Should Human Cloning be Legal?
Cloning captured the public’s attention when Scottish scientists startled the world in July of 1996 when they announced the birth of a sheep named Dolly which they had cloned from the nucleus of an adult mammary cell and a sheep egg. Ever since this spectacular event occurred people have been thinking about the possibility of cloning humans. What would a clone be like? His/her physical appearance would be the same as the person he/she was cloned from, but depending on the society it would be brought up in it’s personality would be totally different. Many people in this decade believe that human cloning should be illegal for many different reasons, but there are many people who think it should be legal. Human cloning is a very sensitive subject with its advantages and disadvantages.
“Strictly speaking embryo cloning is a technique used by researchers and animal breeders to split a single embryo into two or more embryos that will have the exact same genetic information (Wall 1117).” “The procedures used in cloning human embryos are very similar to the cloning of animal embryos, except for the zona pellucida. The zona pellucida is a protective protein and polysaccharide membrane that covers the internal contents of the embryo, and provides the necessary nutrients for the first several cell divisions that occur within the embryo. Several sperm cells and mature egg cells are gathered from donors at fertility clinics, and are combined in a petri dish using in vitro fertilization procedures to form an embryo. In an alternate process, already produced embryos are gathered from fertility clinics. The acquired embryo is placed in a petri dish and is allowed to develop into a mass of two to eight cells. Next a chemical solution is added to the zona pellucida that covers the embryo. After the zona pellucida is dissolved, the cells within the embryo are freed. These two to eight cells are collected by researchers and put in separate petri dishes (Hale 83).” “The cells are then coated with an artificial zona pellucida. The individual cells are then considered new embryos, all of which share the same exact genetic information. In effect at this point the science...
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...ugh many of the people we know in our daily lives. Cloning will be a big issue in the future kind of like the way abortion is now. Cloning is a very sensitive subject with its advantages and disadvantages.
Works Consulted
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Understanding the facts as well as procedures between the many different types of cloning is very crucial. When everything boils down there are three types of cloning known as DNA cloning, therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning. DNA cloning is the copying of a gene in order to transfer it into another organism which is usually used by farmers in most of their crops. Therapeutic cloning is the use of stem cells used to help take the place of whatever cell is missing which is potentially used to help the ill. Stem cells contain the potential to grow and help replace the genes that are missing in order to fix whatever is genetically wrong with your body or any genes that you may be missing. Reproductive cloning actually produces a living animal from only one parent. The endless possibilities and perhaps hidden motives of using genetic engineering are what divide as well as destroy the scientific community’s hope for passing laws that are towards pro cloning. Many people within soci...
If a random individual were asked twenty years ago if he/she believed that science could clone an animal, most would have given a weird look and responded, “Are you kidding me?” However, that once crazy idea has now become a reality, and with this reality, has come debate after debate about the ethics and morality of cloning. Yet technology has not stopped with just the cloning of animals, but now many scientists are contemplating and are trying to find successful ways to clone human individuals. This idea of human cloning has fueled debate not just in the United States, but also with countries all over the world. I believe that it is not morally and ethically right to clone humans. Even though technology is constantly advancing, it is not reasonable to believe that human cloning is morally and ethically correct, due to the killing of human embryos, the unsafe process of cloning, and the resulting consequences of having deformed clones.
In the summer of 1996, an animal unlike any other was born unto the world. Roughly three feet high and covered in an insulating material, there were countless others that looked nearly identical freely roaming the countryside. But this animal was special; it was precisely identical to one of its brethren. Dolly the sheep was the first ever manmade clone, an exact copy of its genetic donor. In the fifteen years since the birth of Dolly cloning technology has been improving at a steady pace, and now humanity as a whole is at an impasse: human clones. Scientists are very close to being able to clone a human being, but should they? A ban on human cloning issued by the World Health Organization is in place (World Health Organization 1) but it is non-binding in nature, and individual governments must come up with their own cloning policies. For the United States, the choice is obvious: the federal government should not place a ban on human reproductive cloning. There are numerous reasons for this, such as the notion of cloning as an alternative to adoption, the elimination of disease, the possibility of continuing life after death, and the possibility of an improved quality of life for the clones themselves. At the same time, there are arguments against human cloning, mostly centering on moral issues, that must also be addressed.
