Introduction
Recent year’s ego a sheep called Dolly is very famous in various media’s and newspaper [fact]. What’s the actual reason behind the sheep Dolly to make her famous? Why scientists are so energetic in going behind that sheep? The reason is simple. The sheep Dolly is not an ordinary sheep; it got birth through the technique called cloning [reason]. This increases the excitation of the scientist and they started thinking about the cloning in humans and its benefit [claim]. Human cloning means formation of one and the same copy of a human, human cells or tissue. The intention of the paper is very clear. The main focus will be on describing benefit of the human cloning. This paper mainly revolves around the statement ‘is cloning of the human ethical’. Nowadays human cloning has become one of the controversial issues in all over the world. Current trends points out there is both good and bad effects for the human cloning. Paper explores all sorts of fact regarding human cloning from starting to end. The paper starts of with discussing general scenario on human cloning. Different types of cloning such as reproductive and therapeutic cloning are explained in this paper. Apart from this different ways of human cloning are also discussed. Usage of modern technology and involvement of scientists added an advantage or benefits in human cloning. Last section of the paper mainly describes about the opposition part of the human cloning which highlights main problematic issues regarding human cloning.
General Scenario on cloning
Therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning are the two kinds of cloning. Therapeutic cloning is done for the use of health treatment which is done for the creation of embryonic stem cells and not meant to produce a complete human being. Therapeutic cloning is done for the replacement of the dead cells in the human body. Reproductive cloning is the formation of a complete human being. A sheep called Dolly is the first cloning creation of the living being which was founded or done by the British Scientists in the year 1997 [fact]. The production of this adult sheep was a great success which became one of the main discussed matters in our countries. The rapid and technological development in genetic engineering contributed enormously towards cloning [reason]. The cloning became a legal, challenging and moral issue among the public. It is not only human beings or animals are produced through cloning, but plants are also created through cloning. Today, cloning process is practiced in some countries. But, many countries banned this practice as they believed that it is against the God’s will. The experts and other people who are not opposed to human cloning argue that there are lots of benefits through cloning. It is very useful and helpful for the people with genetic trouble and for the couples who are not able to reproduce [claim]. One of the main benefits of this cloning process is that it is very useful for the people who are suffering from diseases like cancer and people with the problem of kidney and lever imperfection.
Different types of human cloning
There are two kinds of human cloning – one is therapeutic cloning and the other is reproductive cloning. Reproductive cloning is the formation of the human beings which is reproduced asexually. It is a complete creation of the human being in which one is identical to the other. The human being who is created through cloning is the duplicate or identical to the other human being who already exists in the world or who lived in the earlier period [fact].
Therapeutic cloning is creation of embryo stem cells for the usage of health treatment. The embryo cells generate a lot of dissimilar types of cells which will produce any cells body [reason]. Tissue, nerve cell, organ cells, skin cells etc are produced by therapeutic cloning. Therapeutic cloning is used mainly for medical treatment for the usage of replacement of the dead cells in the human body. Instead of dead or damaged cells, it is replaced with new cells which are produced through therapeutic cloning. Therapeutic cloning helps to give new birth to the patients, who are suffering from dangerous diseases like cancer [claim]. This is said to be the one of the huge benefit in human cloning. With these potential risks of donating organs to some other people can be eliminated.
Different ways of doing human cloning or the process of cloning involves
Cloning is “the process we call nuclear transfer, which is an asexual way of reproducing an animal [fact]. Rather than using a sperm and an egg cell and getting a genetic mix between two animals, making a unique offspring, cloning uses an egg cell which is stripped of its DNA and a cell from the body of an existing animal” (Conquering aging with cloning). Therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning are done in similar way, but for dissimilar usage. A method called Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer is used for the purpose of performing the reproductive cloning. The genetic substance from the egg of donor who is ready for reproductive cloning is removed and the egg is left blank. The cell to be cloned is obtained from the organism and its nucleus is taken off. Then, this nucleus is placed to a blank egg of the giver or donor. The egg is separated with the use of some chemicals or with a gentle electric shock for the production of embryo. This embryo is taken to place in the uterus of the host human being. “The resulting egg and nucleus are shocked or chemically treated so that the egg begins to behave as though fertilization has occurred, resulting in the beginning of embryonic development of a second organism containing the entire genetic code of the first organism” (Mc Gee). The process of therapeutic cloning is also done same as the process of reproductive cloning. It is done to produce an embryo stem cell which grows in any cells of the human body [reason]. The embryo is permitted to grow for two weeks; then it removes their stem cell which is then made to grow in a part of human being tissue for relocation. Therapeutic cloning helps to save the life of the people [claim]. This adds an advantage in performing human cloning.
