the clone go to heaven. Is it real and living or not? Does it have emotions and feelings like any other human? Where does the personality come from. Let's say a girl called Sarah is cloned and Sarah dies a few years later, would get clone be the same girl the same person loved by her family or would sarah be dead?

I'm not sure most of these questions can be answered in the Biology forum, try religion perhaps for queries regarding a soul or heaven.

As mentioned earlier, identical twins are genetic clones, with the addition of as close to identical upbringing as possible. Would you call them the same person? Are their brains wired exactly the same - no?

darjeeling wrote: »

The difference between cloning and IVF is that in cloning, the nucleus is removed from the egg cell and replaced with a nucleus from a cell from the donor animal to be cloned. This means that all of the genetic material comes from this donor animal. The embryo is then implanted in the womb of a surrogate mother animal, as with IVF, and allowed to develop naturally from there on.

Yes, the genetic material comes from a diploid cell (one containing two sets of chromosomes) from the animal to be cloned, which is fused with an enucleated oocyte - that is an egg cell with the haploid (single set of chromosomes) nucleus removed. The egg is then implanted into a surrogate mother, usually the donor of the enucleated oocyte.

Capt'n Midnight

cliona8969 wrote: »

so it's possible to just MAKE humans? MAKE souls without reproducing naturally... ?

This is a science forum.

And that would be an ecumenical matter. :pac:


Seriously identical twins are formed when a egg splits so you've already got clones. You could argue that test tube babies aren't formed naturally too.

Identical and fraternal twins are studied to investigate the relative effects of genetics and environment.

Abigail and Brittany Hensel are different people even though they share the same DNA and almost exactly the same environment.