РефератыИностранный языкWiWill Cloning Have A Positive Or Negative

Will Cloning Have A Positive Or Negative

Effect On Essay, Research Paper


Will Cloning have a Positive OR Negative Effect on


Society ??


The definition of a clone is an organism that has the same genetic information as


another organism or organisms. Scientific and ethical studies of cloning, prove that,


cloning will have a negative rather than a positive effect on society.


The goals and purposes for cloning range from making copies of those who have


died, to bettering the engineering of offspring in humans and animals (Hawley, 1998).


Cloning could also directly offer a means of curing diseases or could offer a technique that


could extend means to acquiring new data for the sciences of embryology and how


organisms develop as a whole over time.


Currently, the agricultural industry demands nuclear transfer to produce better


livestock, and cloning could massively improve the agricultural industry as the technique


of nuclear transfer improves (Hawley, 1998). Nuclear transfer takes the nucleus of a cell


from one individual and places it in the egg or another individual, from which the nucleus


has been removed (Wertz, 1998b). The change in phenotype, the observable physical and


biochemical characteristics of an organism, of livestock is accomplished by bombarding


embryos of livestock with genes that produce “super” livestock traits; however, this


technique is not efficient because only five percent of the offspring express these “super”


traits that would guarntee a more productive industry. Scientists can easily genetically


alter adult cells; therefore, cloning from an adult cell would make it easier to alter the


genetic material. The goal of transgenic livestock1 is to produce livestock with ideal


characteristics for the agricultural industry and to be able to manufacture biological


products such as proteins for humans.


Farmers are attempting to produce transgenic livestock already, but not efficiently,


due to the minimal ability to alter embryos genetically. Researchers can harvest and grow


adult cells in large amounts unlike embryos; scientists can then genetically alter the adult


cells, find which ones transformed, and clone only those cells. Scientists also ponder the


idea of cloning endangered species to increase their population.


The possibilities of cloning are endless, however as suggested by (Hawley, 1998) we are


actually doing much of this research for the improvement of life for humans.


Cloning provides better research capabilities for finding cures to many diseases.


Livestock can produce biological proteins that help people who have diseases including


Diabetes, Parkinson’s, and Cystic Fibrosis. There are also possibilities that nuclear


transfer could provide benefits to those who would like to have children. For example,


couples who are infertile, or have genetic disorders, could use cloning to produce a child.


Equally important, women who are single could have a child using cloning instead of


in-vitro fertilization or artificial insemination. Nuclear transfer could also provide children


who need organ transplants to have a clone born to donate organs (Hawley, 1998). With


all the exceptional possibilities that could improve life, the question still remains, is


cloning virtuous for our society?


Cloning does offer some negative effects to our society. A major problem with the


use of cloning on a large scale is that due to cloning there would be a decline in gene pool,


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therefore, causing a decline in genetic diversity. A decline in genetic diversity means that


there are too many genes in a specific species that are the same (Anees, 1995). What


would happen if we lost the ability to clone? We would have to resort to natural


reproduction, causing humans or animals to inbreed, which would result in many other


problems. Inbreeding is conception by relatives such as brother, cousins, etc; causing


DNA abnormalities. If a population of organisms has the same genetic information, then


one disease could wipe out the entire population because no organism would be immune


to the disease. Cloning endangered species will not help the problem of them being


endangered. Zoologists and environmentalists trying to save endangered species are not


having trouble keeping population numbers up. The problem is not having any animals to


breed that are not related in some way. And cloning relatives would only cause the


problem to increase (Hawley, 1998).


The technique of nuclear transfer is in early development stages, therefore, errors


are occurring when scientists carry our the procedure. It took 277 tries to produce


“Dolly”, the sheep cloned in Roslin, Scotland by Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell at the


Roslin Institute (Wertz, 1998a). Roslyn Institute Scientists produced many lambs with


abnormalities before “Dolly” was born. If we tried to clone endangered species, we would


possibly kill the last females integral to the survival of a species. This may be the main


reason science is holding out on human cloning.


Other arguments for cloning include the fact that scientist are taking nature into


their own hands by cloning animals and people. People question when humans will draw


the line for getting involved in natural events. Different religious organizations agree that


cloning is an intrusion to the human body, it is dehumanizing, it deprives a person from


uniqueness, and it disturbs the genetic ecosystem, a community together with its


environment, functioning as a unit (Anees, 1995). Numerous science ethicist say that


cloning does not respect the fact that humans have souls, and that their rights will be


defied because clones are not granted the birth of newness. People also wonder what


mental and emotional problems would result if a clone was to find out that he or she was a


clone (Hawley, 1998).


At this point, cloning should not used in any shape or fashion. Based on the


preceding facts, it is obvious that cloning needs to be perfected before it is used by any


organization or group of people as an everyday way of life. However, if humans are to


venture into cloning all possible precautions must take place. The last thing the world


needs is to move too fast with out proper preparation, and knowledge of cloning and its


effects in entirety. Ultimately, because knowledge is still too limited, cloning will have


more of a negative than positive effect on our society.


Transgenic1: genes transferred from another species or breed


Anees, M.A. (1995, March). Human cloning: an atlantean odyssey?. Eubios Journal of


Asian and International Bioethics. 1 November 1999.


.


Hawley, A. (1998, March 2). Cloning. 26 September 1999.


.


Wertz, D.C. (1998a, August). History of cloning. The Gene Letter. 26 September 1999.


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Wertz, D.C. (1998b, August). Types of cloning. The Gene Letter. 26 September 1999.


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