The idea of cloning animals, people, or even objects has been around for over a hundred years. Cloning is the process of making a perfect duplicate of an animal, and this was artificially accomplished for the first time in the year 1902 by a man named Hans Spemann. The science of cloning has only grown from that first successful experiment. Although cloning can be seen as having many benefits, it also comes with many dangers. After many successful cloning experiments on increasingly complex animals, scientists have begun thinking about human cloning. This has raised many debates about the ethics and safety of experimentally cloning humans. While some advantages could be gained from human cloning, it should not be performed due to significant medical, societal, and religious concerns.
The most successful cloning results were produced using a procedure known as Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer, or SCNT. SCNT cloning processes are performed by removing the nucleus with genetic material from an unfertilized egg, then replacing it with genetic material from the adult cell being cloned. However, despite the advances that have been made in the science of cloning, there are still major medical risks that should not be taken simply for research. “The chance of abnormal offspring is high,” says Roger Pedersen, a physician at the University of California, San Francisco (Kestenbaum). “Genomic imprinting abnormalities and disorders of imprinted genes result in syndromes or symptoms in which there is abnormal tissue or organ growth,” (Warrington). Cloning has a high probability of a mutation or disease occurring in the clone. Some of these conditions brought on by cloning include Parkinson’s disease and protein sequence errors. Cloned humans are s...
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...o try and replace a person’s kidney, but the new kidney had a disease from the cloning process, the new kidney could end up killing the person. By attempting to save the person’s life, they would only create new problems.
It is because of these medical, societal, and religious concerns that human cloning should not be performed. Medically, we are not sufficiently advanced enough to safely perform cloning on humans. Societally, our government is unsure of what to do about the situation, and the people are unsure about cloning’s effectiveness. Finally, on the religious side of cloning, Christians, Catholics, and other religions are against the use of cloning for the fear that people will become too prideful in their ability to essentially design life. Until something is done to rectify these issues, human cloning will continue to be unethical and should remain unused.
“Cloning represents a very clear, powerful, and immediate example in which we are in danger of turning procreation into manufacture.” (Kass) The concept of cloning continues to evoke debate, raising extensive ethical and moral controversy. As humans delve into the fields of science and technology, cloning, although once considered infeasible, could now become a reality. Although many see this advancement as the perfect solution to our modern dilemmas, from offering a potential cure for cancer, AIDS, and other irremediable diseases, its effects are easily forgotten. Cloning, especially when concerning humans, is not the direction we must pursue in enhancing our lives. It is impossible for us to predict its effects, it exhausts monetary funds, and it harshly abases humanity.
...cloning can be divided into two broad category: potential safety risk and moral problems, and these concerns overweigh its achievement.
...that is genetically identical to another person who has previously existed or who still exists. This may conflict with long-standing religious and societal values about human dignity, possibly infringing upon principles of individual freedom, identity and autonomy” ("Cloning Fact Sheet"). The high failure rates of cloning and the abnormalities after successful procedures in human systems have caused most societies to wary away from cloning. To implement this health risks on humans would simply be immoral. Who knows maybe cloning one day would be more proficient than sexual reproduction and safer. Humans would choose this as a primary way to reproduce the most prominent humans but until more research is done, cloning is not prominent in today’s society. With cloning you never know where it could end up, I mean even Bill Gates wasn’t worth a billion dollars overnight.
Cloning is, and always has been an extremely contentious topic. To some, the ethical complications surrounding it, are far more promiscuous than what scientists and medical experts currently acknowledge. Cloning is a general term that refers to the process in which an organism, or discrete cells and genes, undergo genetic duplication, in order to produce an identical copy of the original biological matter. There are two main types of artificial cloning; reproductive and therapeutic, both of which present their respective benefits and constraints. This essay aims to discuss the various differences between the two processes, as well as the ethical issues associated with it.
The capabilities of cloning a human are endless and can help countless amounts of people. Human cloning can used to advance not only the life spans of patients, make new life, and advance the medical field. As stated earlier a clone of a person could be made and used as cattle for organs for the original. With that in mind, it would require the medical field to condone murder, which it cannot do.
It's a good idea to ban cloning for a certain amount of time to take more precautions before continuing. There should be some rules set up to create boundaries of cloning to protect society so people don't abuse it. If rules are set up to minimize the amount of cloning, then there would be less of a worry among people. However, cloning should still be legal. Eventually, cloning can be corrected until its fully understood and it can be then be used to benefit mankind. Human and animal cloning can cure many diseases if it's finally perfected and then there won't be any more concerns or disadvantages in the future.
For years, the prospect of human cloning was fodder for outrageous science-fiction stories and nothing more. However, in more recent times, human cloning has moved significantly closer to becoming a reality. Accordingly, the issue has evoked a number of strong reactions, both praising and condemning the procedure. The fact that human cloning not just affects human lives indirectly but actually involves tinkering with human creation has forced human cloning into a position of controversy. The progress of the issue of human cloning, then, has been shaped not only by the abilities and resources of scientists but by public opinion and by governmental regulation that has resulted from public pressure.
