Cloning

Cloning as a simple thought is making two of the same from one. There are two types, reproductive and therapeutic. This discussion is of the former scientifically referred to as asexual reproduction. Human cloning, for example, you could think of as taking a piece of one human and duplicating or making a copy of that person. It would not be of any traditionally known relation, just a clone. Cloning has been very a controversial subject capturing worldwide attention, as “Dolly” a sheep was the first animal successfully replicated in the UK by the reproductive clone method, born on 5 July 1996, and died 14 February 2003. First, the question arises to what is a clone. This paper will focus on reproductive cloning unless otherwise mentioned for argument or contrast. The answer is simple, the genetic copy of the cell or organism cloned. However, the process to get the clone can be very difficult to do and the costs of mass-producing would be prohibitive. Then there is the question of ethics that weight heavily on populations at large. Arguments for or against human or animal cloning run a large spectrum of thought and reason, from religious views, philosophical talking points, and general ethical issues at large to genetic technologies and known biological science. Arguments for cloning include; Men and women who can not produce eggs or sperm at all could be given assistance through these reproduction techniques and allow them have a child when modern technology fails to provide the means to regenerate by naturally occurring means whereby giving them offspring to carry family lineages. Cloning restricted to this grouping of people could be beneficial. This same reasoning argues also that it could eliminate genetic variations of the parent that are detrimental to a bloodline if sifted for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) mutations that leads to various illnesses. An argument against cloning for carryover of bloodline linage is very strong given the technology for this is very sketchy and not thoroughly proven yet. The issues surrounding this type restriction would most likely lead to cloning availability to all with time. Policies and social changes protecting those specific groups challenged through any court system would most likely overturned leading to perhaps a greater number of side defects and anomalies that would lead to early death in the clone. Cloning has been proven essentially unsafe. “At least 95% of mammalian cloning experiments have resulted in failures in the form of miscarriages, stillbirths, and life-threatening anomalies; some experts believe no clones are fully healthy. The technique could not be developed in humans without putting the physical safety of the clones and the women who bear them at grave risk.” (Reproductive Cloning Arguments Pro and Con, Center for Genetics and Society, Berkeley, CA. May 15, 2006) The US federal government has attempted to pass several Acts prohibiting cloning since 1997 but has been unsuccessful in passing any type legislation to date. Because the federal government has not passed any legislation or comprehensive laws regarding human biotechnologies or cloning, various states have passed their own laws outlawing the practice as well as many other countries around the globe. There is some movement in the scientific community regarding stem cell research known as therapeutic cloning which is very close to the reproductive clone process but, that too is very controversial between the same groups previously mentioned. The future of cloning is uncertain at present and will continue most likely for some time until biotechnologies have substantially developed beyond the laboratory. Some research has proven successful replicating skin tissues and other minor appendages through the therapeutic cloning process on humans but nothing on a grand scale. In conclusion, my position on this issue is this; biotechnologies have not evolved enough to risk a human life of either the mother or the clone. Human ethos, constraint, and caution should prevail to limit this practice to animals on a very limited basis. Perhaps when all or at least most genetic codes have been discovered and their absolute known properties revealed somatic cell nuclear transfer could be tested in humans. However, this will be at a time when humans have evolved beyond what now compares to a primate in relation to our proposal of a successful cloning. The future will only tell because man is always attempting and striving beyond yesterdays unthinkable and develop it into reality today. Even though “Dolly” proved that it could be done bioscience has a long way to go for before human cloning should begin. Even when human cloning begins as in the words of the writer Debopriya Bose,”A clone is not an exact copy of the donor of the genetic material, as the mitochondrial DNA does not come from the donor. Also, a human being is quite affected by his experiences and environment and these would always be different for the DNA donor and his clone.” (Debopriya Bose, http://www.buzzle.com/articles/ human-cloning-facts.html)