Cloning 1999

Cloning is the process of creating a genetic duplicate of an individual. Since the February 1997 announcement of the birth of Dolly, a sheep cloned by Ian Wilmut, cloning research has increased greatly. Cloning humans now has become a much greater possibility in society than it was years ago. Scientist are on the edge of a huge breakthrough with human cloning, and society will ask it's self if this should be allowed or not. Many arguments can be made for and against human cloning.

Proponents of human cloning may argue that it is just a logical and inevitable advance in science technology. It is, however , risky for human subjects. At the present time, most of the general public is against cloning. Within a few years time, the medical possibilities of human cloning may be attractive enough to change the publics opinion. Reasearchers on human cloning would involve huge risks for the initial clones, because any experiments in human cloning would eventually have to be tested on humans.

Human cloning is unethical because of the risks that this practice involves greatly outweigh the bebefits. The technique that produced Dolly the sheep was successful in only 1 of 277 attempts. If this was attempted in humans, it would risk miscarriages in the mother and severe developmental problems in the child. The actual risks of physical harm to the cloned child cannot be certain without conducting experiments on human beings. This itself is unethical because no one knows what will happen and the child is in danger because noone knows what is going to happen, the child could be born disabled and/or have developmental diffuculties.

As of now human cloning doesn't seem like a great possibility because of the risk involved and how the general public would react. Some time in the future, maybe the advances in medical technology will allow cloning with no possible risks.