Cloning is not that far from procedures that are being done all the time, such as in vitro fertilization, where egg fertilization takes place in a laboratory and the egg is then transferred to the uterus. In vitro fertilization usually requires the retrieval of many cells and can take several times to work, if it does at all. It is a fact that it can also result in multiple pregnancies. What I want to stress is that cloning is just another alternative to natural reproduction and, what is more, it takes very few cells and should work the first time with a single pregnancy, making it a more efficient method of reproduction.
Furthermore, another benefit of cloning is that it could give couples that cannot reproduce a chance to have children who would be biologically related to them, whereas they otherwise could not. Apart from that, this would also help those who are at a high risk for having a child with a genetic disease. They could clone one of themselves and have a healthy baby with their genes. In fact, this reproduction through cloning is close enough to other common reproduction and genetic-selection practices that it should not be treated any differently and should be given as an option.
Besides the argument mentioned above, scientists are finding ways to create entire separate organs and other tissues such as nerve or heart muscles cells without the creation of an entire person. These organs can be used for transplants and with scientists cloning organs from the own patient’s DNA there should be no problem with the immune rejection that can result with transplants from other sources.
There is a large shortage in the number of organs available for transplants and continued research in cloning of this type could eliminate this problem.
Additionally, cloning could be used to reverse heart attacks by cloning healthy heart cells and injecting them into the damaged areas. In other words, this technology also allows producing skin for burn victims, brain cells, spinal cords, livers, lungs, and any other organ needed. But this may never come about if there are laws prohibiting cloning and its research. An example of a situation in which cloning could be lifesaving is when a child is terminally ill and in need of a bone marrow transplant. Many times in a case like this, the parents will decide to have another child, hoping that it will match with the sick child. If it were cloned, then there would be a perfect match available.
To conclude, those who say that cloning and genetic engineering do not value human life are wrong because, as all these examples show, these processes can make life longer and better for many in our society. Defective genes could be eliminated, virtually excluding many inherited diseases. This could lead to the engineering of people completely resistant to other diseases, like AIDS and cancer, making all of us happier and healthier. Since cloning is going to happen anyway, the government should accept it and regulate it to try to see that it is used to benefit the most people. On the whole, it is just another tool appearing to our advantage, so why not take the chance if it can help to improve the health of all those in our society?
