Religious Tolerance. (2007). Reproductive and therapeutic cloning. http://www.religioustolerance.org/cloning.htm
The
Lab Rat. (2005). Human Cloning. http://www.thelabrat.com/review/humancloning.shtml
Is Human Cloning more harmful than helpful?
Thursday 31 May 2012
Reference:
Introduction
There are several
different types of cloning and various beliefs that people, society and the
government have about cloning. There are also a lot of ethical issues that come
up with cloning and the intentions people may have behind it. To begin with,
human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human being.
All the information needed to clone a human being is already present in the
nucleus of almost all cells of an existing human being. DNA can be acquired by
taking swabs of the mouth, taking a strand of hair or even scraping of the
skin. Regardless of how you obtain the DNA, that’s really all you need to
create another entire human clone, or to just grow an organ for transplant.
Types of Cloning
There are
three types of cloning, Embryo Cloning, Therapeutic Cloning and Reproductive
Cloning. Embryo Cloning is a technique that consists of a fertilized
embryo cell being transferred into a double embryo thus producing identical
twins/ triplets and so on..Therapeutic
Cloning involves cloning cells from an adult for use in medicine and is an
active area of research. Because of their similar procedures, Embryo Cloning is
sometimes also referred to as Therapeutic Cloning. Its stem cells are extracted
and encouraged to grow in a piece of human tissue or a complete human organ for
transplant. So this wouldn’t be an actual human clone, it would just be a
replacement organ. Clone. The next type of cloning is Reproductive cloning. And
this type of cloning involves cloning an entire human. Research for this type
of cloning hasn’t really lifted of the ground yet since it’s illegal in many
countries.
Advantages and disadvantages of Therapeutic Cloning
One of the
advantages of Therapeutic cloning is its availability since the only
requirement would be the patients own cell. Patients who need Organ transplant
surgeries urgently wouldn’t have to wait for an organ donor, they can just grow
one as needed. There will also be no fear of organ rejection by the patient
because it’s the patients own DNA. And especially for kidney transplant
patients, they wouldn’t have to bear excessive pain and the procedure wouldn’t
shorten their life span. The patient won’t have to be on medication regarding
their organ transplant whereas if the organ was from a donor the patient would
have been on medication for the rest of their lives.
One of the
disadvantages for Therapeutic Cloning is the limitation of adult cells. Procedures
that use Adult Cells usually corrupt in the process and Embryonic Cells have
been found to be more flexible. Stem cells aren’t very stable, there is always
a chance that the cell could mutate during the procedure and cause organ
rejection or even develop a tumour. Another disadvantage is that we don’t have
enough eggs to cure everyone as each procedure requires around a hundred eggs
(depending on the organ). And lastly, during the process of extracting
stem cells, the embryo is killed. Pro-life supporters believe this is murder
and to kill one person to cure another can not be justified.
Advantages and disadvantages of Reproductive Cloning
Reproductive cloning can provide genetically related
children for couples who can’t be helped by other fertility treatments. Another
advantage is that it would allow lesbians to have a child without having to use
donor sperm, and gay men to have a child that does not have genes derived from
an egg donor . And lastly, reproductive cloning could allow parents of a child
who has died to create another child with the previous child's DNA.Reproductive
cloning would foster an understanding of children, and of people in general, as
objects that can be designed and manufactured to acquire specific
characteristics. Another major disadvantage is that it would diminish the sense
of uniqueness of an individual. It would violate deeply held authenticity
concerning human individuality and freedom, and could lead to a devaluation of
clones in comparison with non-clones. Reproductive cloning is naturally unsafe.
At least 95% of mammal cloning experiments have resulted in failures in the
form of miscarriages, stillbirths, and life-threatening glitch. Some experts
believe no clones are fully healthy. The technique could not be developed in
humans without putting the physical safety of the clones and the women who bear
them at grave risk.
Conclusion
I believe
reproductive cloning is completely wrong because that would involve creating an
entire human being un-naturally. It will also bring up issues of second class
citizens and inequality. However, I do believe in Therapeutic Cloning as the
advantages highly outweigh its disadvantages and it will only be creating an
organ for a specific person in need.
Tuesday 15 May 2012
Harvard Journal of Law and Technology
This link is actually of a book online from “Harvard
Journal of Law and Technology (volume 11)” about “Constitutional Challenges to
Bans on Human Cloning” by Lori B Andrews. This book discusses the many
potential risks involved with cloning. Furthermore it explains how the bans
would affect the future of cloning.
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