Possible To Clone An Animal example essay topic

870 words
Cloning Is cloning ethical the majority of the world would say no but the medical research possibilities associated with it are endless. In 1997 when Dolly the lamb was born we began to think, wow if it's possible to clone an animal why not a human in the future It soon became known that it was possible and people were horrified at the thought of an organism being created by a human being. 90% of Americans polled within the first week that the Dolly news broke, thought that cloning should be banned. They believed it to be morally inappropriate and ethically wrong (Torr 24).

The reason for the terror was due largely in part by public misconception by lay people. It is best to think of a clone as a later born identical twin. They will be indistinguishable in biology from any other human being. Many people believe that clones will be used as spare parts for the rich in need of a liver or some other organ. There are also beliefs that these clones will be headless as well as be killed without committing murder. In reality using another human for spare parts would be murder and making headless clones would also be murder.

To make a headless clone would require removing the higher brain of the fetus of infant and since both of these beings fall under the same legal laws as a non-cloned fetus or infant it would again be murder. Besides the point there is no need to create an entire human when individual tissues and organs can be grown alone (Torr 68). Some fear psychological damage of a cloned human. A person is not defined by their genetic but by their life experiences and development in the womb. Environment and upbringing play a much larger role in shaping someone's emotions and outlook.

The argument that man is playing god is the most commonly brought up. If god did t want man to create clones he wouldn t have made it possible. Cloning does not create life it merely produces life from existing life. Public policy should not be based on one narrow religious point of view (Kolkata 36). One is the possibility of birth defects. I will compare the development of cloning to introducing a new miracle drug into the market.

The safety of the drug is initially unknown like cloning. Then come the experiments on animals first, this has already been done. Then the experiments are done on human volunteers. Safety would be determined by a government agency such as the FDA as to whether the new protocol should be used as standard medical practice (Torr 74). The process for cloning Dolly was as follows: The nucleus is removed from an oocyte or non fertilized egg, collected from a Scottish blackface ewe.

A nucleus form a quiescent mammary cell is injected into the oocyte. A quiescent cell is one that has stopped dividing in the cell cycle. Then a tiny pulse of electricity was used to fuse the two nuclei. in the cytoplasm. This fused cell was transferred into the reproductive chamber of a blackface ewe. The process had to be repeated 276 time before they could get one that would actually work. The process would require removing a somatic cell as opposed to a reproductive cell. the nucleus would be roved from the cell and transferred to an enucleated egg.

Currently this isn t possible because the somatic cells are specialized cells and we don t know how to turn genes on and off (Bohle 35). Human cloning research would enable scientists to determine the cause of spontaneous abortions and give oncologist an understanding of the rapid cell growth of cancer. Cloning could lead to the development in genetics to create animal organs that could be easily accepted by humans offering a limitless supply to those in need. Pigs are being tested as the most likely source for this experiment. using human cloning cells could be cloned and regenerated to replace damaged sections of the body. Stem cells could also be grown to regenerate damaged nerve tissues or muscle tissues. This process could help out muscular diseases like muscular sclerosis.

Why not used cloning as another way of helping infertile parents or those who have genetic disorders The agricultural industry can benefit from this as well. Farmers can use nuclear transfer to produce better livestock. Scientists can genetically alter adult cells, making it was ier to alter genetic material. These transgenic livestock would help farmers reach their goal of producing ideal characteristics for the agricultural industry (Bohle 49)... It is obvious the medical possibilities of cloning far outweigh the cons and our fear is based on ignorance much like when Columbus proclaimed the world was round.

As new scientific development is introduced into the public we will gradually accept it at a very slow rate. The medical possibilities are endless. Cloning is ethical as long as it's regulated.