Human+Cloning

Human Cloning

There are two different types of cloning; therapeutic and reproductive. Therapeutic cloning is the production of human embryos for use in research. The attempted goal of therapeutic cloning is not to create new human beings, but rather to harvest stem cells that can be used to study human development and to treat disease //(www.ornl.gov/hgmis).// Reproductive cloning is a form of technology used to generate an animal (or in the future, human) that has the same nuclear DNA as another currently or previously existing animal (human) (1). Reproductive cloning spikes much more controversy. The sucess rate of Reproductive cloning is 3%, but that is expected to increase with time. If reproductive cloning was perfected (and legalized in humans), it would be moments. Say a mother had lost a child during childbirth, but was able to have a baby with the exact same genetic information through cloning. Another option would be to breed a human clone to become an ideal sports participant. However, .cogforlife.org raises an excellent point when they say, " The selfish and cannibalistic act of destroying one human life to create or benefit another should speak clearly enough for itself. But let's look at another aspect. How does one clone the warmth of human love, the empathy felt for one another, or deep human desires to nurture relationships? These are all parts of the individual you will not find in DNA; the very soul that cannot and should not be artificially duplicated. What happens to the mind of a child who is cloned after another and no longer has something totally special of his own to offer? People are loved for who they are on the inside, not for who they appear to be on the outside. How can such a child ever be assured that he is loved for who //he// is and not for the person whom he was cloned? In creating these persons, we have robbed them of their most basic freedom afforded to mankind - the right to exist as an individual". This article had four main points. The first is that there have been many advances made since the first successful clone in 1997 (Dolly the Sheep), but many many more failures. No human cloning has ever been attempted. The second point was that scientists do not know why their clones have such a high failure rate. It is assumed that it happens when the genetics are reprogrammed into the cell being cloned, however, this has not been proven. "The process of configuring the exact state of the inner workings of the cell including such complex processes as methylation of the DNA may not be correct for the development of the embryo". The third main point is that if human cloning was attempted, and failed, people would be outraged. Reproductive cloning also takes time, and money, away from therapeutic cloning, which is just as, if not more, important. My fourth and final point is reproductive cloning with humans is illegal in the United States, and there are very strict guidelines against therapeutic. Cloning is sure to be a hotly debated topic in the future, and i look forward to watching the advances in it.

Josh Macks