Cloning Process
Cloning is the process of creating a genetic duplicate of an individual.
Since
the February 1997 announcement of the birth of Dolly, a sheep cloned by
Ian
Wilmut, cloning research has increased greatly. Cloning humans now
has become a
much greater possibility in society than it was years ago.
Scientist are on the
edge of a huge breakthrough with human cloning, and
society will ask it's self
if this should be allowed or not. Many arguments
can be made for and against
human cloning. Proponents of human cloning may
argue that it is just a logical
and inevitable advance in science technology.
It is, however , risky for human
subjects. At the present time, most of the
general public is against cloning.
Within a few years time, the medical
possibilities of human cloning may be
attractive enough to change the publics
opinion. Reasearchers on human cloning
would involve huge risks for the
initial clones, because any experiments in
human cloning would eventually
have to be tested on humans. Human cloning is
unethical because of the risks
that this practice involves greatly outweigh the
bebefits. The technique that
produced Dolly the sheep was successful in only 1
of 277 attempts. If this
was attempted in humans, it would risk miscarriages in
the mother and severe
developmental problems in the child. The actual risks of
physical harm to the
cloned child cannot be certain without conducting
experiments on human
beings. This itself is unethical because no one knows what
will happen and
the child is in danger because noone knows what is going to
happen, the child
could be born disabled and/or have developmental diffuculties.
As of now
human cloning doesn't seem like a great possibility because of the
risk
involved and how the general public would react. Some time in the
future,
maybe the advances in medical technology will allow cloning with no
possible
risk.