The Wheel and Axle

Hello, Dolly

by on Jul.05, 2017, under Geeky, Society

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Did you know that Dolly the Sheep would have been 21 years old today?

Of course, some of you might not even know (or remember) who Dolly was.

Dolly, of course, was the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell – the donor cell having come from a mammary gland. Back in 1996, her birth/cloning/creation caused quite the controversy around the ethics of cloning.

All the same, it was a significant scientific breakthrough that led to others: mice, cats, cows, and more. The processs has garnered a lot of interest as a potential means of saving endangered species as well as possibly reviving extinct ones. Hopefully nothing of the Jurassic Park variety because, well, you know, not a pretty picture.

That said, perhaps the bigger legacy of Dolly may not be the reality that cloning is possible but that her creation helped lead to great progression in stem cell research. Of course, stem cell research is not without its own controversies, but the truth is that advances in this area have helped pave the way for medical breakthroughs that help sustain human life and battle illness.

Personally, I think that so long as there is ethical responsibility in how such research is conducted, then it is for the good of humanity.

Dolly passed away in 2003, just a few months before she would have turned seven.

Still, the significance of this fascinating creature survives to this very day.

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