Disadvantages of cloning

In June 1998, president Clinton publicly condemned human cloning. He opined that any discovery that touches upon human creation is not simply a matter of scientific inquiry. It is a matter of morality and spirituality as well. Each human life is unique, born of a miracle that reaches beyond laboratory science. When did president Clinton condemn human cloning so resolutely? What are the reasons lurking behind actually? Let us start discussing the reasons of opposing cloning deeply.

The uncertainty of science technology

Science and technology cannot solve everything. What if we allow to human cloning? Have we ever thought of the results of that? Will the results be controllable? Even scientists cannot promise they can. Obviously, there are some potential crises lurking behind. Of course, these kinds of uncertainty are not reasonable to stop all the developments of science and technology. But we believer that we should ban such extreme cases (such as human cloning) as long as they have potential in damaging humans future. Furthermore, in cloning Dolly, it resulted in the death of many embryos and newborns before success achieved. (The Dolly experiment started with 277 fused eggs, of which only 29 became embryos. All the embryos were transferred to 13 sheep. 1 became pregnant with Dolly.) In addition, even if the human clone survived, it is not guaranteed that it would develop normally. The genetic material in cloning Dolly came from a 6 year old mammal (what is an old stage of sheep). Dollys chromosomes could be found in older animals only. This finding made scientists start wondering whether Dolly, looking totally normal from its appearance, might have inherited genetic damage that would be shown in older age only or some other abnormalism.

Losing the diversity of genes

Human can live on the Earth relies on the diversity of genes. And the diversity of genes comes from parents having different sets of genes. The most horrendous part of identical genes is that it will weaken our power and adaptations, which make us subjected to great diseases easily. In addition, human cloning is just copying the identical genes, which means it will decrease the diversity of genes. Furthermore, the beauty of humanity lies in the differences we see in each other. Cloning would eliminate surprise and predict expectancy.

The great diseases and leading to extinction

As mentioned above, in human cloning, all human beings will be identical. Which means that entire human is at a risk of getting infected by the same type of pathogen. In scientific point of view, if every one has the same type of genes and they are closed to each other they may not defend against the same kind of serious disease. Then cloning will be detrimental in terms of a great disaster. Another negative effect of cloning is inbreeding, as everyone has the same genotype and keep reproducing among themselves. This would lead us to our own extinction finally. Richard Nicholson of the British Bulletin of Medical Ethics said that cloning res earch may well be sowing the seeds of our own destruction.

Cloning is playing God

The clergymen opined human cloning is playing the role of god. Bishop of Catholic Albert Moraczewski mentioned that the power that God gives humans is over the fish, the birds, and all animals, domestic and wild, large and small. (Genesis, chapter1, verse 26). Adam and Eve have all the power, except they cannot eat the fruit of the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad. If they do so, they will die. So, Albert Moraczewski believes that human cloning is out of the Gods permission. There is no evidence that proves humans have the right to change Gods will.

Transgressing the nature

Human cloning transgresses nature, because it is not via the natural reproductive process, which is by a man and a woman. Human cloning is creating life.

Inhumane
A clone makes no differences as us. A clone must ear, drink and carry out any other metabolic processes in order to survive. The clone may even be better than his original host. It would be inhumane to treat them as special species. If human is cloned, this will turn us to be a property which can be sold to anybody else. In other words, selling humans is unethical, inhumane and immoral.

Devastate parenting and family life

The basic concept of a family is a couple falls in love and determines to care each other. Then the couple may decide to have children which they will love them dearly. But parents of clones might value their children according to how much they look like to themselves. Cloning, at a result, undermine the basic elements of loving, nurturing family and to accept each child as an unique individual.

Cause unbalance to the society

Cloning may arouses social side effects. It is ridiculous that reproduction is separated from love and other human relationship. The entire world may use cloning for eugenics that would lead to efforts to selectively breed children who are of more intelligent, heavier and extraordinary.

Persons that oppose cloning

~ In 1997- Feb, Carl Felbaum, president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization said: One of the prospects should not be, perhaps should never be, the extension of this technique to human beings. Now that it may be possible we would say its should be pro hibited if necessary by law. ~ Stephen Grebe, an associate professor of biology at American University in Washington said: we are going to be facing this issue with humans. With that possibility open, I am concerned without adequate safeguards that this will become a reality. It may very well already be. ~ Jesse Rainbow, a university sophomore, lists reasons why some people have a knee-jerk aversion to embryo cloning. A clone would not be a real person. But a clone would have exactly the same status that an identical twin already does. Both are derived from a single fertilized ovum.

http://www.globalchange.com/noclones.htm Here are three reasons why we should say no to cloning - disadvantages: 1. Health risks from mutation of genes An abnormal baby would be a nightmare come true. The technique is extremely risky right now. A particular worry is the possibility that the genetic material used from the adult will continue to age so that the genes in a newborn baby clone could be - say - 30 years old or more on the day of birth. Many attempts at animal cloning produced disfigured monsters with severe abnormalities. So that would mean creating cloned embryos, implanting them and destroying (presumably) those that look imperfect as they grow in the womb. However some abnormalities may not appear till after birth. A cloned cow recently died several weeks after birth with a huge abnormality of blood cell production. Dolly the Sheep died prematurely of severe lung disease in February 2003, and also suffered from arthritis at an unexpectedly early age - probably linked to the cloning process. Even if a few cloned babies are born apparently normal we will have to wait up to 20 years to be sure they are not going to have problems later -for example growing old too fast. Every time a

clone is made it is like throwing the dice and even a string of "healthy" clones being born would not change the likelihood that many clones born in future may have severe medical problems. And of course, that's just the ones born. What about all the disfigured and highly abnormal clones that either spontaneously aborted or were destroyed / terminated by scientists worried about the horrors they might be creating. 2. Emotional risks A child grows up knowing her mother is her sister, her grandmother is her mother. Her father is her brother-in-law. Every time her mother looks at her, she is seeing herself growing up. Unbearable emotional pressures on a teenager trying to establish his or her identity. What happens to a marriage when the "father" sees his wife's clone grow up into the exact replica (by appearance) of the beautiful 18 year old he fell in love with 35 years ago? A sexual relationship would of course be with his wife's twin, no incest involved technically. Or maybe the child knows it is the twin of a dead brother or sister. What kind of pressures will he or she feel, knowing they were made as a direct replacement for another? It is a human experiment doomed to failure because the child will NOT be identical in every way, despite the hopes of the parents. One huge reason will be that the child will be brought up in a highly abnormal household: one where grief has been diverted into makeing a clone instead of adjusting to loss. The family environmentwill be totally different than that the other twin experienced. That itself will place great pressures on the emotional development of the child. You will not find a child psychiatrist in the world who could possibly say that there will not be very significant emotional risk to the cloned child as a result of these pressures. 3. Risk of abuse of the technology What would Hitler have done with cloning technology if available in the 1940s? There are powerful leaders in every generation who will seek to abuse this technology for their own purposes. Going ahead with cloning technology makes this far more likely. You cannot have socalled therapeutic cloning without reproductivecloning because the technique to make cloned babies is the same as to make a cloned embryo to try to make replacement tissues. And at the speed at whichbiotech is accelerating there will soon be other ways to get such cells - adult stem cell technology. It is rather crude to create a complete embryonic identical twin embryo just to get hold of stem cells to make - say - nervous tissue. Much better to take cells from the adult and trigger them directly to regress to a more primitive form without the ethical issues raised by inserting a full adult set of genes into an unfertilised egg.