ar and similar DNA pattern among all animals of the same species), which could cause even more problems than its worth. Essentially, if many animals were cloned from the cells of the same dead animal then those animals chromosomes would be identical. Thus, if they were to breed naturally in the wild then there offspring would have defective traits rooting from the combination of the two similar chromosomes. An article published in Scientific American by Scientists of ACT (Advanced Cell Technology), the same organization that cloned Noah and is currently working on cloning more endangered animals, states that this is an unfounded fear. The authors say that they advocate the establishment of a worldwide network of repositories to hold frozen tissue from all of the individuals of an endangered species from which it is possible to collect samples.(Lanza 4) From these repositories scientists could take biologically different DNA samples and thus produce a population of previously endangered animals that would be fundamentally different in their chromosomes. In this fashion, geneticists could slowly repopulate the earth with previously endangered species.Beyond the bounds of agricultural and endangered species advancement, animal cloning promises some other benefits to save human life. Scientists have long dreamed of being able to breed livestock that would be able to secrete certain human proteins through their milk. This dream was partly achieved in 1990 with the creation of Tracy, a transgenic sheep. This meaning that Tracys genome (genetic material) was genetically altered so that she could carry foreign genes. In this case the foreign genes that Tracy carried were a human protein named alpha-antitrypsin and it was secreted through her milk. The alpha-antitrypsin that was in Tracys milk is a useful protein for emphysema because a deficiency in this protein is what causes the airways of emphysema sufferers to be blocked (Ho 160). ...
