Youve Been Cloned

You've Been Cloned

One day, in the near future you could suddenly notice that your appearance is the same as three other people. I am sure that you would be extremely surprised if were unaware of the fact that you were a result of human cloning. In recent years, cloning has been an achievement of medical profession and hot news in newspapers and television channels across the world because of its astonishing ability to duplicating life. By definition, cloning is the creation of an organism that is an exact genetic copy of another. This means that every single bit of DNA, the chemical inside the nucleus of a cell that caries the genetic instructions for making living organisms, is the same between the original organism and its copy (Beckwith). Scientists can create many living things with only a single strand of DNA. The process involves an unfertilized egg, which is extracted from a woman, followed by the removal of the nucleus. Then, genes taken from another person are placed inside the egg. Chemicals are added and a spark of electricity shocks the cell into dividing and developing into an exact copy as the original organism ( Ethics and Cloning).

As amazing and unbelievable as the capabilities of creating a genetically identical copy of an existing human or growing cloned tissue from an individual is, this is also a very controversial issue. Human cloning has numerous ethical issues regarding physical genetics and other areas. Cloning also negatively impacts the mindset of some people ultimately impacting our society. However, I find that the risks of human cloning will outweigh the benefit. Following is my viewpoint concerning the issue of human cloning.

Human beings differ from other creatures because they have cognitive ability and ethical reasoning. The definition of "ethical" given in Oxford Dictionary is "connected with beliefs and principle about what is right and wrong, morally correct or acceptable." We live in a society filled with rules and regulations. In order to uphold our values and follow the guidelines we have implicated, we have to acquire and maintain the good things as well as exclude the bad things from our life (Ballard). Partly for this reason, human cloning is not accepted because it is against most people's beliefs and values. In 1999, the CNN poll found that 89 percent of those who responded believed that cloning humans was morally wrong, and 74 percent even went so far to say that human cloning was against God's will.

As discussed above, human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of an existing human or growing cloned tissue from that individual. If scientists succeeded in human cloning, technically, women would not be needed to reproduce. This would remove the opportunity to feel how the child develops during their pregnancy and the prenatal bond that occurs between a mother and her child would not be experienced. On average, a woman is pregnant for nine months and ten days. During this time period, she is living for a second person, becoming physically and emotionally attached. If human cloning were to be accepted, it would throw out the natural way of birth, as well as the emotional and psychological attachment between mother and child. This violates natural life rules and the value that humans have of life. In addition to these values created and still believed by humans, Francis J. Beckwith, Ph.D. wrote, "research cloning can only be justified by the utilitarian calculus that prizes the lives of the millions of people who could potentially be treated or cured as a result of the research over the lives of the embryos who would be destroyed in order for the research to proceed. However, it is never ethical to sacrifice one human life for the real or potential benefit of others."

Human cloning is a complicated task. It requires scientists to use a large amount of DNA in order to develop it into an embryo. Some people believe that embryos are human, so to destroy them is equal to murder (Ethics and Cloning). From this point of view, scientists kill numerous embryos, or humans a day. Many scientists, who are very intelligent and insightful people, have a difficult time using many embryos for support in their research. Some feel that it is very unethical as well, because from a scientific view point the embryo is very much alive.

Just as some believe human cloning to be unethical, others argue that the traditional values that were mentioned above do not reflect present life accurately and no damage is done to the individual. Some scientists have shown that human cloning has the ability to help people exclude bad genes. These people do not realize that this is only a minuet advantage and do not consider the negative impacts that could possibly occur in the future. They believe that our modern society is so advanced all of works have to be done by machine, even giving the birth to children. They also believe that human cloning is just as much a natural reproduction process as it is a technology achievement and should be welcomed. These people are willing to exchange their ethical value for an unethical ambition. On the contrary to their beliefs, humans are individuals, not products. Because of this, we should not be used for copies.

In order to manufacture enough cloned embryos to create a sufficient number of viable stem cell lines, scientists research cloning will undoubtedly lead to a new exploitation of women. The research will require massive quantities of women's eggs. To do so, women must be injected with super ovulate drugs and undergo invasive procedures. The side effects of the injections are abdominal pain and nausea. In 3 to 5 percent of women injected with ovulate drugs, hyper stimulation of the ovaries occurs, causing severe abdominal pain, and on rare occasions surgery is required which could even leave the patient infertile (Winkler's). Contrary to women who assume the risks associated with egg donation in order to undergo in vitro fertilization, women who take such risks for the purpose of research cloning would not be motivated by the desire to have a child, but by the desire for financial gain. Indeed, Advanced Cell Technology paid $3,500 - $4,000 to each woman who donated eggs for their failed cloning experiments. It is likely that women of lower economic means will be exploited in this way. Women's health will be affected seriously because they give massive quantities of eggs. These processes cause abdominal pain and infertility. What will think when our wives, our mothers, our sisters become the subjects of human cloning experiments?

Some people think that the benefits of human cloning lie in the advancements in fighting incurable diseases, such as Parkinson, or Lou Gehrig. Advancements are possible with stem cells making new nerve