Human Cloning: The Way Of The Future?

Human Cloning: The Way Of The Future

Human cloning is the creation of a cell, tissue or even a living specimen genetically identical to the DNA taken from a being, cell or tissue. To this day, it is one of the most controversial subjects whereas it going against religion, human rights; creating life, playing God and could be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands. Here I will be studying and reviewing this case with for and against arguments and giving my personal conclusion.

Arguments Against Human Cloning:

Health risks -“mutation of genes - an abnormal baby would be a nightmare comes true.” One of the main concerns of health risks are that when genetic material has been extracted from , lets just say an adult, and cloned, the new born baby would have 30 year old genes and such, this then could lead in abnormal growth spurts, mature diseases, short life span and the most feared, physical and mental mutation. Previous attempts at animal cloning formed disfigured “monsters” with severe abnormalities. So that would mean the created cloned embryo that looks imperfect, which is growing inside the womb, would have to be destroyed. Nevertheless some disfigurements may not be evident till after birth. In other cases such as Dolly the Sheep, which was cloned in Scotland, which dies prematurely of sever lung disease in February 2003, it also suffered from arthritis at an early age which may be a link to the cloning process.

Emotional risks – “a child grows up knowing her mother is her sister, her grandmother is her mother. Her father is her brother-in-law” . A vast amount of unbearable emotional pressures on a teenager knowing that his or her identity is someone else’s. Family problems could escalate into separation; a common scenario would be that a couple would have the husband/wife cloned then 20 years later the wife/husband sees the physical resemblance of her/his wife but much more attractive so this will often lead to a sexual relationship, and this causing a divorce in turn.

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Emotional risks – “a child grows up knowing her mother is her sister, her grandmother is her mother. Her father is her brother-in-law” . A vast amount of unbearable emotional pressures on a teenager knowing that his or her identity is someone else’s. Family problems could escalate into separation; a common scenario would be that a couple would have the husband/wife cloned then 20 years later the wife/husband sees the physical resemblance of her/his wife but much more attractive so this will often lead to a sexual relationship, and this causing a divorce in turn.

Risk of abuse of the technology – “what would Hitler have done with cloning technology if available in the 1940s?” Abuse of this type of bio-technology is most likely, and going ahead with human cloning could make this almost certain. Keeping in mind that with the capabilities of gene modification: dictators, terrorists and human rights abusers would be able to create “super-humans”. These “super-humans” may be hugely intelligent and physically enhanced, and indeed we would not be able to stand a chance.

Arguments For Human Cloning:

Super Humans: “Selecting the most perfect genetic donor in someone’s opinion, whether it is Albert Einstein, Michael Jordan, or some other above average person, changes the norms of society.” With the advances of cloning, we would be able to “perfect” a human. Creating super-human abilities; creating super-human intellect and using it on clones. This could even lead to the further advancement of civilisation in all subjects. Humans would be healthier and there would be minimal variations between humans

Curing Diseases: “The growing scientific field known as regenerative medicine, also known as therapeutic cloning, is allowing thousands of lives to be saved from cloning human cells, tissues, and even organs.” Human donors would be a thing of the past as cloning of the organ would increase efficiency and would be the “perfect” match. Immunosuppressive drugs would also be unneeded. Diseases would be cured and thousands of lives would be saved everyday and that number would be increasing by the day. Banning of this research would prevent the healthy lives of disease stricken humans.

Body Replacements: “One of the stranger reasons for cloning humans is for a complete body replacement. What about replacing an aged body with a new body by transplanting the human brain?” Genetic illnesses and infertility could be cured as “body replacements” would ensure this. Humans with physical disabilities could in turn “grow” another leg which would be a “perfect” match, and may be even better in ability.

To conclude, I am for and against human cloning as: Super Humans, Curing Diseases and Body Replacements seem to cancel out Risk of Abuse to Technology, Emotional Risks and Health Risks. Terms such as human cloning are very sensitive as for every good outcome there is an equally bad one for it. It will take a longer period to decide whether or not we shall proceed on researching human cloning and perform as we need to assess all positive and negative outcomes.

By Ranja Faraj

Dr. Patrick Dixon, Date Unknown, Web Article.

B.P 2006 Web Article