Cloning Essay, Research Paper

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 has produced multiple copies of life that could have never before existed (Fackelmann 276).” In time and given the right conditions these cells will divide and form a human being.

Why clone human embryos? There are many legitimate reasons for investigating cloning. Embryologists believe that the research could help improve the lives of further generations. “Cancer research is possibly the most important reason for embryo cloning. Oncologists believe that embryonic study will advance the understanding of the rapid growth of cancer cells. Cancer cells develop at approximately the same phenomenal rate as the embryonic cells do. By studying the embryonic cell growth, scientists may be able to determine how to stop it, and also stop cancer growth in turn (Watson 66).” Another important reason for embryo cloning is to remove genetic diseases out of the embryo’s DNA and replace it with regular DNA, but this procedure is only theoretical. This is another reason cloning should be allowed to find out if this procedure is possible. “Also, doctors hope that by being able to study the multiple embryos developed through cloning, they can determine what causes spontaneous abortions. Contraceptive specialists also believe that if they can determine how an embryo knows where to implant itself, then they can develop a contraceptive that would prevent embryos from implanting in the uterus (Watson 66).” One questionable procedure is cloning an embryo to use the bone marrow of the clone for a critically sick child. these are many reasons human cloning should be allowed.

There are many reasons cloning should be allowed. There are also many reasons cloning should not be allowed. Religious groups say it is “Taking the work of God into our own hands.” To many religious groups believe cloning is morally wrong because there is no mention of cloning in the Bible and because of this they think that if God wanted us to clone he would have mentioned it. Another thing that has people worried is that cloning would take away the individuality in the world. This is a big issue that most people over look in human cloning. If the issue of cloning humans was legalized, then many families would want to freeze cloned cells of family members, so if they were to die they could give birth to the same family member and have him/her back. The problem with this is if this were to happen the child/family member would be different. Its physical qualities would be the same but its mental and emotional states would be totally different. The new person would be growing up in a totally new time period and its personality would be different. So technically the person would be the same physically but everything else would be different. The only way for that family member to be the same as it was, which is virtually impossible, it would have to be brought up the exact same way he was before with the same sports, music, politics, ect.

Another big issue is what the mental and emotional problems would result if a clone were to find out that he/she was cloned. To many people this would be a devastating blow to that person. There is also a debate as to the moral rights of clones. Some say this will occur because there is no birth of newness. They say this wouldn’t be as exciting giving birth to a clone then if the baby was naturally conceived. We would already know what the baby would look like, so it wouldn’t be as exciting. They say cloning would deprive any human to have its own perception of uniqueness.

Now that Dolly has been cloned by Scottish scientists, scientists and people all over the world have gone clone crazy. It now seems as if there is a race to see who can clone the first human. But before that happens there are many questions about this subject for and against cloning that need to be answered. As of now, before scientists go any further with cloning, there should be a lot more research done to answer those many questions and a lot more debates over the moral and ethical aspects of human cloning. Cloning is a delicate subject that can not be ignored. It has become a part of our lives through Dolly and pretty soon will be through 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.

Bibliography

Works Consulted

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Concerns.” Christian Century, November 10, 1993:1117.

Watson, Traci. “Seeking the wonder in a mote of dust.”

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