Cloning: the Life and Death

Science is an amazing study and scientists and doctors have been able to find cures and remedies for many illnesses in the world. No one can stop death from happening. Death is a daily occurrence in our world and its impossible to know when the clock stops in your life. Cloning is a replicate of an individual or organism by creating duplicates of cells and DNA fragments. Some organisms can produce clones through the process of asexual cloning. There are three types of cloning which are molecular, reproductive and Therapeutic cloning. The first success of cloning in 1996 with a sheep named Dolly, she later died in 2003 which was a short life expectancy for a sheep. A cell was used restore the nucleus of an egg cell. This allowed identical DNA from the parent that had given the cell used. What if a mother and father lost their son in a horrific accident and doctors were able to make a clone of their son or daughter, how would it change their life? The most common answer to this question would be life altering knowing their son has been returned to their life. Yes, this would be amazing but there are many more outcomes that are more negative that can occur from cloning. Human cloning is not ethically permissible because cloning can cause health problems that can erupt later in life or early after birth, it will be taken advantage of, and lastly cloning interferes with natures life and death process.

Cloning can cause many health problems if done in correctly. Scientists have never cloned a human being, but they have cloned many animals. Judy Jones said in the US National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health that, A two-month-old calf, cloned from genes taken from the ear of an adult cow, died after developing blood and heart problems. Cloning can cause many health deficiencies and many cloned animals lack the normal functioning developmental organs that their counterparts once had. There have been multiple organisms that have been cloned including chickens, cows, goats, sheep and plants. These cloned animals have been known to die shortly after birth or have deformities to their bodies. Many cloned animals tend to die extremely earlier than a non-cloned animal due to health-related issues. Some more issues that can be created by cloning is the health risk for the mother giving birth. There is a very low success rate of clones which can be hard on a mother as well. If all these defects are found in cloned animals, what makes scientists think they can perform this with humans? The risk factors are extremely high, but some people think the risk should be made with a human or animal because they have nothing to lose. If someone lost a love one or even a pet dog, bringing them back to life would mean everything to them. If a clone was born healthy, then the family would be joyous knowing their loved one or beloved pet is back in their life. People often try to seek redress for their loss and they may think cloning can give them peace. If a cloned organism were implanted into a womb, as was done in the case of Dolly the sheep, it could possibly go on to full development and birth. Because of this potential, some would argue that the organism produced in human therapeutic cloning experiments is the equivalent of any ordinary human embryo and merits the same degree of respect and protection.

As the process of cloning animals is slowly increasing, scientists are thinking of new ideas for the use of cloning. As the world grows and the population increases food will come more of a necessity than before. Scientists will need to create a way to make more food, which may mean a larger amount of cloning will need to occur. More farmed raised animals including cows, sheep, chickens and pigs will be cloned. At this time, they won't see any negative outcomes from eating cloned meat, but this may change in the future. Using meat from possibly unhealthy animals may give humans more health defects and may hurt their natural growth. Scientist will take advantage of cloning to quickly produce food for society. Many people feel as though this may be the only way to sustain the human population, so it wouldn't necessarily be taking advantage of cloning, more like saving the human population. People would also take advantage of cloning by cloning their favorite pet animal that passed away. This would inevitably increase the feral animal population because many of the un-cloned animals wouldn't have homes. A counter argument can be made that cloned animals wouldn't be taken advantage of because they could be tested on to help cure diseases and illnesses. In the eyes of a utilitarian cloning pets and getting more food for more people would create world happiness. This may be an alternative, but scientists can do so much more with cloning, and there is a great chance it will eventually be taken out of hand. In an article by Green R.M, he says, If a cloned organism were implanted into a womb, as was done in the case of Dolly the sheep, it could possibly go on to full development and birth. Because of this potential, some would argue that the organism produced in human therapeutic cloning experiments is the equivalent of any ordinary human embryo and merits the same degree of respect and protection. This may be correct but there are many more negative health risks that can develop after birth.

Life and death are a process that keeps the world spinning. People fail to realize from the moment you are born, we are closer to dying. Without death the world would no longer exist due to over population. The world today is already over populated and by the year 2050 the world will have roughly 10 billion people. According to the Ecology Global Network, There are 250 births every minute and 105 deaths every minute. If scientists decide to clone people and it becomes a trend the world won't be able to withstand all the human life any longer than it already has. The process of death will be altered. Also, if genes are modified to create people who are stronger, smarter and with better features, it will not give a sense of purpose to those who were born naturally without cloning. This statement can also be reversed because if a clone realizes about his life, he or she may not feel a sense of purpose in life. A counter argument to this claim would be some men aren't able to produce sperm which wouldn't allow life to even be created. The cloning process would give him the opportunity to have a child that is biologically related to him.

In conclusion cloning is not ethically permissible because it is a very risky procedure and nearly every experiment conducted will be a failure. If the organism is cloned and it is successful, there is a high chance for them to suffer from a birth defect or illness later in life. The life expectancy is also shortened due to cloning. Doctors and physicians cannot guarantee that a cloned individual is healthy which is extremely unethical and inhumane because there is not 100% certainty that they will be healthy. Cloning interferes with the natural process of life and death. If someone dies it is ethically and morally right to let them rest in peace. Bringing them back to life as a new born alters the natural process and can lower their self-importance because they know they aren't a unique individual. They will live a life feeling as though their life doesn't have a purpose. If clones are created for excellence and greater ability than it will also make people who were naturally born without scientific involvement feel inferior to those who have greater abilities. The cloning process is extremely unethical and should not be practiced due to the risks that were that brought up in the previous paragraphs. It is simply too unsafe to practice and continue cloning especially on a human being because it has never been conducted before.

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