Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Title: Cloning

As many have stated already, all new technology and scientific discoveries are met with some fear and trepidation because they may have unintended consequences or be misused.  If you looked at the number of deaths due to motor vehicle accidents in the last 100 years you might think it was a horrible invention in transportation, however, I doubt many of us would want to give up our cars.  A great deal of the research in the area of humans and clones is delving into the ability to clone organs for transplant rather than whole new people.  The ability to clone organs for someone needing a transplant would obviously be beneficial and save many people and families much despair and worry compared to the current system of waiting and hoping for a match due to a random death. 

As a biology teacher, I find this a very exciting time to be living through. I try to prepare my students for the decisions they will make in the future by teaching them the facts and concepts behind genetic engineering so they may make informed decisions as citizens of the world. I read the articles about the cloned foal to my classes yesterday and we had some great discussions.   It was perfect timing as we are entering into our unit on genetic engineering on Monday!

Kathleen