Essay, Research Paper: Cloning

Cloning A few years ago if you were to ask someone about the possibilities ofcloning they would most likely say it was impossible. This attitude towardscloning has been held into belief up until recently when scientists in Scotlandcloned a sheep. And immediately after scientists in Oregon cloned a monkey(Fackelmann 276). The most major breakthroughs of the century in science hasoccurred and we are not ready for it. The scientific breakthrough of cloning hascaused a great deal of controversy in the media and also in the government. Theadvantages of cloning are tremendous to the human race and cannot be ignored. I believe that cloning humans is what the human race needs to advance.Humans would be stronger, smarter, and more perfect. Scientists could remove badgenes from the parents and replace it with a good one. If one of the parents hada bad gene or hereditary disease this could be removed from the embryo andreplaced with another "clean" gene. This process is called embryo screening itis used to determine if the child has received the defective gene. Severalembryos could be cloned, then the DNA from one of the embryos would then beremoved and standard genetic testing would be used to detect whether or not thatembryo contained the genetic disease. If this cloned embryo containd a diseasethen one of the other embryos could be used for implantation in a parent, thisguarantees that the child would be free of genetic disease (Marshall 1025). Forthose who disagree with cloning I am sure if there child could be saved from agenetic disease they would reconsider cloning. Imagine if one of your friends or family members was in need of a liveror kidney. Most likely you would donate your own liver or kidney to save therelife. But then you are one organ short. Well this happens a lot and seems towork fine. But if they needed a new heart you might have trouble finding one.Not if you had a clone of yourself that could supply you with a new organ ormaybe even a relatives organ that was naturally stronger (Cloning 1117). Someonecould replace their old organs with new ones and extend their life span.Thousands of lives that could be saved if we had the technology and advancedscience of cloning available. Even accepting an organ from a relative it mayfail, it has to be compatible with our body system , if its your clone, then itsa perfect match. Cancer is one of the largest killers and also one of the largest dilemmasscientists face today. Well, cancer research is possibly the most importantreason for embryo cloning. Oncologists (People who study Cancer) believe thatembryonic study will advance understanding of the rapid cell growth of cancer.Cancer cells develop at approximately the same great speed as embryonic cells do.By studying the embryonic cell growth, scientists may be able to determine howto stop it, and also stop cancer growth in turn (Watson 66). Whenever there is a draft for a war people protest hide and even leave thecountry why should people be sent to fight for something they don t believe inor even in my case a country they don t want to die for. We cannot dispensehuman lives as if they were candy. If we produced smart, strong and loyal clones,we could have the perfect soldier. There would no longer be humans in the
military, there would be no worries about losing lives or family members. Clonesmade specifically with a sole mission to die for there country these perfectsoldiers would make up a perfect army. Well, in the case of a lost relative, more specifically parents losingtheir child. Parents could clone a child who had died, as a homage of love. Thesaying "there is nothing that you can do to bring him/her back" would now beobsolete with the process of cloning. Of course parents could never have theirchild back exactly as he/she were but they could definitely start over again. Orparents could simply clone the traits of a famous person or favorable traits ofsomeone else and put them in their child s embryo. Maybe even if they wantedtwins or even sextuplets. Parents would be able to make more decisions on theirchild or children s traits. The benefits of cloning do not stop at humans it extends out to animals.A lot of controversy is brought about when animals are used for laboratorytesting. We should clone animals specifically for laboratory tests, theseanimals would not be depleting any populations nor would they be taken away fromtheir habitats destroying any food chains. Also farmers would benefit from cloning their select animals. This wouldalso give the consumer better meat quality and lower the price of meat.Governments in countries where famine is present could master cloning techniquesand provide for the starving populations in their country. One of the mostbeneficial effects of cloning animals is that species of animals whosepopulations are almost extinct could be replenished by cloning. Animals such asthe Blue whale, the condor, and the Norfolk whale. These are only three examplesof endangered species, there are practically hundreds of endangered species thatcould be saved with the process of cloning. We wouldn t be bothered by activistsor any more "save the whales" foundations asking for you to donate money. If theamount of animals produced were controlled according to the food chains andhabitats, these species could thrive once again. We could grow plants that would be immune to bugs or pesticides. Farmerswould have crop that would survive the winter and frost. We could eliminate theloss of crops that forces the prices to go up in the supermarkets. Crops thatrequire less water or can grow in certain types of soil. This would be could forCalifornia where water is scarce. This is only the begging of the benefits we can achieve from cloning.Creating a stronger and more advanced human race. Diseases would become weededand cleaned out of humans genetic makeup. Of course there is a chance of thisgetting in the hands of a madman or someone who would use it for ill purposes.But we can not let this amazing discovery stopped by people that can only seethe bad side of cloning. They must also see the vast benefits of cloning, how itcan save lives and entire species from extinction. I believe that cloning is apart of our evolution, our ancestors evolved by using their hands and minds, bycreating language and civilizations, this advanced them. Cloning is what willadvance our race more. Our bodies have stopped using and have disposed ofunnecessary organs and body features which have proved to be useless. Diseasesand deformities are useless and cloning can aid to the evolution of humans bycleansing our bodies of such ill and in some cases deadly burdens. There are toomany advantages in cloning for us to ignore it.