Also, by cloning transgenic animals that carry a protein which causes clotting in human blood, we would be able to mass produce these proteins for clinical use for hemophiliacs or during surgery(Gardels 1). Although research with transgenic animals is far from conclusive and has offered little usable results, its future is bright.A more practical and much more real application of animal cloning is xenotransplantation, which is known as cross-species tissue or organ transplantation. Essentially, certain animals such as pigs can be cloned and their organs can be harvested in order for them to be introduced into the body of a human that is in need of that type of organ. In fact, this type of surgery was used in 1992 when a man dying of hepatitis had a baboons liver transplanted into him (Grace 60). This type of surgery, however, has been ignored for many years because of the health risks to humans receiving non-human organs; the U.K banned xenotransplantation because of this. The human body attacks any material that is foreign to it and thus a foreign object, such as a pig heart, that is being put into a patient will be rejected by the human T-cells (Ho 181). Fortunately, through genetic engineering, this problem can be completely eliminated with some further research and time. In 1994, according to Eric Grace, pigs were engineered with human genes so that their tissues produced human proteins that inhibit organ rejection (60). The market for human organs is large and may be worth, $ 6 billion per year in the U.S alone. Already, biotech companies such as Imutran, a Cambridge based company that leads in producing pigs with human genes, have popped up all over the world (Ho 180). Animal cloning science is, as of yet, a generally hypothetical technology with many gray areas. However, animal cloning has extremely useful connotations that can not be overlooked.While much of the public attention has been focused on the potential horro...
