Cloning is having a moment, and not for the reason you’d guess. A new piece from MIT Technology Review, by senior reporter Jessica Hamzelou, explores its possibilities, including as a tool to resurrect vanishing species or repurposed to grow spare human organs.
The trigger is a Japanese study using CRISPR to delete the Y chromosome from mouse embryos, creating female clones from male mice. “It felt a bit like sci-fi,” said Takashi Ishiuchi, a reproductive biologist.
From Frozen Zoos to Organ Farms
Conservationists use similar tools deliberately. San Diego Zoo’s frozen tissue bank holds cells from 1,300 species and has cloned black-footed ferrets and Przewalski’s horses. A 2009 attempt to revive the extinct Pyrenean ibex failed in minutes — the clone died of lung defects.
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Tom Brady paid $50,000 to clone his beloved dog. The same procedure can help revive endangered, inbred species
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Cloning’s darker edge shows too: one biotech founder pitched “brainless” human clones grown for organs, while bioethicist Jessica Pierce calls pet cloning “the exploitation of the canine underclass.”
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The science is neutral. Whether cloning saves species or drifts toward organ farming depends on the guardrails built now.
