Why does it need to be done?
It is estimated that 100,000 people in the UK suffer from some form of severe kidney disease. The NHS carries out approximately 1,200 kidney transplants a year, but almost 6,000 patients are waiting for a new organ at any one time. Many die before a suitable organ becomes available.
If this amazing discovery was to work fully within the next few years it would solve many problems with organ donating, and could potentially save thousands of lives!
“Rare Pig Breed Cloned”
US scientists have cloned a rare breed of pig in an experiment that they say shows that copying technology can be made more efficient. The cloned animal, called Princess, was the last female in one of only four bloodlines of Gloucestershire Old Spots in North America. Several attempts at getting offspring from Princess through natural breeding and artificial insemination had failed. Cloning produced three piglets, born via a surrogate mother, after just one embryo implantation round.
Two of the clones, now a couple of weeks old, are alive and appear healthy; one was accidentally killed by the mother. The two surviving clones have different markings. Don Bixby, director of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, said cloning "might help for these dead ends, but it's not something we would normally choose". He said there was some evidence suggesting that a percentage of cloned animals might suffer from genetic defects.
The company behind the Princess cloning said the project showed how much more efficient it had made pig copying. Scientists see a role for pig clones as organ suppliers for human transplants.
How do people Feel about this?
Many people feel strongly about this case I have some various quotes on what people have said about cloning pigs:
"All the known technical hurdles [for pig to human transplants] have now been overcome. An end to the chronic organ shortage is now in sight."
"What we are talking about is a technique that carries risks for the population at large, as well as the potential to save lives.
Both of the above quotes tell us that cloning is a positive thing and that it will help our human race in the future.
"If we cannot ameliorate the risk then society has to say `Hold on, should we let this go ahead?', even when we know that we will be costing lives. The public has a right and a duty to consider this issue."
This quote exclaims that there is such a thing as human rights and everyone has to chose whether we experiment and loose people for the good of our planet or not.
"There are a large number of issues which UKXIRA still needs to consider before xenotransplantation, such as the risks of cross-species infection."
This quote tells us that transplanting cloned organs can cause many risky diseases.
"Our opinion poll shows over two thirds of the population want a freeze on pig to human organs transplants. The BUAV is calling for a moratorium to enable full public consultation on this potentially dangerous technology."
This explains that the public have voted that they would prefer people to pause on cloning and think about what they are doing before they rush ahead.
"Xenotransplantation represents a completely different way of using animals from anything humans have done before. Even in the cause of medical research, there are lines to be drawn.
Even for medical research and the future you have to draw the line.
”Xenotransplantation would be justified only if the efficacy in quality and length of life was so great that it justified what would otherwise be an unacceptable intervention in one of God's creatures with whom we share the planet.”
This quote is telling us that life is to short and we should not use the creatures that are equal to us and that we share out planet with. God would disagree.
Advantges of Cloning
Solution to infertility?
About 15% of Americans are infertile, and doctors are usually cannot help them. Federal statistics show that in vitro fertilization and relate technologies have a success rate of less than 20%. Hence cloning may provide en efficient solution to infertility. This is the key point that advocates argue for cloning. Cloning is believed to be solving the problem of infertility. Women that are infertile can have their own babies with the help of this technique by implanting the cloned into their bodies. This can eliminate the mental and physical pains among the infertile couples.
Guys and lesbians can have their own babies with the technique of cloning. For lesbians, one of them can provide the egg, and the other one can provide the genes. For guys, they can do it as the same way, just they need to find a .
Furthermore, with the help of cloning, we can save the species facing extinction.
Provide organs for transplantation.
On 12th August 1998. There were scientists from Japan and New York had cloned a pig named Xena and used its organs for transplant in humans. Cloning of pigs are useful in which they can alleviate the shortage of human organs available for transplantation. For example, pig livers can be transplant to a patient which suffers from liver failure but there is no human liver available. In this case, the pig liver can be transplanted to the patient temporarily until he can find a suitable human liver.
As both humans and pigs are mammals. Human cloning is theoretically available as well. If scientists can clone the patient, they he can have an identical liver. The operation will have no repulsion at all. It will be safer and directly benefit the patients.
There is a case in San Francisco in 1988. A girl called Anissa suffered from cancer. The only therapy was to kill all the stem cells by high toxic. But she could not live without stem cells. The parents of Anissa had found for suitable bone marrow for transplantation. But failed to do so. So they decided to have another baby which may provided suitable bone marrow. (The comparability is 25%.) They performed the bone marrow transplantation when her sister was 14 month old. 5 years later, Anissa recovered.
