For-Argument for Therapeutic cloning
Many scientists believe that therapeutic cloning will be a new era in the medical world allowing them to make whole new organs becoming a new revolution in the scientific world. This could cure diseases that are known to be impossible to treat.
The moral problem most people have with therapeutic cloning is that people find it immoral to use a ball of living cells for scientific progress however these stem cells have no sub-conscious or human life it’s like saying it’s a crime to cut toenails because they contain DNA. So there shouldn’t be any queries with stems cell research. Most people who have ethical problem with therapeutic cloning have no idea what happens to the stem cells. What happens is that the stems cells are frozen and after two weeks thrown away and lay to waste this is a reason that stem cell research/therapeutic cloning should not be halted for ethical reasons. Fruit is living people don’t let fruit go to waste the make the most out of it why isn’t it the same with stem cells?
People are concerned about scientific cloning and creating humans in spite of this the science of genetics have not reached a level where they can clone people it is far too dangerous and not to mention is banned in worldwide. Therapeutic could not only permit us to help cure diseases but unravel the mystery of living things.
Therapeutic cloning can lead to a medical breakthrough in animals’ not just humans and puts use to stems cells rather than wasting them and making stem cells insufficient. These are the benefits of stem cells from the website www.sma.org:
(2) Proponents argue that cloning technology and research
Will undoubtedly improve the overall quality of science
And life by answering critical biological questions, and
leading to advances in animal husbandry, genetics and
medical science. A key reason behind the usefulness of
cloning is that by producing near-identical genetic copies
of an organism, results are faster and more predictable
than in previous reproductive techniques like artificial
insemination, which involve costly and potentially
harmful procedures such as cryopreservation. Many
of these procedures require the use of stem cells.
There are three main areas in which the cloning
technology is useful: agriculture, conservation and
therapeutics. Whilst only the last is directly relevant
to medicine, the first two are important as they
illustrate the extent in which the technology can
be applied; hence they are briefly discussed.
There is one more thing that therapeutic cloning could lead to. Due to the increase in organs that therapeutic cloning would bring less people would be waiting for organ transplants and less organ donors would be needed, it would be a win win scenario.
Against-argument for Therapeutic cloning
The main argument against therapeutic cloning is if it is morally right to use embryos (an unborn child) to improve someone’s lifestyle. A lot of people believe that using embryos is to cure people is like killing one person to save another. There is also the speculation of how are scientist going to obtain the eggs to create an embryo. Religion is a huge factor in the debate for therapeutic cloning regions people that even though embryo has no consciousness what so ever they are still valid human life. Also there maybe issues in how much money will be needed to fund this expensive project.
Also we live in a delicate ecosystem if a virus or bacteria could not thrive in this ecosystem it could disrupt many food chains and webs causing species to become extinct.
From the website www.globalchange.com/noclones I found a quote explaining the problems with therapeutic cloning:
(3)1. Health risks from mutation of genes
An abnormal baby would be a nightmare comes true. The technique is extremely risky right now. A particular worry is the possibility that the genetic material used from the adult will continue to age so that the genes in a newborn baby clone could be - say - 30 years old or more on the day of birth. Many attempts at animal cloning produced disfigured monsters with severe abnormalities. So that would mean creating cloned embryos, implanting them and destroying (presumably) those that look imperfect as they grow in the womb. However some abnormalities may not appear till after birth. A cloned cow recently died several weeks after birth with a huge abnormality of blood cell production. Dolly the Sheep died prematurely of severe lung disease in February 2003, and also suffered from arthritis at an unexpectedly early age - probably linked to the cloning process.
Even if a few cloned babies are born apparently normal we will have to wait up to 20 years to be sure they are not going to have problems later -for example growing old too fast. Every time a clone is made it is like throwing the dice and even a string of "healthy" clones being born would not change the likelihood that many clones born in future may have severe medical problems. And of course, that's just the ones born. What about all the disfigured and highly abnormal clones that either spontaneously aborted or were destroyed / terminated by scientists worried about the horrors they might be creating.
2. Emotional risks
A child grows up knowing her mother is her sister, her grandmother is her mother. Her father is her brother-in-law. Every time her mother looks at her, she is seeing herself growing up. Unbearable on a teenager trying to establish his or her identity. What happens to a when the "father" sees his wife's clone grow up into the exact replica (by appearance) of the beautiful 18 year old he fell in love with 35 years ago? A sexual relationship would of course be with his wife's twin, no incest involved technically.
