Cloning Essay, Research Paper
The question shakes us all to our very souls. For humans to consider the cloning of one
another forces them all to question the very concepts of right and wrong that make
them all human. The cloning of any species, whether they be human or non-human, is
ethically and morally wrong. Scientists and ethicists alike have debated the implications
of human and non-human cloning extensively since 1997 when scientists at the Roslin
Institute in Scotland produced Dolly. No direct conclusions have been drawn, but
compelling arguments state that cloning of both human and non-human species results
in harmful physical and psychological effects on both groups. The following issues
dealing with cloning and its ethical and moral implications will be addressed: cloning of
human beings would result in severe psychological effects in the cloned child, and that
the cloning of non-human species subjects them to unethical or moral treatment for
human needs.
The possible physical damage that could be done if human cloning became a reality is
obvious when one looks at the sheer loss of life that occurred before the birth of Dolly.
Less than ten percent of the initial transfers survive to be healthy creatures. There
were 277 trial implants of nuclei. Nineteen of those 277 were deemed healthy while the
others were discarded. Five of those nineteen survived, but four of them died within
ten days of birth of sever abnormalities. Dolly was the only one to survive (Fact: Adler
1996). If those nuclei were human, “the cellular body count would look like sheer
carnage” (Logic: Kluger 1997). Even Ian Wilmut, one of the scientists accredited with
the cloning phenomenon at the Roslin Institute agrees, “the more you interfere with
reproduction, the more danger there is of things going wrong” (Expert Opinion). The
psychological effects of cloning are less obvious, but none the less, very plausible. In
addition to physical harms, there! are worries about the psychological harms on cloned
human children. One of those harms is the loss of identity, or sense of uniqueness and
individuality. Many argue that cloning crates serious issues of identity and individuality
and forces humans to consider the definition of self. Gilbert Meilaender commented on
the importance of genetic uniqueness not only to the child but to the parent as well
when he appeared before the National Bioethics Advisory Commission on March 13,
1997. He states that “children begin with a kind of genetic independence of [the
parent]. They replicate neither their father nor their mother. That is a reminder of the
independence that [the parent] must eventually grant them…To lose even in principle
this sense of the child as a gift will not be good for the children” (Expert Opinion).
Others look souly at the child, like philosopher Hans Jonas. He suggests that humans
have an inherent “right to ignorance” or a quality of “separateness.” Hum! an cloning, in
which there is a time gap between the beginning of the lives of the earlier and later
twin, is fundamentally different from homozygous twins that are born at the same time
and have a simultaneous beginning of their lives. Ignorance of the effect of one’s genes
on one’s future is necessary for the spontaneous construction of life and self (Jonas
1974). Human cloning is obviously damaging to both the family of and the cloned child.
It is harder to convince that non-human cloning is wrong and unethical, but it is just
the same. The cloning of a non-human species subjects them to unethical treatment
purely for human needs (Expert Opinion: Price 97). Western culture and tradition has
long held the belief that the treatment of animals should be guided by different ethical
standards than the treatment of humans. Animals have been seen as non feeling and
savage beasts since time began. Humans in general have no problem with seeing
animals as objects to be used whenever it becomes necessary. But what would happen
if humans started to use animals as body for growing human organs? Where is the line
drawn between human and non human? If a primate was cloned so that it grew human
lungs, liver, kidneys, and heart., what would it then be? What if we were to learn how
to clone functioning brains and have them grow inside of chimps? Would non-human
primates, such as a chimpanzee, who carried one or more human genes via transgenic
technology, be defined as still a chimp, a human, a subhuman, or something else? If
defined as human, would we have to give it rights of citizenship? And if humans were to
carry non-human transgenic genes, would that alter our definitions and treatment of
them(Deductive Logic: Kluger 1997)? Also, if the technology were to be so that
scientists could transfer human genes into animals and vice-versa, that would heighten
the danger of developing zoonoses, diseases that are transmitted from animals to
humans. It could create a world wide catastrophe that no one would be able to stop
(Potential Risks). In conclusion, the ethical and moral implications of cloning are such
that it would be wrong for the human race to support or advocate it. The sheer loss of
life in both humans and non-humans is enough to prove that cloning would be a foolish
endeavor, whatever the cause.