Cloning

I have many strong opinions on cloning. The first is that cloning people would not be a good idea. By cloning humans you would be taking away the uniqueness of all human kind. After a while there would be so many people alike that everyone would start looking the same. Al though everyone would still have their own personality they would all be similar in looks. The way I see it is that if I were to be a clone and knew I was a clone I would not feel like I belonged. I would have not had the proper birth and would have not been created by both my mother and father. I would not have came into the world the natural way, I would be a science experiment. The only thing I think that is okay about cloning would be cloning organs. I feel this would be good for people in need of hearts, livers, lungs and so on. Only in the cloning of organs I see the good.

It has been more than a year since embryologist Ian Wilmut and his colleagues announced to the world that they had cloned a sheep. This sheep’s name was Dolly and is pretty famous all over. Naming the worlds first cloned mammal also has great significance for it was the sole survivor of 277 cloned embryos.(Annis) Instead of naming the first cloned mammal as a product they gave it the name Dolly that suggests a unique individual. Cloning can only “copy” something not make it better(Annis). Just by the word “copy” there is no individual or unique thing about it. They used to say that cloning a human being was not possible, that it was fictional and would not work. Al though now that has been proved wrong. Thanks to cloning the death of a human being would be no longer a tragedy but, rather, can be an opportunity to try to replace the no longer priceless or irreplaceable dead person. We also argue that psychological harms could fall upon children. They could suffer from a reduced sense of individuality, and a cloned child may feel that their future is worth less as it now rests in a cloned individual. Also critics argue that cloning encourages parents to value how well children can genetically meet their expectations rather than loving them for being just their children. Also with cloning humans, parents and society may now see their children as objects and not as human beings with actual feelings(Annis). I feel that no one should have such a dominion over a person as to use his or her genes to create the clone.

Cloning would radically alter what it means to be human by replicating a living or dead human being asexually to produce a person with a single genetic parent. It is stated in all literature about cloning that through human cloning we will lose something vital to our humanity, the uniqueness of every human. The children would have no say in whether they want to be cloned or not, it would be the parents choice since they are the ones reproducing. Clones are not able to reproduce.(Annis) There are many reasons why this would not be a good thing. When the clone would grow up and possibly want to get married and have kids they wouldn’t be able to do so. Some are also afraid that clones will age quicker since the cell used in the cloning procedure has already been used in a real life individual. Also because of there short lives they wouldn’t be able to live the full 100 years we are expecting to live, its almost cutting their lives in half.

Cloning can change the thoughts and ideas on reproduction. In cloning the male is not required.(Annis) Normally the birth of a child has genetic input from both the father’s side and the mother’s side. The way I feel about this is that if cloning was allowed and the males were not needed in the reproduction process this would cause many, many problems. I think that the men would want to have a part in the reproduction process. They would want their child to be made of both from him and the mother, the mixture of both the fathers and the mothers chromosomes and genes. In my opinion the clone would not have a true father since they male is not even needed. The meaning of having a mother and a father would change completely. Also women would be able to give birth to a child that has no genetic relationship to her what so ever.

There are many cons about cloning and religious views on this topic is one of them. All religions would say cloning is playing god. These scientists are interfering with the natural human reproduction process. The expenses on cloning would cost about 250 million. There are people who are dying all over the world due to hunger, thirst, and diseases. I feel that all of that money that would be used for cloning could be used for a much better cause. That 250 million dollars could save many lives in other places in the world other then creating a scientific duplicate of a person that is going against the natural way of life and humanity.

There are two types of cloning. Tissue cloning and type I organ cloning does not produce an embryo. Human cloning and type II organ cloning does produce an embryo. The non-germinal tissue cloning and type I organ cloning are beyond the ethical question and will not change human beings as a species.(Ke-Hui) This type of cloning is the only kind of cloning I support. This specific type of cloning tissue and organs is promising for our future in medicine and I believe will help many people. The only reason I don’t stand by type II is that it has to do with human cloning and I am one hundred percent against that. Creating human life in a lab in my opinion is not right based on my reasoning above.

In conclusion I feel that cloning humans should be banned. Cloning humans would mean getting rid of each and every one of our individualities and our identities as humans. A clone would have no individual uniqueness about them. They would be a copy of another human being. Cloning humans would cause conflict among many religious organizations and people with their own ethical views. Cloning humans in my opinion would cause more bad things then good. The cost of cloning one individual would be to much money to waste on an scientific experiment when there are so many other things out there like cancer research and dying people all over the world that could use it much more. Cloning humans is not something we should be thinking about with our economies and all the poverty that’s going on it the world.


Work Cited:


Annas, George J., and John A. Robertson. "Human cloning." ABA Journal 83.5 (1997): 80. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 7 Feb. 2010.

Ke-Hui, Cui. "Three concepts of cloning in human beings." Reproductive BioMedicine Online 11.1 (2005): 16-17. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 7 Feb. 2010.