Human Cloning: Should It Be Banned?

AS and A Level Science

Gabrielle Gove

ENG 112 01

Mrs. Harris

March 1, 2007

Compare and Contrast Paper

Human Cloning: Should It Be Banned?

One of the most talked about, observed, and debatable topics in the world is the process of human cloning. Cloning is defined as “the process of creating an identical copy of an original. A clone in the biological sense, therefore, is a single cell (like bacteria, lymphocytes, etc) or multi-cellular organism that is genetically identical to another living organism…Human cloning is defined as the creation of a genetically identical copy of an existing human or growing cloned tissue from that individual” (Wikipedia). The purpose of this essay is to explain the general concept of human cloning, explain the different sides on the issue, and to explain my view on the issue of human cloning. Should human cloning be banned because it is unethical? Or would it bring new wonders to the world of science?

Human cloning should be considered very carefully. Every human being in the world is considered to be unique and one-of-a-kind. It has been recently proven that the same technology that allows for the cloning of animals can also be applied to the cloning of humans. While there is no known case of a human being cloned, there have been cases of animals being cloned. Consider the case of Dolly, a sheep cloned from the cell of an adult ewe (a female sheep) “An egg cell, taken from an ewe, had its nucleus removed;

Gove 2

this was replaced with the nucleus of a cell taken from another ewe, who gave birth to Dolly. In cloning, no male parent is needed. In normal cases, a newborn has genetic input from both the father’s side and the mother’s side. The original egg cell that was used in Dolly’s case almost contributed to nothing. The nucleus cell of the second ewe contained all of the genetic input for Dolly.”(Satris 150) In other words, Dolly was almost like an identical twin to the second ewe. “If human cloning can happen then what will happen to the idea that we are all one-of-a-kind? What will happen to the idea that we all have our own lives to lead, and that every human being is responsible for his or her own actions?

There are some people who believe that human cloning should not be banned. Those kinds of people see human cloning as beneficial. For example, “a couple who are unable to have a child, might consider a range of alternatives, including cloning. Some people believe it is an innocent use of cloning and it can benefit those who are positively infertile” (Satris 151). A ban on cloning could tamper with medical research. People who are suffering from diseases like diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and HIV/AIDS might recover from those diseases from the technology that uses a clone of their ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

There are some people who believe that human cloning should not be banned. Those kinds of people see human cloning as beneficial. For example, “a couple who are unable to have a child, might consider a range of alternatives, including cloning. Some people believe it is an innocent use of cloning and it can benefit those who are positively infertile” (Satris 151). A ban on cloning could tamper with medical research. People who are suffering from diseases like diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and HIV/AIDS might recover from those diseases from the technology that uses a clone of their own embryo. “An embryo is an early stage of animal or human development. It comes from the zygote and grows into the fetus. The embryo contains the basic cells needed to create a living thing. The cells contain DNA, which is known as the “building blocks of life” (Wikipedia).

“The process of therapeutic cloning would be used to produce cloned embryos, but only to create stem cells that can be used to repair damaged or defective tissue in the parent of the cloned cells” (“The Right To Clone”). Therapeutic cloning is the center of

Gove 3

the debate on stem cell research and human cloning. “By banning human cloning, it would prevent scientists from finding cures to countless diseases and from creating replacement tissues and organs that could save thousands if not millions of lives” (“Human Cloning Should Not Be Banned”). In other words, the ban would kill human beings in order to protect a collection of human cells. It would also violate scientists rights to pursue their research on the subject.

There are also some people who oppose human cloning and think it should be banned. They object to it by “citing possible scenarios”. For example “suppose a person wanted numerous clones of himself or herself and suppose a sports star desires a clone who would then be expected to achieve greatness in sports. These cases create a pause in the issue, since the motivation for cloning appears to be questionable”. (Satris 151).

The primary reason for banning the cloning of living and/or dead humans was argued by philosopher Hans Jonas in the early 1970’s. According to Jonas “he correctly noted that it does not matter that creating an exact duplicate of an existing person is impossible. What really matters is that the person is chosen to be cloned because of some characteristics he or she possesses” (Satris 155) What Jonas means is that people will probably try to only clone famous or hated people who are long since dead, like Adolf Hitler or President John F. Kennedy and they will have the same characteristics as the original. If they cloned another Hitler, the clone would probably start another mass murder of Jewish people or maybe if the clone was created in another environment he would have different characteristics. Jonas also argued that “cloning is always a crime against the clone, the crime of depriving the clone of his or her existential right to

Gove 4

ignorance” of facts about his or her origin that are likely to be “paralyzing for the spontaneity of becoming himself or herself” (Satris 156). In other words, the clone would question his or her own existence. They would question their purpose in life and their destiny. They would also probably ask themselves, “Who am I” and “What is my true reason for being?”

People also oppose human cloning because after the clone is created it will primarily be used as a “laboratory specimen” or in other words, a “lab rat”. “Some people think that creating a human clone for the sole purpose of destroying it is wrong and unethical and they think it should be banned” (“Ban all human cloning”). A while ago, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a declaration calling on members of the states “to prohibit all forms of human cloning in as much as they are incompatible with human dignity and the protection of human life” (“U.N. No Cloning”). Basically, the U.N. General Assembly wants to create a declaration to ban all human cloning stating it is immoral and should be illegal.

Basically, my view on the whole cloning issue is that I think human cloning can be beneficial and it could be harmful to society. For example, when scientists clone a lot of animals at one and then they have babies, those offspring would then have a lot of double recessive genes. Those double recessive genes in turn, would create traits, which are rare and might hurt the animals in turn. I think that messing with God’s creations is wrong. We may hurt the animals and the people if we do things to them and to the clones. I believe that if we really tried and went to other places in the world, we could find what we are looking for and we would not be potentially harming animals and humans.

Gove 5

I think scientists are very smart people, but since they are so smart, I believe they could come up with cures, treatments, etc in different ways besides cloning for diseases. Also, if scientists create too many clones in one setting, they could all probably die and then all that work would be for nothing. Human cloning can be harmful to society because it could kill the clone and the original and then there would be lawsuits. I think that is inhumane. I believe cloning the dead is dumb because you do not know what will come out of it.

Many people are against human cloning and other types of cloning, I believe it is mainly due to lack of knowledge. But cloning could be beneficial to society. Cloning is an amazing scientific breakthrough in history that cannot be ignored. For all we know, a scientist could be cloning the first human at this very minute! I believe that the art of cloning plants, animals, and even humans is a controversial issue that we, as a society, have to be educated on, be prepared for, and be ready to accept.