Essay, Research Paper: Cloning

Cloning: Recently, we have all seen the controversy over whether or not we should attempt to clone. If you haven't heard: A group of scientists in Scotland announced the birth of a sheep cloned from embryonic cells, presaging Dolly. Dolly's was the birth heard round the world. The first mammal ever cloned from a single adult cell, she was living proof that scientists had solved one of the most challenging problems of cell biology. Her creation raised a troubling question: Can humans, too, be cloned? And if so, Should humans be able to play God? Cloning has been an idea that the world has awaited and feared for decades. Cloning has been around since the 1950s when 2 scientists made a frog from tadpole cells. In the 60s, scientists cloned frogs again, but this time using cells from older tadpoles. What has just happened recently is the cloning of a mammal. The sheep named Dolly. A MAMMAL born from a single adult cell. The question is: Is cloning good or evil? Some say this is one of the most remarkable breakthroughs of science history. Man Creates Life. Amazing. But, let's rethink this.. Is the ability for man to create life (in a sense play god), is this a good thing or a bad thing? Why would it be a bad thing? This is an incredible breakthrough of scientific history. This area of microbiology needs to be further explored. There are several advantages that cloning may serve. A child needs a bone marrow transplant within the next two years. You could clone a copy and retrieve the bone marrow. Cloning would give lesbians a way to bear a biological descendant without visiting the spermbank. Perhaps the army could breed stronger, braver soldiers to use just for battle. Let's look at the advantages to cloning mammals: A farmer could clone his prize cow over and over making several copies of it, producing better milk with more nutrients. A shepard could clone the sheep with the best wool and he wouldn't need as many sheep. We could clone endangered species, making them no longer endangered. The list of benefits are endless. I realize that cloning is immoral to many people. The power of a creationism has become ours, in a sense. Many are skeptical of this science but the future will reveal that it is going to become more and more researched. Some against the research say that we are putting the power of God into the hands of humans. I would like to remind you that human cloning has not been done yet. It will be up to science to determine if human cloning can be done. It is up to the rest of us to determine if it should be. In a recent survey : 7% of the participants said that they would clone themselves if they had the chance, while 91% said no. 74% feel that it is against God's will to clone human beings while 19% said no. But who are we to judge God? Are humans God? Does the story of existence state: God creates earth, God creates life, man creates life, man creates life, man creates life, man creates life, and so on. If God creates man, and man creates life, who is God? These questions will be debated over for years and years to come. Experts predict that at this rate, the first human infant will be born in about 7 years. In the mean time, we will have to resolve the biggest, if not bigger debate then evolution. If this happens, are we going to play God? Mammal cloning is probably the biggest step in microbiology ever. The benefits of cloning for good, outweigh cloning for evil. Is cloning to benefit people, evil? What lies ahead in the future of cloning and microbiology? Hopefully more solutions. Until then, we will have a divide of people questioning the morality of this, and people questioning the validity of Creationism. What is next after cloning? Who knows? Only God?


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