A great ethical debate surrounds the possibility of giving life to historical figures through cloning techniques. While some claim that it cannot be ethical in any way to artificially reproduce human life, others believe that bringing great minds back from the past could help solve many of the problems that plague humanity today.
Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance political scientist: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. He is considered one of the brightest minds the world has ever known. His visions and deeds were far beyond those of men in his time, and most of our technology can be credited. He is known as a universal genius.
Da Vinci is even believed to be an inventor far ahead of his time, Leonardo da Vinci was and is, recognized primarily as a painter. Leonardo’s most famous painting of the 1490s is considered to be The Last Supper; painting of which many affirm that it has hidden messages. It is also considered the most widely reproduced religious painting of all time.
The exact location of the inventor’s remains, Vinci remain a mystery. In 1863 his tomb was reported to have been found, the contents of which were transferred to a church in the village of Amboise, France. The technology of the time, however, did not allow experts to corroborate the veracity of the findings.
Not long ago, a team of Italian historians announced the discovery of a series of lost relics, belonging to Da Vinci, that could include the DNA of the great Renaissance genius.
If this is proven, science would be in a position not only to finally end the mystery behind the fate of the inventor’s remains, but also eventually to clone the great genius of the Renaissance era.
Cloning an organism requires the use of only one gene, by which DNA sequence can be replicated, according to the University of Utah.
A great ethical debate surrounds the possibility of giving life to historical figures through cloning techniques. While some claim that it may not be ethical to somehow artificially reproduce human life, others believe that bringing back great minds from the past could help solve many of the problems that plague humanity today.
According to HealthAim, to date, cloning has been done in animals. Boyalife Group, a company in China, is leading the construction of the world’s largest cloning factory, which will later be used to clone cows, dogs and other animals.
Boyalife also claims that it can clone humans. However, public disapproval is preventing the company from making human aftershocks.
“The technology is already there,” Boyalife CEO Xu Xiaochun said of human cloning, Top Secret Writers reports. “If this is allowed, I don’t think there are other companies better than Boyalife that make better technology.”
In 2016, experts said that by carefully examining the paintings and notebooks that belonged to the genius of the Renaissance, they could perhaps find hairs or flakes of skin from which DNA traces could be extracted. This would allow scientists to determine some of the physical characteristics, such as the color of Da Vinci’s eyes, the tone of his skin, and even the shape of his face.
Rhonda Roby, a geneticist on the project, told Gizmodo that “there is a possibility that biological material exists within the paintings,” but “the challenge would really be to get that material without damaging the artwork.”
Jesse Ausubel, vice president of the Richard Lounsbery Foundation, said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph that “it is well known that Leonardo used his fingers along with brushes while painting, the traces of which have remained, and thus it may be possible to find cells from his epidermis mixed with colors”.
Da Vinci died on May 2, 1519, when he was in the service of Francis I of France, and was originally buried in the Saint-Florentin chapel in the royal Chateau d’Amboise in the Loire Valley.
