Genetic Monsters, Cloning – Mathew @ Hornby High School

Genetic Monsters

Q. What are some of the “monsters” out there?

_{I hope you run like a horse when you see this Filipino monster called Tikbalang in the middle of the night.}

Found in the Philippines’ far-flung mountains, he watches over his domain like a guardian and looks over anyone who enters. As stories go, the Tikbalang is a mischievous god and can trick you into losing your way in the forest, trapping you forever by making you walk around endlessly in circles.

They said that the secret to lifting the magic of the Tikbalang is by taking your shirt and turning it inside out. Only then will you be able to see the forest as it is and maybe find your way home.

alt="A Scary Filipino monster drawing called Sigbin"

_{You should run home and lock all your doors if ever you encounter a Sigbin in the Philippines.}

The Sigbin is a dog-like creature that is visible only to its owner. It eats any raw meat, preferably bloody and freshly slaughtered. When you keep a sigbin as a pet, it will be your silent guardian. It will protect you from danger, bring good luck, and will even let you ride it though you will only appear to be walking briskly to other people.

However, let a sigbin starve, and it will not just turn on you; it will savage and eat your entire family as well.

Cloning

What is cloning? Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical genomes, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction; this reproduction of an organism by itself without a mate is known as parthenogenesis.

What should we clone? Genes, cells, tissues, and even whole animals can all be cloned. Some clones already exist in nature. Single-celled organisms like bacteria make exact copies of themselves each time they reproduce. In humans, identical twins are similar to clones.

What should we NOT clone? Human beings should not be cloned for several reasons that are going to be further discussed in this op-ed: cloning is a risky, imperfect procedure, it does not create an exact copy of an individual, and it poses ethical concerns by using human beings as a means to an end, opening up possibilities for abuse and allowing eugenic selection.

Should I clone an army? Even still, you’re unlikely to end up with a clone army full of truly identical individuals. While the genetic material may be identical, differences in the ways genes are expressed in a living person can result in morphological changes.

Should I clone my liver if I get sick? Cloning may cause long term health defects, a study by French scientists has suggested. A two month old calf, cloned from genes taken from the ear of an adult cow, died after developing blood and heart problems.

Should I clone my kids in case they get sick? A cloned child would be in danger of suffering from severe genetic defects as a result of being a clone.

Should I clone a strawberry plant? In the right environment, strawberries can spread as fast as some garden weeds, creating cloned copies of themselves all over the garden surface.

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