Cloning
Shortly after the announcement that British scientists had successfully
cloned a sheep, Dolly, cloning humans has recently become a possibility that
seems much more feasible in today's society. The word clone has been applied to
cells as well as to organisms, so that a group of cells stemming from a single
cell is also called a clone. Usually the members of a clone are identical in
their inherited characteristics that is, in their genes except for any
differences caused by mutation. Identical twins, for example, who originate by
the division of a single fertilized egg, are members of a clone; whereas
nonidentical twins, who derive from two separate fertilized eggs, are not
clones. (Microsoft® Encarta® 97 Encyclopedia). There are two known ways that we
can clone humans. The first way involves splitting an embryo into several halves
and creating many new individuals from that embryo. The second method of cloning
a human involves taking cells from an already existing human being and cloning
them, in turn creating other individuals that are identical to that particular
person. With these two methods at our desposal, we must ask ourselves two very
important questions: Should we do this, and Can we? There is no doubt that many
problems involving the technological and ethical sides of this issue will arise
and will be virtually impossible to avoid, but the overall idea of cloning
humans is one that we should accept as a possible reality for the future.
Cloning humans is an idea that has always been thought of as something that
could be found in science fiction novels, but never as a concept that society
could actually experience. Today's technological speed has brought us to the
piont to where almost anything is possible. Sarah B. Tegen, '97 MIT Biology
Undergraduate President states, I think the cloning of an entire mammal has
shown me exactly how fast biology is moving ahead, I had no idea we were so
close to this kind of accomplishment. Based on the current science , though,
most of these dreams and fears are premature, say some MIT biologists. Many
biologist claim that true human cloning is something still far in the future.
This raises ethical questions now as towhether or not human cloning should even
be attempted. (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/). There are many problems
with cloning humans. One method of human cloning is splitting embryos. The main
issue as to whether or not human cloning is possible through the splitting of
embryos began in 1993 when experimentation was done at George Washington
University Medical Center in Washington D.C. There Dr. Jerry Hall experimented
with the possibility of human cloning and began this moral and ethical debate.
There it was concluded that cloning is not something that can be done as of now,
but it is quite a possibility for the future. These scientists experimented
eagerly in aims of learning how to clone humans. Ruth Macklin of U.S. News &
World Report writes, Hall and other scientists split single humans embryos into
identical copies, a technology that opens a Pandora's box of ethical questions
and has sparked a storm of controversy around the world (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/).
They attempted to create seventeen human embryos in a laboratory dish and when
it had grown enough, separated them into forty-eight individual cells. Two of
the separated cells survived for a few days in the lab developed into new human
embryos smaller than the head of a pin and consisting of thirty-two cells each.
(http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/) Although we cannot clone a human yet, this
experiment occurred almost two years ago and triggered almost an ethical
emergency. Evidence from these experiments received strange reactions from the
public. Ruth Macklin states, Cloning is a radical challenge to the most
fundamental laws of biology, so it's not unreasonable to be concerned that it
might threaten human society and dignity. Yet much of the ethical opposition
seems also to grow out of an unthinking disgust--a sort of yuk factor. And that
makes it hard for even trained scientists and ethicists to see the matter
clearly. While human cloning might not offer great benefits to humanity, no one
has yet made a persuasive case that it would do any real harm, either. (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/).
Theologians contend that to clone a human would violate human dignity. That
would surely be true if a cloned individual were treated as a lesser being, with
fewer rights or lower stature. But why suppose that cloned persons wouldn't
share the same rights and dignity as the rest of us? If and when cloning comes
about, will people be willing to pay anything for a clone of themselves? It is
such a costly form of technology. As we see with so many other aspects of
today's socity, people will do all kinds of things for money.