Or maybe the child knows it is the twin of a dead brother or sister. What kind of pressures will he or she feel, knowing they were made as a direct replacement for another? It is a human experiment doomed to failure because the child will NOT be identical in every way, despite the hopes of the parents. One huge reason will be that the child will be brought up in a highly abnormal household: one where grief has been diverted into making a clone instead of adjusting to loss. The family will be totally different than that the other twin experienced. That itself will place great pressures on the emotional development of the child. You will not find a child psychiatrist in the world who could possibly say that there will not be very significant emotional risk to the cloned child as a result of these pressures.
3. Risk of abuse of the technology
What would have done with if available in the 1940s? There are powerful leaders in every generation who will seek to abuse this technology for their own purposes. Going ahead with makes this far more likely. You cannot have so-called therapeutic cloning without reproductive cloning because the technique to make cloned babies is the same as to make a cloned embryo to try to make replacement tissues. And at the speed at which biotech is accelerating there will soon be other ways to get such cells - adult stem cell technology. It is rather crude to create a complete embryonic identical twin embryo just to get hold of stem cells to make - say - nervous tissue. Much better to take cells from the adult and trigger them directly to regress to a more primitive form without the raised by inserting a full adult set of genes into an unfertilised egg.
Alternate viewpoint
Religious opinions are a vital factor when it comes to therapeutic cloning. Each religion has their own queries and views of therapeutic cloning. Each religous leader have a large influence on people, politicians knowing that try to get the religous leaders on their side before any further research.
There is a stereotype with would “cloning”, people have an instant imagery of the word they believe cloning means to create an exact duplicate of an organism. Whereas therapeutic cloning is the cloning of blood cells, muscle tissue etc. Unlike reproductive cloning which is the create of an organic duplicate.
This is a quote where politicians have tried hard to get Muslims on their side for therapeutic cloning :
(4)[CAIRO] Muslim states are being asked to allow the cloning of human embryos for research into possible medical treatments — so-called therapeutic cloning — while maintaining a ban on the reproductive cloning of human beings.
Both provisions are included in the draft text of what is being proposed as the first international Islamic code of medical and health ethics, approved during the eighth conference of the Islamic Organization for Medical Sciences (IOMS), held in Cairo last month.
The proposed code addresses the relationships between physicians, their patients, and wider society from the perspectives of both Islam and medical ethics. It takes into account Islamic views on new medical techniques such as in vitro fertilisation and gene therapy.
Any decision to endorse therapeutic cloning could have international implications. Last November, the United Nations dropped plans for an international treaty that could have banned all forms of human cloning, deciding instead merely to draft a declaration giving guidance to countries on the issue — a weaker legal text (see ).
Media reports at the time suggested that the decision to shelve debate on a treaty, views on which are sharply divided in non-Muslim countries, was partially prompted by the absence of a joint position among Muslim countries.
The proposed code has already been endorsed by geneticists, healthcare ethicists, Islamic scholars and medical professionals from several international organisations, and will now be reviewed and finalised by IOMS ahead of its proposed adoption by health ministries in Muslim countries.
As this is due to occur before the United Nations meets in February 2005 to finalise and vote on the wording of its human cloning declaration, the proposed code for Muslim countries could have a significant impact on the text of the declaration.
Conclusion
I have concluded that therapeutic cloning is next step forward for mankind. The possibilities are potentially endless to what therapeutic cloning can do. As such advancement in medicine it is one of the most important issues in the world of biology. I feel that there are too many restrictions on therapeutic cloning over obscure things. I say don’t knock it till you try it.
I also see the view of religious people however I think the reward hugely overweighs the risks and ethical issues.
In my opinion all religious views are hypocritical; millions of animals get killed for food so we can’t a few embryos is used for repair. However I see that the government does not want to make uproar of this issue even if they don’t agree with certain views.
In conclusion I feel that therapeutic cloning is one giant step for mankind and regardless of the ethical issues should be allowed for the sake of biological science.
Bibliography
Reliable websites
These websites are reliable because they have been confirmed reliable by the government.
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http://
- http://www.sma.org.sg/smj/4307/4307ra1.pdf
- http://www.globalchange.com/noclones.htm
(4)
Unreliable websites
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2002/images/mar2002_report_cloning_02.jpg