In earlier times the subject of cloning human beings has been no more than just a fantastic idea to play around with in science-fiction books and movies. As time progresses though, more and more fantasies become realities. Such is the case with cloning. What has only been dreamt up before by artists on pen and paper can now be performed by scientists in laboratories. With the ability to clone humans now possible the question of whether such an act should even be carried out is raised. How far should cloning be allowed to go if it should even be allowed at all? The answer is that cloning should be allowed, but only in moderation.
In conclusion, the thesis of this paper is supported by three contentions. First, if successful, cloning can have a lot of positive technological advancements that would help humanity. Second, Dolly, the first cloned mammal, inspired many scientists to speculate a new era in cloning technology and raise hopes for future probability in which human cloning was possible. Finally, at the center of the controversy, surges the closest thing to a clone that lives a healthy and regular life, identical twins. The promise of cloning at any level can revolutionize the world, and change it for the better, but are we are not ready for human trials. The failure rate is overwhelming; we should master cloning animals with close to 100% success rate before starting human cloning trials.
In order to have a legitimate argument for the reasoning why cloning is or is not acceptable it is important first to be understand what exactly the topic is about. The first thing that must be understood is that there are actually different types of cloning that serve different purposes because each type focuses on a specific goal. The first area of cloning is DNA cloning which is the copying of genes to better understand how they work and find cures for genetic malfunctions. DNA cloning is, perhaps, the oldest of the three types of cloning with it being around since the 1970’s (Cloning Fact Sheet, 2009). This form of cloning is the most widely accepted form since it does not cross into the realm of human cloning which is one of the largest debates that exists. One of the things that DNA cloning can accomplish is curing genetic malfunctions, by placing a cloned copy of the correct gene into the body via a virus that will replicate in the body and there for take the place of the faulty genes. H...
The cloning of animals and humans disregards the common ethics of the creation of humanity. Three types of cloning currently exist. There is therapeutic cloning, DNA cloning and reproductive cloning. Therapeutic cloning does not actually make a clone, it just makes stem cells. Stem cells are capable of becoming any type of cell that they are introduced to. For example, when a stem cell is introduced to a damaged heart, it transforms itself into a healthy heart cell. Even though stem cells might be very good for helping alleviate the pain of some diseases, the best use of stem cells is making embryos. This is the main reason why many people disagree with this kind of cloning. Courtney Farell and Rosalyn Carson-Dewitt wrote an article in which they stated “Some pro-life activists believe that such embryos represent human life, and do not approve of their use in the cloning process” (Farell and Carson-Dewitt 1). Reproductive cloning is creating an animal from only one parent. This type of cloning creates the most controversy because it completely disregards the whole idea of natural conception. The other very risky thing about this kind of cloning is that it has an extremely low success rate. Humans are so focused on the thought of making clones that they are unaware of the risk factors. Cloning makes life seem as though humans are the individuals who were meant to create. In the words of Eric Badertscher, “The cloning of human beings is particularly distasteful, and shows humans’ desire to ‘play God’ regardless to the risks of people born in this manner” (Badertscher 6). The controversy of cloning was born when the first successfully cloned animal was created in 1997. Dolly the Sheep became a focal point of...
It is normal to think cloning is something out of a science fiction orb. For many years, scientists have been telling the world that it’s impossible to clone humans, but they were all wrong. The technology of cloning humans is already here, as evidenced by Dolly the sheep, but it called forth questions about the role of God in society, the soul and even the quality of life a cloned individual would have (“16 important pros and cons”). Cloning technologies can prove helpful to researchers in genetics. With the history of cloning, one difference to help in mind, with dealing with cloning, is the reproductive cloning or therapeutic cloning.
Cloning has come very far through science within the last few decades. Although it is a natural part of the world, scientists have taken a simple idea and expanded it further then what was thought possible. Though cloning faces many challenges, scientists such as Dr. Richard Seed continue their research in perfecting cloning in order to benefit the world. Cloning, a controversial topic thought to do harm, but simply misunderstood. The fact is, cloning could improve life more than what can be comprehended or as Dr. Richard Seed said, cloning will be taking “humanity one step closer to God.”
Cloning, specifically cloning humans, can be a very beneficial field of research. The science in embryonic cloning has progressed a long way since the release of therapeutic cloning practices and the birth of cloned organism. The processes opens new opportunities in the fields of medicine, scientific research, and has several uses in the future when there are more advanced practices that are even more efficient and safer with fewer restrictions. None of these ideas are very far fetched, cloning can be a great thing in mere years.
Recent discoveries involving cloning have sparked ideas of cloning an entire human body (ProQuest Staff). Cloning is “the production of an organism with genetic material identical to that of another organism” (Seidel). Therapeutic cloning is used to repair the body when something isn’t working right, and it involves the production of new cells from a somatic cell (Aldridge). Reproductive cloning involves letting a created embryo develop without interference (Aldridge). Stem cells, if isolated, will continue to divide infinitely (Belval 6). Thoughts of cloning date back to the beginning of the twentieth century (ProQuest Staff). In 1938, a man decided that something more complex than a salamander should be cloned (ProQuest Staff). A sheep named Dolly was cloned from an udder cell in 1997, and this proved that human cloning may be possible (Aldridge). In 1998, two separate organizations decl...