Technology in cloning
The rapidly growing technology has contributed largely to the process of cloning. Cloning has been possible only due to the different technologies developed. The technology made the scientists to think about producing clones. They have been successful in this field to a certain extent. “The Center for Genetics and Society compiled and analyzed the results of 23 major public opinion surveys concerning the new human genetic technologies conducted between 1987 and 2003” (CGS summery of public opinion polls). For the process of cloning, the three technologies used are “reproductive cloning, research cloning and inheritable genetic modification” (CGS summery of public opinion polls). The technology has helped in the production of clones of even animals. Dolly is an example of a sheep produced through cloning. It is remarkable in the history of cloning, because Dolly was the first mammal to be cloned [fact]. “The beauty of cloning technologies is that everything starts with a single cell. The most sophisticated of these technologies are called gene targeting technologies, where we could actually go in and edit DNA in a living cell similar to the way words is altered on a word processing program in a computer” (Conquering aging with cloning 3). The advance in the technology has caused the scientists to even think of producing humans by cloning [reason]. The day when technology will lead to the formation of human clones is not too far. It can produce a human clone successfully as the production of animal clone succeeded [claim].
Can we trust the scientist in human cloning?
After the cloning of animals, scientists are now thinking of doing cloning on human beings. The scientists can be trusted to a certain extent in this process. The scientists have been successful in many other types of cloning. Even they were able to produce clones of animals [fact]. So scientists will also be able to produce a human clone some day. These scientists should be given full support to do experiments in the filed of human cloning. The human cloning will bring a lot of benefits to the mankind. Even though there are some risks in the process, the human cloning should be allowed because nothing would be possible without taking risks. Scientists have their own ethics. They generally consider the positive aspects of any thing. They consider the advantages rather than disadvantages. The scientists should be trusted for their ethics because these ethics itself has lead to the many big inventions [reason]. They have already successfully proved that mammals can be cloned. So the scientists can be trusted and should be supported in performing human cloning [claim].
Benefits of human cloning
It has been found out by studies that cloning of human beings have some benefits [fact]. The cloning of human beings will help to bring some benefits in the field of medical science. The standard of the humans will show an increase with the help of cloning. Cloning can be used for the formation of skin and these skins could be used for people whose skins were burned in any way. If the DNA or blood or tissue parts of a dead is kept frozen, it may be used for the duplication of the living human beings [reason]. Theoretically, it would be able to produce a clone of an individual by just taking the sample of his blood, because all the genetic elements of the person could be obtained from his blood [claim]. Cloning has caused the achievement of immortality. “There have been successful attempts to make clone copies of cattle using very early embryonic nuclei. In practice, immortalizing particular cattle has been attempted and achieved to some extent. So in theory, immortalizing a particular individual would be possible” (Stewart). Human cloning will be beneficial for the treatment of infertility. The infertile people will be able to produce new generation with the help of human cloning. Human cloning will be helpful in treatment of many diseases like cancer, leukemia etc. The process of aging can be reversed through cloning. Human cloning will also reduce heart attacks. The defective genes in the human body could be removed by the process of cloning.
Opposition
Cloning can be an answer for lots of problems present nowadays in the world. The main problem here is aging of humans. The aim of human cloning is to solve this problem and this is what majority of the scientists are expecting. Still scientists are not very well aware about the real fact and the problems of doing cloning. Problem in the sense many disadvantages that will come up from this and future effects of cloning.
After the cloning of animals, the scientists are now thinking of producing a human clone. Scientists cannot be fully trusted in the process of human cloning. The scientists are not fully confident in performing cloning in humans. This is because of the fact that the cloning done in animals was not fully efficient. The cloning of mammals mostly fails. Some people also consider the cloning of humans as an activity that is against the rules of the nature. The clones produced have weak body and most of them die very fast due to many problems. All these problems will occur in human cloning also. If human beings are produced by cloning, similar types of off springs will be produced. This will be a reason for diversity lack in everywhere. Also the clones that will be born will be affected by many diseases. The same diseases may affect them because there will not be diversity in them. Even if human body is produced by cloning, some factors like intelligence may be missing in them. Also, for the process of human cloning a large amount of money will be needed. The money spent can be a waste, because there is no hope in producing a good result. The risks in the process of cloning have made the people not to support the human cloning process. There are many dangers that are to be considered in the process of human cloning. “The most disturbing part of this technology is not the cloning, where you just have a child born who happens to be related to one parent instead of two. The most disturbing part of this technology is when parents are going to try to use genes to provide their children with serious advantages” (Silver). All these are some of the risks of producing a human clone. Scientists are also not sure if the cloning of humans will be feasible. The risks have created a doubt in the people about whether to support it or not. The process should be performed only after ensuring safety and efficiency of human cloning. But, there is no guarantee that the scientists will wait till they get an assurance of its safety.
