A Brief History of Cloning (1880 to present)

1880 - August Weissmann states genetic information of a cell diminishes with each cell division.

1902 - Walter Sutton proves chromosomes hold genetic information.

- Hans Spemann divides a Salamander embryo in two and shows early embryo cells retain all the genetic information necessary to create a new organism.

1928 - Hans Spemann performs first nuclear transfer experiment.

1938 - Spemann proposes a "fantastical experiment" to transfer one cell's nucleus into an egg without a nucleus, the basic

method that would eventually be used in cloning.

1944 - Oswald Avery discovers genetic information is carried by the nucleic acids of cells.

1952 - Briggs and King clone tadpoles.

1953 - Watson and Crick find the structure of DNA.

1958 - F.C. Steward grows whole carrot plants from carrot root cells.

1962 - John Gurdon clones frogs from differentiated cells.

1966 - Establishment of the complete genetic code.

1969 - Shapiero and Beckwith isolate the first gene.

1977 - Karl Illmensee claims to have created mice with only one parent.

1980 - U.S. Supreme Court rules live, human made organisms are patentable material.

1981 - Karl Illmensee and Peter Hoppe claim to have cloned mice by transplanting the nuclei of mouse embryo cells into

mouse eggs. Other scientists are unable to reproduce the results. It is later discovered that the results were faked.

1984 - Steen Willadsen, a Danish scientist, reports he has made a genetic copy of a lamb from early sheep embryo cells, a

process now called "twinning." Other scientists will eventually use his method to "twin" cattle, pigs, goats, rabbits and rhesus monkeys.

1986 - Steen Willadsen clones cattle from differentiated cells.

- First, Prather, and Eyestone clone a cow from embryo cells.

1990 - Human Genome Project begins

1994 - Neal First produces genetic copies of calves from embryos. They grow to at least 120 cells.

1995 - Ian Wilmut replicates First's experiment with differentiated cells from sheep, but puts embryo cells into an

inactive state before transferring their nuclei to sheep eggs. The eggs develop into normal lambs.

1996 - Dolly, the first animal cloned from adult cells, is born. (not announced until 1997)

February 1997 - Wilmut and colleagues at the Roslin Institute in Scotland report they have cloned a 6-year-old adult

sheep from an udder cell. They name the sheep Dolly (after Dolly Parton). It is the first clone created from an adult cell.

1997 - President Bill Clinton proposes a five year moratorium on cloning.

March 1997 - Only a week after the Dolly announcement, scientists bring cloning technology closer to humans by

twinning rhesus monkeys from embryos.

- Scientists and ethicists testifying at a Senate hearing on cloning urge Congress not to rush to ban research on the cloning of human beings.

June 1997 - President Clinton signs a five-year moratorium on the use of federal funds for human cloning

research. His National Bioethics Advisory Commission had concluded that human cloning would be unsafe and unethical.

July 1997 - The scientists who produced Dolly announce they have created a lamb with a human gene in every cell of its

body. Named Polly, the lamb was produced using a method similar to that used to create Dolly.

1997 - Richard Seed announces his plans to clone a human.

July 1998 - Ryuzo Yanagimachi and his postdoctoral student Teruhiko Wakayama in Hawaii clone some 50

mice from an adult cell. Some of the mice are clones of clones, created by using a technique different than that used to produce Dolly the sheep.

December 1998 - Japanese scientists report they have cloned eight copies of a single cow, the third mammal to

be cloned.

January 2000 - Britain becomes the first country to graant a patent for cloned early-stage human embryos. Geron

Corporation, which received the patent, says is has no intention of creating cloned humans.

January 13, 2000 - Scientists announced on Thursday thaat they had cloned a monkey. The researchers at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center said the rhesus monkey named "Tetra" was cloned by splitting a very early embryo into four parts. The cloning process is different from the one that created Dolly the Sheep. Researchers hope the experiment will result in the production of identical lab animals for testing.

March 2000 - The group that created Dolly the sheep announces the first cloned pigs. Scientists hope that pigs

could be genetically engineered for use in human organ transplants.

January 2001 - An endangered Asian ox called a gaur diees two days after birth of an ordinary disease after it

was cloned and gestated in the womb of a cow.

March 2001- 2 scientists Dr. Antinori, Dr. Zavos tell the world they will attempt human cloning

December 2001 - Advanced Cell Technology of MA, have announced that they have cloned an early human

embryo from a adult cumulus cell nucleus.

February 2002 - Researchers in Texas have cloned a domestic cat, producing a two-month-old kitten called CopyCat.

August 2002 - Scientists announced they have cloned piglets lacking both copies of the gene that makes the human immune system reject pig tissue.

December 2002 – CloneAid announces it has cloned a human.

February 2003 – Dolly dies at age 6.

Some interesting ideas: Men will no longer be necessary, belief that a clone would be an exact duplicate of the genetic donor, There are those who also suppose that a clone would not actually be human, Human cloning is replication or making children into commodities, People created by cloning would be less ensouled than normal humans, or would be sub-human, People created by cloning could be used for spare organs for normal humans