Reference:

Dixon, P. (n.d). Human Cloning: What is cloning? How to clone. Is cloning ethical? http://www.globalchange.com/clonech.htm

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

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.

Harvard Journal of Law and Technology

http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1026&context=lori_andrews&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fscholar.google.co.nz%2Fscholar%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3Dharmful%2Bhuman%2Bcloning%26btnG%3DSearch%26as_sdt%3D0%252C5%26as_ylo%3D%26as_vis%3D0#search=%22harmful%20human%20cloning%22

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.

The Lab Rat

http://www.thelabrat.com/review/humancloning.shtml

The Lab Rat is a website that features upcoming news and reviews on scientific matters, one of which addresses the issue of human cloning as a review by Chris McCormack.  He talks about futuristic theories relating to human cloning and how it can severely damage the process of evolution since “Evolution relies on the continued ‘mixing & matching’ of different versions of different genes”.

Life Issues

http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/jon/css/css_03clonestemcell6.html

This website is contains articles on “clear thinking about critical issues” which of one is Human Cloning. The article has numerous sections on different sides of benefits and detriments this subject arises. As the article is a submission to The House of Lords Select Committee on Stem Cell Research, it is majorly based on moral values and principles.

Global Change

http://www.globalchange.com/clonech.htm

Global Change is a website owned and maintained by Dr Patrick Dixon, who is a Physician and a Futurist. On this site he has an article that thoroughly explains all the different types of cloning and their benefits and disadvantages. He also has two youtube videos on this page in which he talks about what the cloning industry will achieve in the near future.

Religious Tolerance.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/cloning.htm  

The religion tolerance is a website about “Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance” and it features a researched page under their treading topics about “Therapeutic Cloning”.  This researched page explains the meanings of various types of cloning and very briefly describes their pros and cons. According to the site, there are three categories of cloning. The first, Embryo Cloning,; this technique consists of a fertilized embryo cell being transferred into a double embryo thus producing identical twins/ triplets. Secondly, Reproductive Cloning; also referred to as Adult DNA Cloning, and thirdly, Therapeutic Cloning; which is used for organ transplants.