We are all familiar with cloning technology, which is to form independent viable individuals by putting genetic material from the nucleus of an animal somatic cell into the egg cells of the same or similar species of animals, forming embryos from them and giving birth to them, which means that cloning is successful.
According to the Observer Network and other media reports, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced that biologists in the United States successfully cloned an endangered animal black-footed ferret for the first time in December 2020, and the somatic cells needed for cloning came from the carcass of a black-footed ferret that had been dead for 33 years and was frozen.
Black-footed ferret, also known as the black-footed ferret, is a main living in the Midwest of the United States in the Ferret family, this small animal body length of 30 to 41 cm, tail length of 10-15 cm, weight of more than one kilogram, fur is yellow-brown, abdomen is gray-white, 4 feet are black, tail color is darker, eyes are bright, around almost black but sandwiched with white hair, the face is more white, looks like wearing a mask, looks smart and cute.
The black-footed ferret is the only mink in North America, mainly feeding on marmots, its habitat requirements are high, and it only survives in the wild in three regions of northeastern Montana, western South Dakota and southeastern Wyoming, but this animal became extinct in these places more than 30 years ago, and the black-footed ferrets living here are introduced and rewired from artificial farms or zoos, where they are still endangered.
The cloned black-footed ferret, whose name is "Elizabeth Ann", its embryo comes from the somatic cells of a wild black-footed ferret that died in 1988, the body of the black-footed ferret has been frozen, and last year, American biologists took its somatic cells to clone it, and a total of two embryos were cloned, one of which was alive, and the surviving ferret was genetically exactly the same as the original frozen one, and the body size and physiological changes in the growth process of the two were almost the same.
Perhaps many friends have not yet thought about what kind of technical achievements this event means. We know that because the genetic chromosomes of the cloned animals are basically the same as the original animals, the appearance and body shape and physiological state of the animals in the process of growth are almost the same, so it is often said that cloning is to copy an animal, if the original animal dies, then the cloning is almost equivalent to "resurrection", so the cloned black-footed ferret is almost "resurrected".
So have you ever wondered what that means? In fact, we can assume that the animal here is an adult, if it is a person who has been dead for many years, but its body or some organs or soft tissues have been cryopreserved, then the removal of its somatic cells, through cloning technology, can also create a person whose genetic chromosomes are basically exactly the same, and whose physiological state and body shape during their growth process are almost the same, in a sense, it is almost equivalent to "resurrecting" this person, the difference between him and the original person. In fact, it is just a difference in thinking and experience.
Seeing this, everyone may be wondering, is it necessary to freeze their own somatic cells and even remains in the future, and at the right time, they can also copy one or more of themselves through cloning or other technologies. Even after death, you can "resurrect" a self whose physical condition is almost exactly the same, and if such a situation occurs, then there is no doubt that it will pose a great challenge to the existing social ethics, so do you want such a thing to happen?
Resources:
"Observer Network" February 20 article "American scientists for the first time successfully cloned endangered animal black-footed ferret"