On This Day07.05.1996
Identity and What it Means to Be an Original
On July 5, 1996, in a small research facility in Edinburgh, Scotland, a sheep was born. Her name was Dolly — and she was unlike any lamb that had ever lived before. Why? Because Dolly wasn’t conceived the usual way. She was cloned. The first mammal in history to be born from an adult somatic cell. She didn’t know it, of course. She was just a sheep. But the moment she arrived, everything changed. Science fiction had become science fact.
Dolly with Professor Sir Ian Wilmut, who led the research which produced her
When the Roslin Institute announced Dolly’s birth the following year, the world went into a tailspin. Headlines screamed. Ethicists panicked. Presidents were briefed.Was this the beginning of the end? Or just a glimpse into our strange new future? Religious leaders called it unnatural. Politicians called for bans. Meanwhile, Hollywood whispered: movie rights? And what about Dolly herself? Well, she was pretty chill. Despite the fact that her life began in a test tube and she technically had three moms (one sheep provided the egg, another the DNA, and another carried her embryo), she lived a fairly normal life. Yes, Dolly had children. And no, they weren’t clones.
Dolly's taxidermy on display at the National Museum of Scotland
She died young, in 2003, at just six years old. But even in death, she remained a cultural touchstone. You can visit her taxidermied body at the National Museum of Scotland. Dolly's birth cracked open debates about the soul, identity, bioethics, and what it means to be original in a copy-paste world. She sparked new waves of research into regenerative medicine, stem cells, and yes — made us wonder what happens when humans try to play god.
