Cloning Essay, Research Paper

Angie Porter & Karisa Sa

Organ Cloning:

The future of our lives?

On February 23, 1997 the world itself was changed forever. Whether or not you believe that it was for the good is an entirely different question. You can not argue the fact that a major breakthrough in cloning technology had been made. With a lot of time and effort, scientists were able to successfully clone a sheep. Since then, British scientists have also cloned a frog embryo. Cloning has, and will continue to be a controversial issue for a long time to come.

Often people say that we are trying to play the role of God. We feel that the scientists are not trying to play God, but just improve the lives of people. Many people say that we should not try to interfere with nature. If we try to clone organs for transplant patients that are in their final hour then we are actually improving their life. If you feel that saving a person?s life is a bad thing, then I?m sorry.

People often question whether or not we have the right to clone. We are all guaranteed rights by the fact that we are human beings. Those rights include the right to pursue areas of scientific study, and also the right to live. They could have argued the fact that man was not meant to walk on the moon. If they did, and the program did not succeed, then we would not have the technology that we have today. Cloning organs can only yield new technologies that will be beneficial to society.

Organ cloning is something that would be extremely beneficial to society. Imagine the ability to “create” a liver for James Earl Ray. He was the man that was accused in the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After he died, new evidence was brought forth in finding that he might not have been responsible for King?s death. Imagine if the technology was available to clone his liver in order to prolong his life so that the truth could be shown. That would solve an important mystery and save the life of one person on the waiting list to receive a new organ. This way, another person who was on the waiting list could receive the organ. In this country there are thousands of people on waiting lists to receive new organs that will help prolong their life. Many of these people will die because there is not a suitable donor that matches their needs. Imagine the lives that will be saved if an individual can clone their own liver, or any other organ that is needed to survive an illness.

The process is fairly uncomplicated. When a child is conceived, doctors will take a few cells from it and clone them. These cells will then be placed in a national tissue bank until needed. There they are readily available. If the child gets hurt, or contracts a disease, it will have a ?body repair kit? to fall back on. Most of the controversy is over whether or not we will be killing another human in order to get these parts. In a sense, we would. The frozen embryo would be placed in a surrogate mother. There it needs only a mere week to grow. It can then be removed, and the needed organ singled out. Then, this organ can be grown in a lab, where scientists can speed up the process greatly. Yes, we did create the beginnings of a human, but it was only one week old. If you were to look at the one week old embryo, you would see nothing. There would be no distinguishable features, and certainly none that resemble a human.

Whether or not you believe in the “art” of cloning you have to agree that there are definitely some good things that can come from all of this research. Researchers say that within 5-10 years we will actually be able to grow headless human clones. I?m not saying that this is ethically right, but just imagine the possibilities. No more waiting lists, and no more organ rejection. This type of technology could save thousands of lives. Using just the embryonic cloning, we could drastically improve many people?s chance to live. Just put yourself in one of these situations. If you or a loved one was dying, could you look them in the face and say ?I?m sorry, but it?s just not right to give you a cloned organ. There?s nothing else we can do, so you are going to die.? I know I could never do that, and I would hope that you can see it my way.

Cloning has the ability to change the face of the planet forever. We should be excited that we are able to duplicate such a complex sequence of genes. Whatever you feel is morally right, we should at least allow this to happen because if we never explore the risks then we can never enjoy the benefits. As previously stated, space exploration yielded many new technologies that will forever aid us in the bettering of our society. We can not continue to prohibit the exploration of scientific study. If this practice continues then we will not be able to continue to develop advancements in the prolonging of the human race. If we impose a ban on cloning, then we are basically imposing a ban on our right to live.