Cloning A Dangerous Science Essay, Research Paper
Cloning is a new science that has much to offer. We can learn how to grow and harvest organs, which would eliminate the waiting list for those in need of a heart, liver or other vital organs. Many are worried that cloning will be used for the wrong purposes such as creating multiple copies of one person for the purpose of war. The key lies in finding the medium at which the human race keep reap the benefits.
Cloning can advance the medical field in leaps and bounds. Cloning experiments may lead to a better understand of genetics and lead to animal organs that are easily assimilated into the human body (Pro Views). This would eliminate the excruciatingly painful period of waiting for the organ that some need to survive. Cloning can also help find a cure for cancer: The human morula grows at the same rate as cancer cells. Techniques learned in cloning the human ovum could lead to the extinction of cancer. Cloning a fertilized ovum and testing it for disease and disorder until a clean ovum is found and used could also phase out hereditary defects.
On the other hand, cloning may reduce the genetic variability. This would increase the chance of a single virus wiping out whole populations of humans, animals, etc. One scenario would be cloning all of the beef cattle and having it succumb to a disease which would cause a nationwide food shortage. It also raises the question of interference with natural evolution, a genetically perfect animal would not need improvements provided by nature. The process of cloning is another issue. The cost of producing Dolly was uneconomical, not to mention that it took 277 tries before she popped out of the tube. The good news is that a new technique has been developed to counter the high rate of failure. There is one problem remaining, the success rate is only 2-3%. Another reluctance to research cloning further is the eventual delving into the replication of humans. Many ethicists view it as tampering with Mother Nature or playing God.
Obviously, there are valid issues that support the continuation and discontinuation of cloning research. I feel that we should continue to research this area based on the good that can be reaped from it. People need the organs to live a full life. Sure there are people that are negligent with their own bodies but what about the people that are predisposed to contracting hereditary heart disease or cancer? While there are concerns of creating a breed of animal or vegetation that yields more product but succumbs to specific strains of virii, if steps are taken to control the methods by which the replication is performed and by using different groups of the species, it is possible to clone things with some measure of safety. Overall, the good seems to outweigh the bad in the issue of cloning research.