Essay, Research Paper: To Clone Or Not To Clone

The discovery of cloning can be both beneficial and harmful to society. There are many reasonable methods of cloning. For instance, the use of cloning for medical purposes can be helpful in taking human DNA and creating new body parts. Because of the shortage of donors, this could become a valuable asset to our society. Cloning of human body parts can also be harmful if it gets into the wrong hands. Cloning should be controlled by the government to the extent there is no possible way it will be misused.

Cloning in the field of medicine could have practical applications. For example, genes from humans that produce necessary proteins could be included in the animal DNA so that the animal would produce that protein in its milk or blood. That protein could then be extracted and used in treatment for various human diseases or disorders. This could lead to the prevention and/or cure for AIDS and cancer. Genetic defects could also be cured with cloning technology. A genetic defect is a mutation in which the DNA has been altered and caused an abnormality in the body. People who wish to have a child could be tested for possible mutations in the DNA, and a genetic solution could be created and injected into the still developing egg. Mutations’ are natural, but when an abnormality occurs it’s a hard thing for a person to live with. Through cloning technology, genetic defects could be treated enabling the person affected the possibility of longer life. When transplants are needed, it could give physicians the ability to create body parts through DNA. For example, a kidney can be grown outside the body using the patients’ own DNA and used in a transplant without the fear of rejection.

Although correcting genes and creating body parts is good, I think it would be harmful for a human to be cloned. For instance, a child that is born from a cloned embryo would have a picture taken of him/her, along with a description of the child and placed in a sales catalog. The prospective parents could choose the child they want, order its embryo, and implant it into the woman’s womb. After nine months the couple would have their dream child. Another instance from human cloning could be that a black market for embryos would arise. In this situation infertile couples could buy a frozen cloned embryo that was stolen or was to be discarded in order to have a child. Human cloning could also be harmful in the decline of genetic diversity. If everyone has the same genetic material, what happens if we lose the ability to clone? We would have to resort to natural reproduction, causing us to inbreed, which will cause many problems. Moral issues could also raise questions that cloning does not respect that humans have souls and we are taught to believe each one of us is unique.

I think the discovery of cloning is very interesting but, also has many unanswered questions. There are things that need to be sorted out such as, “Who can use cloning?” and “How it will be controlled?” It would be terrible to think that the wrong people would abuse such a discovery.