Many of them believe that human cloning is immortal and unethical. This is because of religious and humanitarian reasons. “Some ethicists argue that if the persistence of cloning research continues, pretty soon whole human being clones will all be running around with no sense of identity” (Gabby). These kinds of issues will create big problems in the world. Losing one’s identity is a serious offence.
Even though reproductive cloning is a cloning which can reproduce human beings asexually, some of them believe this kind of issue will put world in physical danger. “More often people cite beliefs that it is “morally wrong,” “interferes with human distinctiveness and individuality,” “could be used for questionable purposes like breeding a superior race,” or conflicts with their religious beliefs”” (CGS summery of public opinion polls). The problem with this is, this will create tendency to create more people in same manner and thus will increase the tendency to increase minority communities.
Therapeutic cloning is used for reproducing different types of specific cells which are used for treating diseases. One of the disadvantage is embryonic cell used for cloning is taken just after few weeks of pregnancy. Once it is taken, it is said that its growth is terminated. Many of them are not at all agreeing with this taking life of one to give life for another. Another disadvantage is this technique is new and it requires lots of research in order to solve many problems it has. Also in case of woman “donating eggs is very painful and costly” (MsMabry). Doing therapeutic cloning is very pricey.
Variety of risks is present in cloning. If it is for humans, it will increase. It is said that “more than 90% of cloning attempts fail to produce viable offspring” (Cloning fact sheet). Even though technology is using to produce cloning, there are chances that some technological errors can happen while cloning. None can provide any guarantee. Scientist can find out anything in this world and say they are very successful. Only they will know the real fact. “When an embryo is created from the union of a sperm and an egg, the embryo receives copies of most genes from both parents. A process called “imprinting” chemically marks the DNA from the mother and father so that only one copy of a gene (either the maternal or paternal gene) is turned on. Defects in the genetic imprint of DNA from a single donor cell may lead to some of the developmental abnormalities of cloned embryos” (Cloning fact sheet).
These kinds of issues are major concern one needs to think. It is because, consider one person is spending huge amount for cloning and if that person is not getting the desired result, what is the meaning in doing all these.
Scientists from American Medical Association mentioned that doing human cloning is big risk. The reason behind this is “inefficiency of animal cloning (only about 1 or 2 viable offspring for every 100 experiments) and the lack of understanding about reproductive cloning, many scientists and physicians strongly believe that it would be unethical to attempt to clone humans” (Cloning fact sheet).
Scientists also mentioned several cloned animals are dying before getting mature level; so it is possible that the same issue can happen to the humans also.
In a poll conducted by time magazine, it is understood that nearly seventy-five percent of population is against human cloning. Seventy-four percent of population believes it is against god’s interest. Recent years back when Miss. Weber was interviewed she came across one question “What do you think about human cloning?” responded, “I don’t know a lot about it, but I know it’s scary” (Esmaeli).
“Ninety-two percent of the respondents to a Harris Interactive poll said they would not even support the cloning of a favorite person” (Majority of Americans against human cloning, unaware of recent advances in genomic research). Apart form this; many scholars argued that cloning can violate child’s right. “A child born as a genetic copy of another may feel undue pressure to become like or different from its progenitor” (Mc Gee).
Conclusion
People should be well educated in getting the knowledge regarding human cloning. Just saying it is against god’s will and something similar to this is unmeaning. Let people learn about the scientific process that is revolving around cloning. Cloning technology is just in an emergent situation, so lots of steps are falling ahead in order to conquer. Since this technology is in young stage, it is predefined that there will be difficulties at initial stage. Still, very good research is needed in this field in order to understand its pros and cons. For this, it is necessary to wait for some more years so that scientists will sort out or conquer new areas of cloning. By that time, people can get educated in cloning and also in genetic revolution. After that, let people make their decision on cloning whether it is good or bad.
References
“CGS summery of public opinion polls”. Center for Genetics and Society. Center for Genetics and Society, 2003. Web.
“Cloning fact sheet.” The human Project information. Energy Office of Science, 2009. Web.
“Conquering aging with cloning.” Life Extension Foundation. 2010. Web.
Esmaeli. Human cloning. Esmaeli Studying Computer Information System at Eastern Michigan University. n.d. Web. 2010.
Gabby, “Cloning for medical purpose.” Human Cloning.Org, 1999. Web.
“Majority of Americans against human cloning, unaware of recent advances in genomic research.” Health care industry. 2001. Web.
Mc Gee, Glenn. “Primer on ethics and human cloning.” An actionbioscience.org original article. American Institute of Biological Sciences. 2010. Web.
MsMabry. “The advantages of therapeutic cloning.” Bright hub. Leigh a Zaykoski. 2010. Web.
Silver, Lee. “Human cloning: Close is it?.” Interview by WGBH Educational Foundation. 2010. Web.
Stewart, Colin, Dr. “An interview with Dr. Colin Stewart.” Interview by Time.com. Think Quest. 2001. Web.