Where are the human clones?

Imagine Earth in the future, 100 or 300 or even a thousand years from now. Among all future technologies, is there a place for genetic cloning technology?

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/337207090819298107/

Perhaps you imagine it as in this image, but for now, it looks completely different. Although it may look like this in the future, the question is how far away and at what stage are we now?

But what is a clone, really?

Simply put, a clone is an organism that is genetically identical to it’s ancestor. And contrary to the popular belief, cloning is a natural process that is present in nature. It occurs in the asexual reproduction of living beings such as bacteria, plants, and even identical twins.

Long Research Path Led to Dolly

Dolly was born on 5th July 1996 and at the age of six months, Dolly the cloned sheep was presented to the world amid much controversy. Newspapers proclaimed the scientific community was "in an uproar"; others said the creation was "anticipated and dreaded" and the announcement prompted inevitable claims of human cloning being close to reality.

However, more than two decades since the sheep's "birth", full human clones are non-existent and cloning technology has remained, mostly, contained to scientific laboratories.

After more than 20 years Shanghai scientists used modern technology developed only in the last couple of years to enhance the technique used to clone Dolly have created pair of genetically identical crab-eating macaques. The monkeys are named Hua Hua and Zhong Zhong.

How is cloning being used today?

While most cloning techniques are still within laboratories, there is a commercial industry that exists to produce clones of animals.

For example, South Korea-based Sooam Biotech clones pets for around $100,000. One couple in the UK recently spent £67,000 on cloning their dead dog after sending the DNA to a company in South Korea. The cloned puppies were shipped to the UK.

US company Viagen is able to clone horses, livestock – including cows, pigs, sheep, and goats – as well as pets.They clone cats for $25,000 and dogs for $50,000.

ViaGen has been operating for 15 years and in that time has "cloned thousands of animals". It says all the pets it produces are "normal healthy puppies and kittens".

Continuing Onward With Cloning

Many thousands of cloned mammals have been produced in nearly two dozen species. To date, the most valuable contribution of experiments has been the scientific information and insights gained. This information is already helping reduce birth defects, improve methods of circumventing infertility, develop tools to fight certain cancers and even decrease some of the negative consequences of aging – in livestock and even in people. Two decades since Dolly, important applications are still evolving.

Maybe someday, science will be capable of protecting the endangered species and bringing back long extinct ones, such as mammoths and even dinosaurs. Although at the expense of dinosaurs, I know at least a few films that show that this is not a best idea :)