This case sparked debate in the society. Advocates of human cloning said if human cloning succeeded. The comparability of the transplantation is 100%. This can eliminate of the risks and hence save more patients.
But this thought received more opposes than agreement. The opponents think that this will deprive the human value, because the child is born on purpose, that’s to rescue other’s life. The child will become the equipment of therapy. The father of Jesuits, Richard McCormick said it is immoral to accept human cloning. Despite the painful circumstances, the only way to treat this case morally is to let the patient dies, not to clone another child.
Provide treatments for variety diseases
Cloning of stem cells will provide treatments for variety diseases. Because stem cells can turn into many other cell types with the right prompting, doctors may be able to replace tissues and organs damaged by disease or injury to restore healthy function. Therapeutic applications of stem cells potentially could treat illnesses including: Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, heart attack, multiple sclerosis, blood, bone and bone marrow ailments, severe burns by providing skin grafts, spinal cord injuries, and cancer patients who have lost cells and tissue to radiation and chemotherapy. In addition, stem cells could be harnessed and packaged to deliver gene therapies to specific targets in the body to treat genetic problems.
These stem cells would act as a proving ground for drugs. Ramped-up stem cell technology would permit the rapid screening of thousands of chemicals.
Genetic modification / engineering
Cloning gives parents the opportunity to choose what characteristics they want their children to have. For instance, the parents want their child to have Albert Einstein’s IQ. The extraordinary athleticism of Michael Jordan. Or just simply blonde hair and blue eyes!
Some scientists think human cloning is a good matter because human being can control their evolvement, so that we can ‘create’ more artists, athletes, and scientists. If we can choose in this way, we can enhance human’s achievement.
The healthiness of infants
Cloning can eliminate all the worrying regarding the child’s health. Scientist can alter the genes to ensure a healthy child. For example, if a mother has given birth to 2 children which suffered from Down’s syndrome. Doctors can manipulate and balance out the number of in the to give the mother a normal and healthy child.
Better understanding of genetic diseases
Scientists and ethicists who favour human cloning research argue that cloning may provide a better understanding of the nature of genetic diseases and aid in the production of from which cells could be obtained to grow various organs for organ transplant.
Help improve lives
The cloning of genetic modified animals can have certain medical, agricultural and industrial applications. For example, genetically modified cattle can produce milk with certain drugs inside in mass production.
DISSADVANTAGES OF CLONING
The uncertainty of science technology
Science and technology cannot solve everything. What if we allow to human cloning? Have we ever thought of the results of that? Will the results be controllable? Even scientists cannot promise they can. Obviously, there are some potential crises lurking behind. Of course, these kinds of uncertainty are not reasonable to stop all the developments of science and technology. But we believer that we should ban such extreme cases (such as human cloning) as long as they have potential in damaging humans’ future.
Furthermore, in cloning Dolly, it resulted in the death of many and newborns before success achieved. (The Dolly experiment started with 277 fused eggs, of which only 29 became . All the were transferred to 13 sheep. 1 became pregnant with Dolly.) In addition, even if the human clone survived, it is not guaranteed that it would develop normally. The genetic material in cloning Dolly came from a 6 year old mammal (what is an old stage of sheep). Dolly’s could be found in older animals only. This finding made scientists start wondering whether Dolly, looking totally normal from its appearance, might have inherited genetic damage that would be shown in older age only or some other abnormalism.
Losing the diversity of genes
Human can live on the Earth relies on the diversity of genes. And the diversity of genes comes from parents having different sets of genes. The most horrendous part of identical genes is that it will weaken our power and adaptations, which make us subjected to great diseases easily. In addition, human cloning is just copying the identical genes, which means it will decrease the diversity of genes.
Furthermore, the beauty of humanity lies in the differences we see in each other. Cloning would eliminate surprise and predict expectancy.
The great diseases and leading to extinction
As mentioned above, in human cloning, all human beings will be identical. Which means that entire human is at a risk of getting infected by the same type of pathogen. In scientific point of view, if every one has the same type of genes and they are closed to each other they may not defend against the same kind of serious disease. Then cloning will be detrimental in terms of a great disaster.
Another negative effect of cloning is inbreeding, as everyone has the same genotype and keep reproducing among themselves. This would lead us to our own extinction finally.
Richard Nicholson of the British Bulletin of Medical Ethics said that cloning research may well be “sowing the seeds of our own destruction.”
