Test tube babies and cloning aren’t the same thing though. Test tube babies (proper name is in vitro fertilization) and it is simply putting the sperm and egg together outside a woman’s body. Afterwards it is placed in a woman’s womb where it continues to develop naturally. IVF babies take traits from each of the parent’s DNA rather than just a copy of the donor. When a test tube baby is born the child’s organs are new and doesn’t suffer the same health complications that cloning animals do. Cloning is different and more complex than IVF.
Cloning is performed when the cells enter their dividing process. Scientists inject the DNA from one creature into the embryonic stem cell of another and let it continue to develop normally inside the womb of an animal. If all goes according to plan you end up with an exact copy of the original owner’s DNA. 90% of the time they fail and the uterus rejects it. In the event of a successful clone and delivery a large portion of that 10% die soon after delivery because of health problems. Dolly was a spectacular achievement because she was born healthy and lived for another six years. Dolly was cloned from a six year old ewe and sheep typically have a 10-12 year life span so she died at a typical age for a sheep.
Sorry, after we covered cloning in my science class I kinda took an interest lol.
I’ve heard that they are experimenting with a…what would you call it…an artificial-womb? In theory it would replicate a womb exactly and the animal (or person) would grow to term. That way new-moms get to keep their beach bodies! Yay! Perhaps if scientists can create a controlled version of a uterus they can make controlled versions of stem cells and dna too possibly making cloning more stable.
Man, if people are upset about cloning and abortion wait until faux-wombs makes their debut. (abortion would be an issue because on some occasions they’d be forced to terminate the “pregnancy” if there were certain complications. Actually using a faux-womb would depend on if abortion was made 100% illegal. I’m for the technology but a mother really bonds with the fetus during that time so I don’t know if I’d choose to go through with it. It’s a pretty special time for a woman even if your body does go all fun house mirror on you.
Simply Saoirse 
I was going to get all technical about your description of cloning since I am in teacher mode, but I won’t. The things we can do is scary. Half of it isn’t even in the textbooks yet. Cloning is an interesting debate. I have my students debate as to whether the clone is a person in their own right, or are they the property of their originator. So many other debates can be had about artificial wombs. People will see the good in it, infertility, but they don’t see the bad. What’s to stop people from breeding people to be “second class citizens” such as service workers (maids), people who are trafficked etc. We already don’t care about those people in general, imagine how much of a lack of care we would show them if they were created in a lab.
As you can tell, I have no interested in religious debates on the issue. LOL.
Eh, it was a simplified explanation that I used in an argument. I just thought I had written well so I turned it into a blog post lol. Feel free to correct me if I got bits wrong.
Nah. It won’t change the argument at all, so it was pointless and to be honest, nit picky. I get that way when I am in teacher mode.
I suppose so. I like to be educated though, even corrected, as long as it’s not like “LOL YOU ARE SO DUMB!” It helps me learn.
It’s a little too early in my understanding to offer anything more on the subject at hand besides, “Hmmm…that’s very interesting.” Anything more than that from me would be unfair and, quite frankly, stupid.
I will, however, make the statement that pregnancy for me has been a horrible, almost entirely uncomfortable experience. I thought that it would come with a sense of wonder, magic, and excitement. It doesn’t. It comes with pain, other discomfort (such as vomiting and the inability to take a full breath), and an overall sense of…well, lots of things that aren’t nice at all. Still…I would do it all over again. I wouldn’t WANT to, but for the sake of my son, I absolutely would do it. I don’t think I personally would go for the faux-uterus thing, but I can definitely see why someone would be interested in it. What I would NOT be interested in is making a me clone. I like being me and all, but I definitely prefer the idea of Benjamin (my son) being his own person.