Cloning is a recent innovative technique the National Institute of Health defines as a process employed to produce genetically identical copies of a biological entity. Depending on the purpose for the clone, human health or even human life can be improved or designed respectively. “Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is the most common cloning technique. SCNT involves putting the nucleus of a body cell into an egg from which the nucleus has been removed."^1 From this technique, an embryonic cell is activated to produce an animal that is genetically identical to the donor. Today, human cloning still remains as a vision, but because of the success of Dolly, the lamb, researchers are becoming more confident in the ability to produce a genuine
In the past, cloning always seemed like a faraway scientific fantasy that could never really happen, but sometimes reality catches up to human ingenuity and people discover that a fictional science is all too real. Such was the fate of cloning when Dolly, a cloned sheep, came into existence during 1997, as Beth Baker explains (Baker 45). In addition to opening the eyes of millions of people, the breakthrough raised many questions about the morality of cloning humans. The greatest moral question is, when considering the pros against the cons, if human cloning is an ethical practice. There are two different types of cloning and both entail completely different processes and both are completely justifiable at the end of the day.
...e pressing issue that will question our morals, ethics, and view on human dignity. As a society, we must come to a decision regarding Human Cloning and stand by it, whether it is the right decision or not. Our actions will have a profound impact on the methods of reproduction used by future generations.
In the essay, Cloning Reality: Brave New World by Wesley J. Smith, a skewed view of the effects of cloning is presented. Wesley feels that cloning will end the perception of human life as sacred and ruin the great diversity that exists today. He feels that cloning may in fact, end human society as we know it, and create a horrible place where humans are simply a resource. I disagree with Wesley because I think that the positive effects of controlled human cloning can greatly improve the quality of life for humans today, and that these benefits far outweigh the potential drawbacks that could occur if cloning was misused.
Imagine being a first year medical surgeon just out of the highest-ranking university in the nation. You are placed in the ER, in the Methodist Hospital building, as your days are spent saving people from the cruel realities that they are forced to live among. Day after day, you see handfuls of people coming in with a variety of gunshot, knife, and domestic violence wounds. Your troubles are easily compensated, however, by receiving over $200,000 a year, a brand new Mercedes, and a house upon the palisade shores. Suppose for a moment that one evening while you are on duty, an ambulance radios in and informs the hospital staff that they are bringing in a multiple gunshot wound victim and to prepare the ER for an immediate operation. You begin to order people around and dictate what needs to be prepared before the ambulance arrives. Finally the victim is present, only to show that he is not the average gangster or policeman, instead it is the near lifeless body of your own son. Your blood freezes; your brain shuts down, as you see every precious second slip away through the lifeless gaze of your child's eyes.
In modern society, eugenics most recently became a hot topic when scientists announced the first successful cloning of Dolly the sheep. Dolly had the exact genetic make up as her mother. This revelation immediately got people talking about the possibility of cloning humans. “If cloning research were pursued, it has been estimated that human cloning could become a practical reality within the next one to two decades.” (Pearson)
In recent years, the development of cloning technology in non-human species has led to new ways of producing medicine and improving our understanding of development and genetics. But what exactly is human reproductive cloning and how has this technology been developed? The term “cloning” refers more specifically to a process known as somatic cell nuclear transfer. In this process, the DNA from the cell of ...
In recent years our world has undergone many changes and advancements, cloning is a primary example of this new modernism. On July 5th, 1995, Dolly, the first cloned animal, was created. She was cloned from a six-year-old sheep, making her cells genetically six years old at her creation. However, scientists were amazed to see Dolly live for another six years, until she died early 2005 from a common lung disease found in sheep. This discovery sparked a curiosity for cloning all over the world, however, mankind must answer a question, should cloning be allowed? To answer this question some issues need to be explored. Is cloning morally correct, is it a reliable way to produce life, and should human experimentation be allowed?
Reproductive cloning is a type of cloning which is performed for the purpose of creating a duplicate copy of another organism. It creates exact genetic copy, or clone, of an individual. It is accomplished using a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer(SCNT). SCNT when done on a mouse for instance, functions by taking the nucleus out of a somatic cell(any non gamete cell) of one mouse and then that nucleus is put into ...
1) Robertson, John A. “Human Cloning and the Challenge of Regulation,” The New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 339, no. 2 (July 9, 1998), pp. 119-122.
Lauritzen, Paul. Cloning and the Future of Human Embryo Research. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. Google Books. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. source 12 (google books)
In recent years, many new breakthroughs in the areas of science and technology have been discovered. A lot of these discoveries have been beneficial to scientific community and to the people of the world. One of the newest breakthroughs is the ability to clone. Ever since Ian Wilmut and his co-workers completed the successful cloning of an adult sheep named Dolly, there has been an ongoing debate on whether it is right or wrong to continue the research of cloning (Burley). Recently, in February 2001, CNN conducted a poll that stated, 90% of American adults think that cloning humans is a bad idea (Robinson). Even though the majority of Americans are opposed to human cloning, there are many benefits that will come from the research of it. Advancements in the medical field and in the fertility process will arise from human cloning. These advancements make cloning very beneficial to the human society.