Question: What is reproductive cloning?

Matthew Tomlinson answered on 13 Nov 2013:

Hi miniguy99

Reproductive cloning, for mammals, is the creation of a new organism which is genetically identical to an original version. The most famous example is Dolly the Sheep who was produced by scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland. Dolly was made by transferring a cell nucleus from one sheep and putting it into an egg cell that had had its genetic material removed. From then Dolly developed into an exact (ish) copy of the donor animal, which was kind of her mother and father because all her genetic information came from that one animal.

It’s quite a controversial area because of the idea of human cloning, although I don’t think it’s much of a problem because we’re pretty good at creating people anyway, and any person is only partially determined by their genes, experience and the environment play an equal if not greater part in who they become.

I hope that answers your question.