Clones Among Us?

Bill...talk to one of your clones that just had this dicussion on another site. It got bored with the conversation there. LOL!

I'm really starting to feel like a stalker. Must ignore...must ignore...

 

Good point...going into Lurker mode for now.

 

Lol

 

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GENETICALLY-ENGINEERED HUMANS HAVE ALREADY BEEN BORN
The earthshaking news appeared in the medical journal Human Reproduction under the
impenetrable headline: "Mitochondria in Human Offspring Derived From Ooplasmic
Transplantation." The media put the story in heavy rotation for one day, then forgot about it. We
all forgot about it.
But the fact remains that the world is now populated by dozens of children who were genetically
engineered. It still sounds like science fiction, yet it's true.
In the first known application of germline gene therapy — in which an individual's genes are
changed in a way that can be passed to offspring — doctors at a reproductive facility in New
Jersey announced in March 2001 that nearly 30 healthy babies had been born with DNA from
three people: dad, mom, and a second woman. Fifteen were the product of the fertility clinic,
with the other fifteen or so coming from elsewhere.
The doctors believe that one cause for failure of women to conceive is that their ova contain old
mitochondria (if you don't remember your high school biology class, mitochondria are the part of
cells that provides energy). These sluggish eggs fail to attach to the uterine wall when fertilized.
In order to soup them up, scientists injected them with mitochondria from a younger woman.
Since mitochondria contain DNA, the kids have the genetic material of all three parties. The
DNA from the "other woman" can even be passed down along the female line.
The big problem is that no one knows what effects this will have on the children or their
progeny. In fact, this substitution of mitochondria hasn't been studied extensively on animals,
never mind homo sapiens. The doctors reported that the kids are healthy, but they neglected to
mention something crucial. Although the fertility clinic's technique resulted in fifteen babies, a
total of seventeen fetuses had been created. One of them had been aborted, and the other
miscarried. Why? Both of them had a rare genetic disorder, Turner syndrome, which only strikes
females. Ordinarily, just one in 2,500 females is born with this condition, in which one of the X
chromo-somes is incomplete or totally missing. Yet two out of these seventeen fetuses had
developed it.
If we assume that nine of the fetuses were female (around 50 percent), then two of the nine
female fetuses had this rare condition. Internal documents from the fertility clinic admit that this
amazingly high rate might be due to the ooplasmic transfer.
Even before the revelation about Turner syndrome became known, many experts were appalled
that the technique had been used. A responding article in Human Reproduction said, in a dry
understatement: "Neither the safety nor efficacy of this method has been adequately
investigated." Ruth Deech, chair of Britain's Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority,
told the BBC: "There is a risk, not just to the baby, but to future generations which we really
can't assess at the moment."

 

Better send in the Blade Runners.

 

I have no doubt there is a clinic in Russia or China or elsewhere that has at least attempted cloning humans

whether or not they suceeded probably wont be confirmed for decades

 

agreed

 

Trust me on this one - Southern California Subforum has had most clones.

 

Just wait, you'll see...
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tsk!

 

http://www.genpets.com/index.php

 

They've been here since the 50's
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oh my gosh... that's creepy!

 

One problem that they have with cloning is age. If an animal live to be 30 years old, and the animal is cloned at 20 years old, the offspring will only live ten years.

The end of genes have telomeres. Each time a cell divides, the telomere shortens. Once it reaches a point, that cell will never divide again. So, we do have a biological clock. Bringing a cloned person into the world may not be responsible until they can figure out this mechanism.

On the other hand, if a cell divides uncontrollably, then cancer occurs. That is another problem.

Some people believe that mitochondria were a separate organism that formed a symbiotic relationship with cells, because they have there own DNA. Pretty interesting.

 

A "problem" specifically induced (with a four year lifespan) on the Nexus-6 series.

But seriously, that's pretty fascinating.

 

Not to mention all the small mutations that accumulate.