Ethical Implications of Human Cloning
Ethical Implications of Human Cloning
Cloning has been going on in the natural world for thousands of years. A clone is simply one living thing made from another, leading to two organisms with the same set of genes. In that sense, identical twins are clones, because they have identical DNA. Sometimes, plants are self-pollinated, producing seeds and eventually more plants with the same genetic code. When earthworms are cut in half, they regenerate the missing parts of their bodies, leading to two worms with the same set of genes. Any organism that reproduces asexually; produces a clone. However, the ability to intentionally create a clone in the animal kingdom by working on the cellular level is a very recent development.
From sheep to monkeys, scientist have made great strides in the past few years in cloning mammals. The birth of these transgenered animals provides a major stepping stone for the cloning of humans. Now groups say they are ready to clone a human being. Controversy over their plan runs high, but scientists believe the technology for human cloning, at least a limited type of cloning for now, is available. A revolution in reproductive biology is now taking place, that provides technical means for cloning humans. Many scientists who work with cloned animals say that the procedure is difficult and dangerous and too ethical to try on humans. Therefore it is my purpose in this paper to chronicle some events that have led to the still emerging technologies that can be directly applicable to the of potential human cloning.
In order to make a fully justified decision on whether human cloning is ethical or not, one must be exposed to the background of the subject. To start, a clone is an exact replica of an organism, cell, or gene. The process itself is done asexually with the use of a cell from the original human. It is then placed inside a female capable of bearing a child and is then born as a clone. Along with this comes questions of whether or not it is right to clone a human being based on different facts and opinions of small groups or communities(Dudley 11).
The technology of cloning is not quite developed enough for a doctor to be certain that an experiment will be successful. In Scotland, the first sheep was cloned and was named Dolly. It took over 250 tries before they...