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[WedgeX]

Twenty years ago was 1997, by the by.

Courtesy Pew Research Center.

On the anniversary of Dolly's unveiling, here are five noteworthy findings about cloning and public opinion:

1 No one has ever cloned a human being, though scientists have cloned animals other than Dolly, including dogs, pigs, cows, horses and cats. Part of the reason is that cloning can introduce profound genetic errors, which can result in early and painful death. At the same time, labs in a variety of countries have successfully cloned human embryos for the purpose of producing stem cells that can be used in medical therapies.


2 Eight-in-ten American adults (81%) say cloning a human being is not morally acceptable, according to a May 2016 Gallup poll. There has been overwhelming opposition to human cloning since 2001. Just 13% of adults in 2016 say cloning is morally acceptable.

3 Americans are divided as to whether humans will be cloned in the near future. In a 2010 Pew Research Center survey, 48% of adults said that a human being would definitely or probably be cloned by 2050, compared with 49% who said such an event would not happen.

4 The public is divided about the prospect of using cloning to bring back to life species of animals that are currently extinct, such as the carrier pigeon or even the woolly mammoth. While bringing back dinosaurs, à la Jurassic Park, might not possible due to the fact that dinosaurs have been dead for tens of millions of years, scientists could conceivably use fresher tissue samples to bring back more recently extinct species. In a 2013 Pew Research Center poll, half of all adults surveyed (50%) said that by 2050 researchers will be able to use cloning to bring back extinct species, with 48% predicting such a development won't occur.

5 Fewer Americans are concerned with cloning animals than with the prospect of cloning humans, according to the same 2016 Gallup survey. Still, a majority of adults (60%) say cloning animals like Dolly is morally wrong, compared with 34% who say it's morally acceptable. Since 2001, there has been little to no change in these numbers.

 

[HeySeuss]

Happy birthday to ewe

 

[Orbis Tabula]

Happy birthday to ewe

It's not actually her birthday. Just the day she was publicly revealed.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

4 The public is divided about the prospect of using cloning to bring back to life species of animals that are currently extinct, such as the carrier pigeon or even the woolly mammoth. While bringing back dinosaurs, à la Jurassic Park, might not possible due to the fact that dinosaurs have been dead for tens of millions of years, scientists could conceivably use fresher tissue samples to bring back more recently extinct species. In a 2013 Pew Research Center poll, half of all adults surveyed (50%) said that by 2050 researchers will be able to use cloning to bring back extinct species, with 48% predicting such a development won’t occur.

 

[Zepp Twofist]

I was told we would have mammoths by now.

 

[FloydtheFathead]

Happy birthday to ewe

It's not actually her birthday. Just the day she was publicly revealed.

Joe.. shame on you.. Seuss made a pretty good pun and you wanted to ruin it with logic.

But still.. feels kinda weird it was so long ago

 

[RipperGrim]

I was told we would have mammoths by now.

I'm kinda surprised we don't considering there have been frozen remains found of them.

 

[crazepharmacist]

Wait, the carrier pigeon is extinct?

 

[Hot Coldman]

So what happened to Dolly? Normal lifespan or... ?

 

[Orbis Tabula]

Wait, the carrier pigeon is extinct?

I imagine that's supposed to be 'passenger pigeon'

 

[sixteen-bit]

Happy anniversary

 

[ColdPizza]

So what happened to Dolly? Normal lifespan or... ?

died feb 14, 2003

she died young

The type of lung disease Dolly developed is most common in older sheep. And in January 2002, it was revealed that Dolly had developed arthritis prematurely. She was cloned using a cell taken from a healthy six-year-old sheep, and was born on 5 July 1996 at the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, Scotland.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3393-dolly-the-sheep-dies-young/

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Dolly was stuffed for display after her death. You can see her at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh:

 

[AlphaSnake]

I was told we would have mammoths by now.

I'm kinda surprised we don't considering there have been frozen remains found of them.

They just announced a few days ago they are actually working on this and hope to have a clone of sorts birthed within 10 years. But it could be as early as 2. It was on History.com

 

[titiklabingapat]

Dolly was stuffed for display after her death. You can see her at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh:

I imagine this is the same fate that awaits the first cloned human.

 

[Boem]

For some reason I still remember this picture as if it was yesterday.

Dolly was so cool to me back then. Felt like we were living in the future. It was amazing how big the discussion surrounding that was, like everyone in the world was discussing the philosophical implications of a deep scifi novel at the same time. Really fun stuff to a nerdy guy like me back then.

 

[Leyasu]

I imagine that's supposed to be 'passenger pigeon'

I noticed that. Wasn't Martha the last?

 

[megarockexe]

This is the oldest bit of science news I remember hearing about. I was probably around 4 or 5.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

5 Fewer Americans are concerned with cloning animals than with the prospect of cloning humans, according to the same 2016 Gallup survey. Still, a majority of adults (60%) say cloning animals like Dolly is morally wrong, compared with 34% who say it’s morally acceptable. Since 2001, there has been little to no change in these numbers.

I'm not surprised so many people have problems with cloning humans, but am surprised it remains so high for animals. Considering most of us, y'know, are cool with them being killed for our consumption.

 

[Boem]

I'm kinda surprised we don't considering there have been frozen remains found of them.

Jeff Goldblum put a stop to it.

This reminds me that the timing of Jurassic Park and Dolly is really interesting. Cloning was definitely much more on the forefront of the public conciousness at the time, and definitely formed a large part of what got people interested in the movie. That's much less the case these days, where it's (for the majority of the audience) much more about just the dinosaurs, the theme park and the adventure/action scenes. Which was a part of it back then too of course, but that cloning theme isn't nearly as noteworthy and topical now as it was back then.

 

[Polioliolio]

Aren't identical twins essentially clones?
There's no weirdness about it. We're all just slight variations of meats in skins. No souls. Some animals give birth to their full genetic clones, naturally.

It's a neat thing to explore. The morally questionable part of cloning anything is that it would likely be tested in a lab environment, possibly owned by a corporation.

Imagine if we made clones of history's most promising scientists. Then we just released them into 'the wild' and let them live without any further control or study. Almost like a desperate seeding attempt to inject some 'intelligent genes' into our population pool.