Ensayo sobre clonacion.

Joao Riquelme 

WRC. 1023.017 

Prof. M. Leath 

24 Feb. 2016 

Essay 1  

Cloning 

Recently, an issue that has captured the attention of world's population is cloning. After the case of Dolly, the sheep that was cloned by a group of scientifics, the word cloning has been mistakenly defined in many different forms, most of them showing the act of cloning as an immoral behavior. There exist many sayings, proverbs, and scientific studies claiming and proving that cloning is a type of reproduction of a living being, meanwhile for some people, the act of cloning may refer to the creation of a new being (Levine 24). However, what one defines as a creation of a new being may be a kind of reproduction for another. Some people can value cell division is a type of cloning while others may consider cloning is the act of creating an exact copy from a being. In other words, there seems to be no universal criteria to define what exactly cloning is.  

Historically, the term clone invented by J. B. S. Haldane, is derived from the Ancient Greek word κλών klōn, referring to the process whereby a new plant can be created from a twig. Over time, the process of creating an exact copy of a plant from another one was accepted by the people, but once there were released some cases of cloning using animals and humans, the idea of cloning was considered as unacceptable.  

When people think of the word cloning they think of evil scientist in a dark laboratory full of dangerous and scary instruments of science for conducting experiments, but for some people, the word cloning can refers to a natural way of reproduction where an organism can divide asexually (Levine 12). Matters became more confusing and controversial in recent decades, as the word cloning came to serve as an umbrella term to describe a number of different processes for duplicating biological material. However, dictionaries can show us a better a most accurate definition of the word cloning and its meaning nowadays.  

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines cloning as the act to reproduce or to propagate asexually. However, Merriam Webster Dictionary assumes cloning for a way of reproduction, it does not clarify if it is the same for an organism that for an object. For example, a letter for the president can be reproduced asexually using a printer and this process can be considered as cloning.  

According to the Oxford Dictionary online dictionary, cloning is the process of creating two or more organisms that are exact genetic copies. In other words, this definition implies that cloning is the act to create or to invent an organism with the same exact DNA from the original. This definition of cloning as a process of creating may contradict with Levine’s definition of cloning, which defines this term as a type of natural reproduction without sex. Thus, Oxford Dictionary definition of cloning seem to give us a clear picture of its meaning. The Cambridge Dictionary also offers a definition of cloning as the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals.  

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