Cloning
...es of animals to develop organs of the human body. It also has given us a better understanding of genetics. DNA cloning has developed transgenic animals that produce hormones or proteins that could be used to heal humans. DNA cloning is very beneficial to society because it increases our knowledge in medical study, leads to cures for human diseases, and causes no harm to human kind. I believe therapeutic cloning can be the most beneficial type of cloning to society. Therapeutic cloning uses an embryonic stem cell, which create an embryo for research. This isn’t the cloning of a human, but it’s the study of stem cells. “Stem cells are also good for human development and also to treat disease” says the Human Genome Project Information. Stem cells have the ability to become any cell in the human body. If stem cell research continues to develop then the organs of the body can be replaced; for example, if someone has heart disease then a new heart can be grown through stem cells. This is better than a regular heart transplant because your body will accept the heart from your own stem cells but may reject a heart from another person. This is also a better method of a cure because you don’t have to worry about finding a compatible heart and transplanting it safely to the patient. Therapeutic cloning has already had some medical breakthroughs on rats. Researchers from Geron were able to develop nerve cells from human stem cells; Geron is a major stem cell research fund. The nerve cells gave paralyzed rats the ability to walk again. Geron says “The findings add to a growing number of studies that suggest embryonic stem cells could have a valuable role to play in treating spinal injuries.” The potential for therapeutic cloning is so great because stem cells have the ability to develop in to any kind of tissue. Therapeutic cloning can be revolutionary to the medical industry and also save many lives in the future. There are high expectations for these procedures. Embryo cloning is the type of cloning society should avoid. Embryo cloning is when an identical twin is created. Basically an embryo is copied through a cell and fertilized to bring about the cloned specimen. They are grown in a lab. Embryo cloning is strictly only used for duplicating an animal. I don’t believe cloning animals is necessary, but dangerous to society because duplicating life just brings another animal into existence when this could be done under normal circumstances. I don’t believe embryo cloning will ever be pursued because there are too many moral factors that society recognizes that will prevent its uprising. Therapeutic cloning and DNA cloning can be directly used for medical purposes. I believe this is the best type of cloning because organs and tissues people need to live can be created without the suffering of another living being. The research the scientists develop could be used to produce multiple cells for the human antidotes or healing aids from DNA cloning. There is a good amount of research that says in time these two types of cloning will be able to help save many lives. I don’t believe embryo cloning should be pursued because it is morally wrong bringing a duplicate living being into the world. The procedure and the results of embryo cloning are just ethically and physically wrong with the embryo cloning process. Reproductive cloning is morally wrong because for many different reasons. In the movie, “The 6th Day” raises many ethical questions into play. Reproductive cloning takes away all the norms of a regular life. It is shown that it is impossible for a clone to have the same life as the regular human being. The next couple of paragraphs will explain why cloning should not be pursued. The loss of identity is the main topic of “The 6th Day”. The entire movie is about a man named Adam Gibson who is trying to regain his life back after he was cloned because the clone took his place in society. In the movie, there is a scene when Adam Gibson comes home one day to witness a clone of him celebrating his birthday with his family and friends. The movie follows the clone’s view instead of the regular Adam Gibson, but the clone doesn’t know this because he has the exact same thoughts as the original Adam Gibson. Using reproductive cloning to clone a human being puts the clone in an identity crisis because he or she won’t have the same things as the regular human being. For example, a clone won’t have a biological mother or father to take care of them and guide through life because they are born in a lab. When a clone comes in this world it doesn’t have any structure. This may cause the clones to pursue a negative course of action. People’s identities are what make this world unique and interesting. I believe reproductive cloning will be harmful to society because clones will have a problem fitting into society and normal human beings won’t be able to coexist with their own clone in the world. “The 6th Day” depicts the mistreating of clones. The cloned Adam Gibson is probed with a detector so that the corporation ran by Drucker can keep track of him. The placement of the probe in a person is mistreating to that person because it takes away their freedom to do whatever they wish to do. It would be impossible for society to treat clones the same way as regular human beings because they need a test specimen to see if their procedure would be a success. This is exactly the procedure Drucker and his company used. The cloned Adam Gibson was probed because Drucker didn’t want their secret being revealed to the public because if it then he would be in trouble. Clones in the early experimentations would be subjected to many types of tests and inhumane things like the cloned Adam Gibson went through because scientists would probably want to make sure they are stable and safe in society. The life expectancy of a human clone is dramatically lower then a normal person. The current knowledge of cloning gives us a good reason not to clone humans. The most dangerous type of cloning would have to be reproductive cloning because reproductive cloning is the making of an exact copy of an animal or human. Clones will be mistreated and would not have the same rights as a normal animal through the reproductive process. In the early stages of reproductive cloning, clones would have to go through testing that a normal person would not have to go through. The testing of clones may cause suffering to the living clones, which would be against basic human rights. “Physicians from the American Medical Association and scientists from the American Association for the Advancement of Science believe human cloning to be unethical because the inefficiency of animal cloning and there is minimal understanding of reproductive cloning” from Newscientist.com. The quote means our current understanding of cloning is not good enough and would be wrong to clone. Human cloning should be banned because cloned humans shouldn’t be subjected to horrible testing because they are living beings as well just as normal people are. The power of reproductive cloning also becomes an issue because people that posses the ability to clone have a great responsibility. The people who control reproductive cloning in “The 6th Day” happened to use cloning for evil. Drucker uses reproductive cloning to gain immortality. This isn’t a beneficial way for using cloning for society. Drucker basically uses reproductive cloning to revive himself and his companions when they get killed. Since Drucker has the ability to be immortal he can pretty much do anything he wants without penalty, which is very dangerous. Drucker was also using clones to replace important people in big corporations so he could have control of them. Drucker killed the important people and used the clones as his puppets to control the corporations. I believe cloning needs to be controlled by the government and not by a single individual if cloning was to be pursued because it could be used as a very powerful tool. A single individual or group that controls cloning can use it for far too many evils. For example, they may want to clone an evil dictator like Hitler back from the dead, create a cloned army, search for immortality, and more. Reproductive cloning is a very dangerous tool and could damage the world to a huge scale when possessed in the wrong hands. Reproductive cloning should be outlawed all together to prevent these powers from arising into people’s hands. The power of reproductive cloning also becomes an issue because people that posses the ability to clone have a g...