Is Cloning Ethical?
As early as 1997, scientists had discovered how to clone sheep. This discovery made in Edinburg, Scotland left many people with the hope that human clones would be developed sometime in the future. A similar number of people has, however, remained skeptical and are opposed to the aspect of cloning, based on ethical and spiritual grounds. Is human cloning ethical? This is the subject of this brief essay which takes the position that cloning is unethical and should not be allowed in the society.
Cloning involves producing a group of cells or organisms that are identical, and which all originate from the same primary organism. Allowing cloning will enable people to make replicas of them. Scientists have already succeeded in cloning sheep and mice. Human beings are likely to be cloned in the near future. While the end result bears some benefit to humans as describe below, the cloning procedure sets out loads of ethical questions.
Some medical problems such as cancer continue to devastate the healthcare sector. Cloning, it is argued, would enable scientists to come up with a replica of a patient’s genes, hence save his life. The replication of organs such as heart, liver, and organ transplantation would save lives. However, while organ transplant would be possible through manufactured organs, such organs would be highly expensive as each need to be made to perfectly match the patient’s requirements.
The process through which cells for cloning are obtained is not only inconvenient and unsafe but also expensive. Billions of ova have to be contributed, meaning that millions of women would be needed to donate their eggs through procedures that are unsafe and painful. The removal of eggs involves first giving drugs to women to stop the production of ovaries, and this ultimately affects their menstrual cycles. Ultimately, ovarian cancer could occur due to scars that would be left when eggs are being harvested.
Embryos are people. Stem-cell research, closely associated with cloning, uses human embryos for experimentation purposes. The embryos are then destroyed despite the fact that embryos represent and possess life. It amounts to murder. The same applies to therapeutic cloning which entails harvesting eggs and using them for experimentation then destroying them. Whether life is in the form of eggs, embryos, or an adult person, murder is unethical and indefensible. Furthermore, if therapeutic cloning is successful, it would result in a population explosion in the United States and across the world. As organ transplantation would almost certainly be a success, the average family household would increase dramatically, posing a danger to resources. The world would grow poorer as competition for resources intensifies.
Cases of the inclusion of inadvertent DNA, as well as contamination, have been reported in genetically modified foods. If such a situation happens during human cloning, it would have an adverse impact on the human race. In addition, human beings are created by God, and debates surrounding the manufacture of “test-tube babies” counter scientific interference with nature. Human beings should respect the creator as He alone has the right to decide human fate.
In conclusion, cloning may have several benefits to the human race. However, it is extremely unethical as it violates the sanctity of human life. It advances a role that nature does not advocate for and could be destructive to the entire human race in the long run. Every effort must be made to stop the technology from advancing. Like stem-cell research, it amounts to murder and is thus unjustifiable.
