Human Cloning

The question of weather we should clone humans is finally here. Not only that, this question is inevitable, vacillating and certainly very debatable. Finally, after many years of wondering medical science has excelled so much that now the idea of cloning humans is no longer a foolish fantasy. It is my belief that the cloning of humans is obscure and unnatural; therefore, cloning humans should be illegal.

If cloning humans would be legal there would be crime. If people started to make clones, then everyone would want a clone of themselves (a healthy clone). So if the original person gets injured he or she would take an organ from their clone. This would mean death for the poor clone. This would be crime because the clone is a human being, just like us, but with its own mind. This means that a human clone is a normal, regular person, no different from anyone else. Killing would be illegal. A type of black market for embryos could easily someday develop (Can). Experiments could also start to take place. That would be illegal-to experiment on humans. Cloning is morally wrong. The U.S. Senate has considered a bill to make human cloning a federal crime. The Scripps Howard news service reported it on February 11th 1997. Although in November 1998, Harold Shapiro, chairman of the national Bioethics Advisory Committee said that human cloning may be impossible to stop (Robinson).

It also wouldn t be fair to a clone. A clone isn t any different from his duplicate who has every right of a regular person (Bender 23). A regular person living in the United States of America is defended by the constitution and has all the rights of which it was written. A clone would be a part of humanity. But he or she wouldn t have real parents nor life. A clone could live in a cage, in a lab, without a normal childhood or adulthood. Thus, the clone wouldn t be normally raised as a child should be, even though, as I already said he is human.

Because of so many new clones which should be considered as people, an overpopulation would develop. Since these living things are human they can t just be killed. The law is that no U.S. citizen shall be deprived of life without proper cause. Everyone would still want a clone of themselves, even if not to take organs from, but to have as a buddy. Since the clone would require food, clothes and a home just like the original person you would have to provide it. Now cloning some of the lower animals like cattle isn t such a bad idea. There would be more food for people and some species would be kept from extinction. We could have a larger quantity of animals.

Because of cloning humans a catastrophe could develop. If not treated properly the clones could start to protest against the development of clones. They could fight against the people who made them and who encourage this development thus getting control over them. Even if the clones were treated as the average person there would still be a problem. If they are not kept in cages-in labs, but are living in cities there would be great confusion to who is really who. Clones could pretend to be one another which would certainly be a bad thing. For example if a criminal gets caught, he could send his clone to jail instead of him. Someone could make a copy of the president or general and order that clone to steal important documents which the they may access. Also, if someone wanted to blackmail the president they could by using a clone, making a video may be one of their ideas. If clones would be made, the police wouldn t know who to blame even in petty crimes. In this case there would be crime, unfair punishment and chaos. As god intended we should all be different in many ways, good or bad. If there were a lot of cloned people genetic variability will be reduced. This population would be susceptible to the same diseases. One virus may kill the entire population (CON). Those against human cloning believe the technology will give us godlike powers and lead to a more homogeneous human race (Poll: Should). Messing with nature just doesn t seem right, its unethical.

Obviously, cloning humans is a sinister, appalling and horrid thing to do. More and more people are beginning to agree with this thought. On a web site accessible by anyone 63% voted no as to cloning people (Poll Results). In addition a 1997 CNN poll conducted among 1005 American adults revealed 89% of the votes against human cloning (Robinson). Hence, it is up to our society too, to stop and think about this important concept, and having to make the right decision about making the cloning of humans an illegality. After all, the odds are on our side.

Works Cited

Bender, David L. et al., Biomedical Ethics. Greenhaven Press, Inc.,

San Diego, California, 1998.

Can we and should we clone humans? .

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/ mchorost/e306/been/cloning.htm (5

February 1999).

CON: Anti-Cloning Research .

http://library.advanced.org/24355/data/reactions/cons.html (18 February 1999).

Poll Results . http://library.advanced.org/24355/cgi-bin/poll.cgi (18

February 1999).

Poll: Should Humans Be Cloned? .

http://library.advanced.org/24355/data/interactions/poll.html (18

February 1999).

Robinson, Bruce A. Ethical aspects of human cloning . August 5th

1997. http://www.religioustolerance.org/cloning.htm (5 February 1999).

Wertz, Dorothy C. The Gene Letter . March 1997.

http://www.geneletter.org/0397/cloning.htm (16 February 1999).