Essay About Human Cloning And Natural Clones

Human Cloning
Essay Preview: Human Cloning
Report this essay
Human Cloning
A major issue in todays 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 todays 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 todays 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 Dollys life was taken due to the development of
lung disease and much more (Magill). Dollys death was due to flaws in this technology, and
Dr. Magill. Director of Saint Louis Universitys 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