Why do people only think of Dolly the sheep when cloning is talked about?
It is interesting to note that Dolly has become such a powerful image when the issue of cloning is discussed. I would argue that this situation has developed for several reasons. First, and most obviously, the announcement in February 1997 took many in the scientific community by surprise as well as the news media and wider society. What had been achieved was beyond most people’s expectations. However, we should remember that the Roslin Institute had published work a year before which announced they had produced two cloned sheep called Megan and Morag. Although this work involved a slightly different technique, it did receive media coverage. The difference with Dolly was that she had been cloned from a somatic cell i.e. one that had already differentiated. In effect, Dolly proved that cloning could take place at any point during the donor’s lifetime. In addition to this, the announcement was published prior to the pre-arranged press embargo, creating an even greater sense of media even
