Cloning

Cloning; the word alone brings to mind pictures of science fiction movies or heated debates over whether cloning should be allowed or not. Cloning has been a controversial subject that became a reality in 1997, when Scottish scientists created the first cloned mammal, a sheep named Dolly. After this made worldwide news, I became more aware of the issues surrounding cloning and the ethic and moral implications associated with cloning. I agree with the idea that cloning should be used in positive ways like finding cures to cancers or many debilitating diseases, or possibly bring back endangered species of animals, but I strongly disagree with the use of cloning to create humans.

Imagine your hands shaking uncontrollably, your muscles aching, you sit and watch as you slowly lose function over all your bodies functions. This is what Parkinson's disease does, this is what people with Parkinson's have to look forward to. Fortunately, a new study by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center shows a promising possible cure for Parkinson's through their research work with mice; "The new study shows that therapeutic cloning can treat Parkinson's Disease in a mouse model. The scientists used skin cells from the tail of the animal to generate customized or autologous dopamine neurons--the missing neurons in Parkinson's disease. The mice that received neurons derived from individually matched stem cell lines exhibited neurological improvement. But when these neurons were grafted into mice that did not genetically match the transplanted cells, the cells did not survive well and the mice did not recover"("Therapeutic Cloning Treats Parkinson's Disease In Mice"). This study shows us the major benefits of having a cure derived from our own DNA, in essence each individual person would have their own specific cure, with very little side effects because it was made especially to work with their body and only their body. It is understandable that the costs for a cure like this would be quite outrageous, but I feel that insurance companies may decide it would be more cost effective to pay for a one time cure versus years and years of medical bills from doctor visits to hospital stays. To me, cloning seems like the only logical and effective way to help people struggling with Parkinson's and many other debilitating diseases.

Have you ever heard of the Asian gaur? I hadn't, until I did a little research. Imagine your children or your grandchildren asking you what an Asian tiger is, or if you had ever seen a ring tailed lemur. It would be very sad if my children or grandchildren weren't able to enjoy these animals that have been common place for me and generations before me. The Asian gaur has become one of those animals that people don't know about, probably because it is on the endangered species list. "Scientists clone endangered species: In October 2000, scientists with the Massachusetts based bio tech firm Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) announced that they had successfully produced the first clone on an endangered species, a humpbacked, ox-like creature called the Asian gaur. The embryonic gaur, dubbed 'Noah', is also the first cloned animal to gestate in the uterus of another species--an Iowa dairy cow named Bessie"(Anderson, "Company behind the Clones: Advanced Cell Technology"). Imagine if they brought back a species that was considered extinct. Imagine if we could watch other endangered species numbers grow and multiply, and be able to observe and watch these animals as they once lived.

Many others oppose the cloning of animals to increase numbers in species or recreate a species all together because it would show society that we do not have to take care of what we have, that if something goes away, we can just replace it. This is not the message that cloning endangered or extinct species should be sending. I agree that the message should still be very clear, we need to take care of our animals and wild life and preserve as much of what we have now for the future because cloning, to replace a species, is costly and time consuming and not the best way to go about replenishing a population. However, I believe if we send the same message and make it clear that we are "righting" a wrong, from our past abuse to the species', people may be able to see the purpose and the importance of cloning a species and therefore may respect it.

Humans have been on the earth for thousands of thousands of years, we have evolved, and we have continued our human race. Having a baby has always been associated with a man and a woman having sexual intercourse/making love and creating a baby that is equal parts of both of them. The parents wait nine months to see what their baby looks like and who they take after physically, and later watch as their child's personality emerges. Cloning a person would take away the wonder and excitement of what grows within the woman's belly, it takes away the unknown. I believe that it is important to create people from two sets of genes, this creates diversity in gene pools and allows for evolution to continue. I also believe in God and it clearly states in the bible that we come from him and the meeting of male and female; which makes me think that if we dabble in his work, something will go wrong that we may not be able to foresee. It has worked well so far and why should we change the natural progression of life, just because we can.

Many others feel that there should be no bans put on our ability to clone anyone or anything. I feel that this could be dangerous in the wrong hands. This could mean that if anyone was able to get a hold of a single cell of ours they could clone us, with no regard to whether we want a clone of ourselves or not. Do we not own our DNA, common sense would lead me to believe we do. The implications of replicated a human without any laws governing who can and can not be replicated and when and where it would be deemed appropriate make cloning humans a very scary idea to me.

In conclusion I believe that cloning is necessary for medical advancements to occur and I believe that it would be beneficial to bringing back species that are on the brink of being gone forever. I do not believe that it is a good idea to clone humans, it puts us all at risk of having our DNA used in ways we would not want, as well as, forgetting the importance of God and his role in creation

Works Cited:

Anderson, Porter. "Company behind the clones: Advanced Cell Technology." CNN.com. CNN, 25 Nov. 2001. Web. 2 Feb. 2010.

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. "Therapeutic Cloning Treats Parkinson's Disease In Mice." ScienceDaily. 24 March 2008. 2 February 2010 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080323210229.htm.