Cloning Of Human Beings example essay topic

Word Count: 1,053 Attack of the Human Clone Lee M Silver, an expert in behavioral genetics, informs his audience in his essay "Cloning Misperceptions" that many people fear the cloning of human beings simply because of confusion over the true meaning of cloning and what it encompasses. He allows the reader to recognize why people may have gotten the wrong ideas about cloning and how these ideas if scrutinized, don't have a just place and are based on fictitious beliefs and stubborn mindsets. Silver uses the popular belief based on books and movies to show where these misconceptions came from and further uses science to disrepute such beliefs and persuade the reader that cloning is harmless and should be accepted because human personality is based on life experiences which cannot be genetically cloned. First, Silver discusses the usage of cloning by popular belief and then contrasts it to what cloning is scientifically. He states, "In its popular usage, clone refers to something that is a duplicate, or cheaper imitation, of a brand-name person, place, or thing" and then argues that scientists are not capable of making exact replicas, "Xerox copies" of a human being. Scientists are only able to start the process of life at the cell level.

He then tells of how there has been much debate, especially in the religious realm, over the soul of a cloned being and the moral objections to such, but again refutes this theory with science stating that each individual, whether cloned or not, has its own personalities based on "unique" experiences. Lastly, Silver engages the reader in some misconceptions based on a book that fantasizes about governments potential uses of human cloning and uses logic and science to show where the story stops at just a story. As his claim, Silver wants the reader to believe that cloning is harmless and should be accepted. He supports this claim by giving evidence that a clone is the same as any other individual with its own personality, soul, and life and that many peoples misgivings about human cloning are based on books and movies. He warrants by justifying with science and asking the reader "who cares?" Who cares if a person's cells came from a human, combined outside of a human, and put back into the human to develop and eventual be born. Who cares where the living cells have been?

Shouldn't the concern be on the human being's environment after it is born? To support his claim, Silver uses science in some cases as evidence for his claim. He tells the reader how the cloning process takes place and the technology behind it. He describes how the cell is alive when it is placed inside a women's body where it is developed into a "full-fledged human being". However, through out the essay, Silver uses examples of different movies to show where peoples' fears about cloning may have developed. The problem with this use of evidence is that if the reader has not seen the movie, it is difficult to fully understand his support.

Furthermore, a portion of his essay was dedicated to people's fears of government cloning and totalitarianism. Silver gave evidence of his own opinion based on logic and reasoning to show why these fears are unwarranted. He confronts the public's fears of a government producing an army of cloned soldiers by stating, "Any government that could clone would certainly get more fighting power out of high tech weapons of destruction than even the most muscular and obedient soldier clones". Additionally, he confronts the public's fears of government cloned factory workers by suggesting that governments already have a much more effective procedure to create factory workers which is based on "New Age drugs and mind control". He suggests that there is no real "strategic advantage" on which a government would want to create human clones. Everyone can agree that it is through life experiences and a person's environment that an individual is formed, and Silver uses this substantive warrant to ease the fears of his audience about human cloning.

It is obvious that he is presenting his essay with a particular audience in mind, and it is necessary for him to use a particular tone and style with his audience to help them understand his warrant. The focus on the audience is important to this essay because much of Silver's evidence is based on the fact that the audience knows and understands the movies and books that he includes for support. It seems that a person in their late 40's or 50's would most likely have the best knowledge of the books and movies he discusses. It also seems that a person of this age group would most likely need to be persuaded to release old false beliefs and fears of cloning.

Someone of a younger generation may be more apt to understand this advanced technological process and futuristic concept better. The tone of the essay focuses often on satire. Silver uses satire to poke fun at some of the old strongly held misconceptions by comparing them to movies and out of date literature based on speculative notions of cloning. He also selects dramatic quotes to show the naivety of some people's thoughts. For example he quotes the Catholic priest saying "cloning would only produce humanoids or androids" and yet another dramatic quote he uses is a New York Times board member stating, "Synthetic humans would be easy prey for humanity's worst instincts". It's almost as if he uses irony in portraying these people as child-like in imagining their very own sci-fi movie.

In closing, Silver does a sufficient job of stating his claim, support, and warrant. The essay is professionally written and is targeted to a small particular audience whom most likely was able to understand Silver and release some of the old misconceptions about cloning. However, I don't think that he changed the minds of those who have a religious / moral sense about human cloning, nor did he make an adequate stand for pro cloning that would stand up to a debate against an anti cloning extremist. Through this essay, Silver simply allows people to understand what a human clone actually is, why it is a unique individual, and how the future will be just the same with cloned children as it will be with "real" children.