Cloning Essay, Research Paper

Cloning is Coming Cloning has become one of the most controversial issues of the century. Cloned animals have proven that it can be done and that the next step would be a cloned human. To many this would be a unethical practice but others see it as a breakthrough in science. Human cloning is very controversial because many are scared of what they don t understand. I am writing this so more people understand the pros and cons of cloning. Many don t ask questions of whether or not a cloned human will happen, but instead, wonder when and where it is going to occur. As much as many people are against human cloning, it is not likely they will be able to stop such a historical event. I once thought that creating a human clone would be the difficult but that has changed since the cloning of the first animal. Scientists have proven that they usually find a way for science to go on. This will be no exception with all the advances that a human clone brings with it. Cloning is more than an identical human to a scientist, it brings a whole new understanding of the human body and how it functions. Cloning has taken criticism by all sorts of people with all the questions that arise from it. People are not sure what should be done with cloned animals and whether or not they are the same. Some religions even believe that a cloned human would be born without a soul. Many see this as being nonsense but what are some other myths and truths about cloning. Some fictional accounts of cloning such as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and the film The Boys from Brazil has shown the negative sides of cloning. Many believe that clones would be used for slave labor. Obviously this is a myth and this would never happen because they would have the same rights as us. Cloned humans would be used to harvest body parts. This is a possibility because they have often thought that they could clone a human without a brain or nervous system so it wouldn t actually feel pain or have thoughts. That is likely far away though and as of now we believe that genetically changed animals would do fine for harvesting body parts. An example of this would be genetically changed pigs that would have hearts acceptable to humans. This would save many human lives by having an abundance of hearts instead of being on a waiting list and hoping for one to become available. One possible benefit could be the cloning of people with special talents. Imagine the world with hundreds of Bill Gates working together on computers. Think about hundreds of Einsteins working on science or Beethovens creating music together. Whether human cloning or animal cloning will be more beneficial cannot be determined yet. I never see human cloning being used on a large scale like animals. Animals can be cloned to help humans in so many different ways. If a dairy cow has a genetic makeup better than other dairy cows then it would be cloned so more cows have the same output. This would be much like selective breeding and would make it possible for a larger amount of animals with the highest possible output. It is believed that cloning could help find the cure for many things such as cancer.

The most famous clone is the sheep Dolly. It was the first successful clone and she is known all around the world. It took place at the Roslin Institute at Edinburgh, UK. It was an udder cell from an adult sheep that was turned into a lamb. Dolly was an identical twin of the parent ewe that donated the cell.Human cloning technology has also been thought to help scientist with other problems. Cloning could also be used to reverse heart attacks. Scientists believe that they may be able to treat heart attack victims by cloning their healthy heart cells and injecting them into the areas of the heart that have been damaged. Scientists could learn how to produce organs or tissues for people who are having problems with their own. Instead of breast implants or some other cosmetic procedure, doctors would manufacture bone, connective tissue, or cartilage that is identical to the patient s tissue. People that lost a body part could have them regenerated. The average person has eight defective genes that cause them to become sick. With the help of human cloning technology it may be possible to get rid of those defective genes. Think about women at a high risk of having children with Down syndrome. They could take away that risk away with the help of cloning. There are an endless number of advantages that we could benefit from with the help of human cloning technology.There are many negative aspects that I have not spoken of yet. One negative point is that it would take many tries before a successful human was cloned. This trial and error method would create many mutated humans. These mutated humans would think and be similar to us and know that they were the products of an experiment that went wrong. The cloned humans would have no family and likely be chased around by the media. What would be the psychological problems of someone under so much stress and with no family ties. Cloned humans would have the same right and would not be shamed for being cloned. It was not there decision nor were they a mistake. They are human being whether or not they are born in a conventional way. These cloned animals may be lucky enough to live a normal life and not be seen as being different. I see cloning as a good thing but like everyone else I also have my questions. The outcome and the effects will never be known until it happens. This will be an exciting and scary time to live and see what happens. I hope that people are mature enough and handle the event with a positive outlook. Cloning should not be looked down at and people should educate themselves about it instead of hiding from it. The biggest downfall of cloning is that people don t understand it and so they are scared by it. Someday this will be fixed before or after it happens. I hope people eventually come more at ease with it after the first successful clone.