Cloning is “playing God”
The clergymen opined human cloning is playing the role of god. Bishop of Catholic Albert Moraczewski mentioned that the power that God gives humans is over the fish, the birds, and all animals, domestic and wild, large and small. (Genesis, chapter1, verse 26). Adam and Eve have all the power, except they cannot eat the fruit of the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad. If they do so, they will die. So, Albert Moraczewski believes that human cloning is out of the God’s permission. There is no evidence that proves humans have the right to change God’s will.
Transgressing the nature
Human cloning transgresses nature, because it is not via the natural reproductive process, which is by a man and a woman. Human cloning is creating life.
Inhumane
A clone makes no differences as us. A clone must ear, drink and carry out any other metabolic processes in order to survive. The clone may even be better than his original host. It would be inhumane to treat them as ‘special species’. If human is cloned, this will turn us to be a property which can be sold to anybody else. In other words, selling humans is unethical, inhumane and immoral.
Devastate parenting and family life
The basic concept of a family is a couple falls in love and determines to care each other. Then the couple may decide to have children which they will love them dearly. But parents of clones might value their children according to how much they look like to themselves. Cloning, at a result, undermine the basic elements of loving, nurturing family and to accept each child as an unique individual.
Cause unbalance to the society
Cloning may arouses social side effects. It is ridiculous that reproduction is separated from love and other human relationship. The entire world may use cloning for eugenics that would lead to efforts to selectively breed children who are of more intelligent, heavier and extraordinary.
People that disagree with cloning
~ In 1997- Feb, Carl Felbaum, president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization said: ‘One of the prospects should not be, perhaps should never be, the extension of this technique to human beings. Now that it may be possible we would say its should be prohibited if necessary by law.”
~ Stephen Grebe, an associate professor of biology at American University in Washington said: “we are going to be facing this issue with humans. With that possibility open, I am concerned without adequate safeguards that this will become a reality. It may very well already be.”
~ Jesse Rainbow, a university sophomore, lists reasons why some people have a knee-jerk aversion to cloning. A clone would not be a “real person”. But a clone would have exactly the same status that an identical twin already does. Both are derived from a single fertilized ovum.
Conclusion
Cloning raises alot of ethical, moral and religious issues. Standing at a religious viewpoint, is playing with just a too much. For instance, some christians think cloning is "getting rid of God's plan." God created each and every one of us, and if we took things into our own hands it would be betraying Him. Anothing very important factor is individulality. People look to where they came from and who created them to find their personal identity. A cloned child wouldn't be able to say that God created him, nor would that child be able to say that he had 2 parents. Most christians also believe that cloned children might not have souls. God created everyone and gives everyone a soul, so what happens to the people that God doesn't create? No one can really say, and that, to most people, is scary. However, on the other hand people would see cloning aas many different advantages, such as genetic engineering. Through this factor, people can choose what features they want on their child. There are also ways that cloning can help avoid the risks of genetic diseases.
Supporters of human cloning argue that the initial negative reaction is simply a common human response to something new and unknown, and compare cloning to other assisted reproductive techniques such as in vitro fertilization. When the idea of taking a woman’s egg out of the body, fertilizing it in the laboratory, and implanting it back in the womb was first attempted in the 1970s, many people found the procedure disturbing and unnatural, and wondered how “test-tube” babies would fare socially and psychologically. But today in vitro fertilization is accepted by most people as an acceptable way for infertile couples to have their own children. Cloning advocates argue that attitudes toward cloning will undergo a similar evolution and the procedure will come to be seen as an acceptable alternative for infertile people who want to have children.
Whether or not human cloning will eventually be as common—and accepted—as in vitro fertilization remains to be seen, but it is clear that the ethical debate over human cloning will not soon die down.
I believe that Cloning is an opportunity in life for humans in the future to try new discoveries I feel that if we never try we will never know as we do learn from our mistakes.
Bibliography
What is cloning? Researched from:
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/cloning.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/C0122429/ethics/advantages.htm
‘Advantages of cloning’and’Dissadvantages of cloning’ researched from:
http://library.thinkquest.org/C0122429/ethics/disadvantages.htm
CONTENTS
1.INTRODUCTION
2.WHAT IS CLONING?
4.CLONING PICTURES AND DIAGRAMS
5.FAMOUS CLONING QUOTES
8.ADVANTAGES OF CLONING
12.DISSADVANTAGES OF CLONING
16.CONCLUSION
18.BIBLIOGRAPHY
