Of evolution & cloning

How changes in DNA sequences can account for the natural evolution of a species.

So what if our DNA is similar to that of other species, e.g. chimpanzees, aren't we all created by one creator? How does that show that we actually 'evolved' from chimps?

Evolution and Human cloning

I almost cried during the Genes and Society lecture last Thursday. Usually, I had to struggle to keep myself awake during the lectures but last Thursday, it was somehow rather different. The lecturer was going through cloning, of both animals and humans. The animal part was still palatable but when it comes to human cloning, I guess I can get rather emotional. Luckily the lecturer did not cover anything about evolution.

Just thinking about it makes me sad. The things people do.

How is cloning done?
http://www.globalchange.com/clone.html

I was thinking, if human cloning really becomes prevalent in future, does it mean that we do not need men anymore? After all, women will be able to 'create' children on their own right?

Maybe my thinking is a little skewed. But it is disturbing isn't it? In normal circumstances, a male and a female is needed to produce a baby. But in this case, it just defies everything that we know about reproduction. Granted that there are some advantages for human cloning (e.g. for infertile couples), the disadvantages clearly outweighs these advantages. Why do people have to mess around with our biological system like that? Don't we realise what we're doing here?

Got this from my notes:

A personal supply of stem cells:
Could be made from an embryo produced by nuclear transfer using an individual's own cells and a donor human egg cell
The embryo would be allowed to develop just until the embryonic stem cells are produced and before they start to differentiate (~ 100 cell-stage)
These cells could be used to treat serious illnesses caused by damage to cells (e.g. diabetes, AIDS etc)


Sounds good doesn't it? "These cells could be used to treat serious illnesses caused by damage to cells". But read further and you'll realise that the embryo will be destroyed around the 100 cell stage. I don't know about others but to me, the embryo is already a life. So in this case, won't it be like deliberately creating a life just to kill it so as to save another? That just sounds so wrong to me.

Something else:

ACTUALLY The world's first human clone of an adult was made, by Advanced Cell Technology in Nov 1998.
They took a cell from Dr Jose Cibelli and combined it with a cows egg from which the genes had already been removed. The genes activated and the egg began to divide in the normal way up to the 32 cell stage at which it was destroyed. If the clone had been allowed to continue beyond implantation it would have developed as Dr Cibelli's identical twin (in the cow?????).
Technically 1% of the human clone's genes would have belonged to the cow - the mitochondria genes. Mitochondria are power generators in the cytoplasm of the cell. They grow and divide inside cells and are passed on from one generation to another. They are present in sperm and eggs. Judging by the successful growth of the combined human-cow clone creation it appears that cow mitochondria may well be compatible with human embryonic development.


This is even more disturbing. Sounds like something out of a science fiction movi...
At times I wonder what is this world coming to...