Human Cloning

Human Cloning

A major issue in today's society is human cloning. Is it safe? Should it be banned? These

questions are being discussed everyday. Even though cloning has been around for many years;

for example, identical twins are natural clones ,or the sheep, Dolly, that was cloned in 1997,

cloning still remains one of the most controversial subjects in today's history. There are

many great aspects that human cloning can offer; however, the research and experiments

involving human cloning show that this process is not safe; therefore, human cloning should be

selectively banned until it has been proven effective and safe.

Human cloning can be very beneficial. Dr. Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for

Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, states that human cloning can help infertile

individuals, and it might be able to make tissues and organs to fight diseases (Caplan). For

example, gay couples would be able to have a biological child of their own, or a couple in

which one of them have some kind of tragic disease can have children without the risk of

having a child naturally and passing the disease on. Human cloning is more than bringing back

the dead it can help the living, and one of the leading researchers in this field, Lee Silver, says,

"I think cloning has basically one real scientific use which is to overcome infertility ans it can

be used be people who are unable to produce sperm or eggs and it can allow them to have a

biological child." In addition, cloning can help people that suffer from serious medical

problems. The cloning techniques for growing human organs and tissue can help solve these

problems; for example, it can be used to produce healthy skin to heal burn victims, it could be

used to grow a bone marrow for a leukemia patients dying while he or she is waiting for a

donor. Human cloning can be a great step in today's technology and many scientist believe

that cloning techniques have many great medical benefits (Nardo 78-83).

Even though human cloning offers many beneficial ideas, it still remains unpredictable;

therefore, it is not safe. Experiments show that more than 90% of cloning attempts fail to

produce. In addition, it has been proven that more than 100 nuclear transfer procedures may be

needed to produce one successful clone. This shows just how low success rates are with this

procedure. Also, cloned animals have been reported to have failure in their immune system

allowing infections to be more harmful. There is also a high chance of tumor development and

clones having a short life span due to many abnormalcies that can take place (Cloning Fact

Sheet). For instance, the first mammal to be cloned was Dolly the sheep. Dolly was a great step

for this technology, but within six years Dolly's life was taken due to the development of

lung disease and much more (Magill). Dolly's death was due to flaws in this technology, and

Dr. Magill. Director of Saint Louis University's Center for Health Care, said "it took at least

300 tries before Dolly came to be; therefore, this development further indicates the lack of

safety in this technology (Magill)." Therefore, the experiments dealing with animals show how

unpredictable the outcome of this procedure can be.

Human cloning should be banned because thirty percent of animal clones appear to suffer

from some kind of disorder, and scientist predict that the results for human cloning will be the

same (Cloning Fact