【英语拓展阅读】 Module 5 Cloning【佳文共赏】.docVIP

【英语拓展阅读】 Module 5 Cloning【佳文共赏】 科学是一把双刃剑，克隆技术一直是人们有争议的科学话题，很难预料今后人们对克隆人持何种态度。如果有那么一天，人们也接受了将克隆羊的技术应用于克隆人，那么我们Cloning may reduce genetic variability. Producing many clones runs the risk of creating a population that is entirely the same. This population would be susceptible to the same diseases, and one disease could devastate the entire population. One can easily picture humans being wiped out be a single virus, however, less drastic, but more probable events could occur from a lack of genetic diversity. For example, if a large percentage of a nations cattle are identical clones, a virus, such as a particular strain of mad cow disease, could effect the entire population. The result could be catastrophic food shortages in that nation. Cloning may cause people to settle for the best existing animals, not allowing for improvement of the species. In this way, cloning could potentially interfere with natural evolution. Cloning is currently an expensive process. Cloning requires large amounts of money and biological expertise. Ian Wilmut and his associates required 277 tries before producing Dolly. A new cloning technique has recently been developed which is far more reliable. However, even this technique has 2-3% success rate. Any research into human cloning would eventually need to be tested on human. The ability to clone humans may lead to the genetic tailoring of offspring. The heart of the cloning debate is concerned with the genetic manipulation of a human embryo before it begins development. It is conceivable that scientists could alter a babys genetic code to give the individual a certain color of eyes or genetic resistance to certain diseases. This is viewed as inappropriate tampering with Mother Nature by many ethicists. Because clones are derived from an existing adult cell, it has older genes. Will the clones life expectancy be shorter because of this? Despite this concern, so far, all clones have appeared to be perfectly normal creatures. 【词汇提示】 variability ?