in Both Sides of Cloning

in Both Sides of Cloning

Essay in Both Sides of Cloning

Cloning is a much celebrated issue since the creation of the first cloned mammal, a sheep named Dolly. It paved way in the possibility that humans can also be cloned which raised international concerns due to its implications scientifically and ethically. Until now policies and debates are being made about cloning. Cloning encompasses many practices both socially accepted and not. It can be done in three different ways, the recombinant DNA method, therapeutic cloning, and lastly reproductive cloning which is responsible for Dolly’s creation.

We Will Write a Custom Essay Specifically
For You For Only $13.90/page!


order now

            We could derive many benefits from cloning. In cloning plants, we could alleviate the food scarcity in some countries by creating crops which are high yielding, resistant to viruses and pathogens, produces quality fruits, and matures easily. This can be done by collecting desirable traits from different plants and placing it in one crop and thus producing a premiere cultivar. Many researches are done regarding genetically modified crops mostly in third world countries to prevent hunger due to overpopulation. In the case of animals, cloning opens the idea of reviving an extinct animal through the extraction of DNA from fossils and transfers it to the nucleus of a reconstructed egg. It may sound fictional but it is possible if the cell integrity is preserved especially those trapped in ice. Also, we could help increase the survival capacity of animals that are facing extinction in the wild or help them repopulate through reproductive cloning which would preserve the biodiversity. We could also apply the same principle in cloning of plants to those animals that are used for food. In poultry, milk production and egg production could be raised through extracting the genetic make-up of animals for high producing milk and egg and creating animals with the said characteristics.

Many achievements have been made in the field of cloning and the cloning of humans would be a revolutionary breakthrough in medicine and technology. Cloning human means creating a new being but with the same genetic composition so it is possible to clone those people who possesses desirable characteristics, be it intellectual or physical and create many of them. Cloning also means longer life for humans. Reversing people from aging could be done by cloning your own cells and implanting it to your body when you’re old and will also prevent age-related diseases. But not only cells can be cloned, organs too. Therapeutic cloning leads to the production of body organs by means of growing stem cells into the needed organs for those who don’t have the exact donor match. It includes skin for the burn victim, new heart for a cancer patient and even bigger breast for a cosmetic patient. Another problem that cloning could solve is having children of Homosexual and infertile couples. Hereditary materials could be extracted from the sex cells of the parents and is then fertilized through a selected mother. Technically, the baby contains both of these hereditary materials and therefore can be considered as one of your own.

            Some benefits of cloning are of with great help nowadays but are still questioned like foods from plants and animals that are being cloned. They believed that it is not safe to be eaten because of the unknown risks it poses though there are still no medically proven harms. In the long run we may not know what its effects are in the human body and in the environment, that’s why even environmentalist protests in the production genetically modified foods. For example the Bacillus thuriengensis, a modified corn is resistant to corn borers because it is cross-bred with bacteria that are harmful to insects. Even though it didn’t compromise its nutritional values, we can’t totally assure the safety of humans eating it and the non target organisms.  Choosing these foods which are sold commercially might be cheaper but its possible harm to us is may not yet be manifested.

            Cloning is costly and very risky. In addition to this it is a new technology and very unstable. Out of the many tries from different countries, only few are successful in developing a cloned animal .It is said that the immune system of these animals are sacrificed which will make them prone to diseases even though desirable traits are achieved. Scientists failed many times in cloning Dolly and yet after it was born, sufficient data for documentation about cloning wasn’t gathered because of the early death. She was abnormally big and died in some unknown disease. To mention, Dolly is not the only unsuccessful experiment but many others as well from different institutions and universities.

Cloning could even be riskier. It would cause greater harm because of Man’s greed. What will happen if someone became successful in reviving a dinosaur through cloning? It is really a chaos when those giants lived in this modern age.  But the riskiest of them of all is cloning of a human that is why the practice of this is constantly bombarded by many issues and concerns.

Many religious sectors are protesting that it’s unethical to clone humans because it is not the natural way of creation and would cause greater trouble in the future. The science community is also not into human cloning basically for the same reason. There would be an imbalance in nature and monopoly of human beings. Desirable offspring can be made by collecting desirable traits from different humans so technically future sons and daughters can be genetically assembled. With this, hereditary diseases could be acquired easily because genetic compositions of cloned humans are the same. Also, imagine if a multi-millionaire cloned bright and talented human for their firm, it would be a lot unfair for naturally born human beings because they are much different in born skills. Only cloned beings could get a job and could get rich. Then there could be a misunderstanding and would create the division of humans; artificially and naturally born. Predicting the future of humans being cloned is much more terrifying than this. We shouldn’t be playing gods. Many disadvantages are mentioned above and still there are many to be faced as we cross the boundaries of cloning our own species. What are we going to choose, the risks involved for the benefit of mankind or being satisfied to what he have and sacrificing the chance to discover new things?

Works Cited:

http://www.rds-online.org.uk/pages/page.asp?i_ToolbarID=5&i_PageID=162

http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2007/207_clones.html

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/units/cloning/whatiscloning/

http://www.humancloning.org/benefits.php

http://www.livescience.com/cloning/

http://www.abpischools.org.uk/resources/poster-series/cloning/proscons.asp



Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

*
*
*

x

Hi!
I'm Beba

Would you like to get such a paper? How about receiving a customized one?

Check it out