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Illegal Beings: Human Clones
A case against human cloning
BionicVirus ( 10/21/2003, 10:14:32 )Hi abbyn, i hope this helps. The case against human cloningMain themes you can start looking at abbyn: The indignity of human cloning. Reproductive cloning: an attack on human dignity. Clear thinking on cloning. The ethics of cloning and human embryo research. Human cloning and false hopes. Who is the parent in cloning? Cloning and future of humanity. The Human Genome ProjectMost of the arguments that have been forwarded against cloning can be grouped into 3 major groups: risks of physical harms to the clone; risks of psychological harms to the clone; and harms to society. However, there are more to understanding why we should reject human cloning (HC). We can copy animals: but if you think cloning will bring back a pet or a deceased loved one you'll be disappointed. Why? First and foremost, being a medical researcher in neuroscience, I know that science is still in its infancy and animal studies are still scarce. In July 1996, Dolly the sheep was born in Scotland. What makes Dolly's birth noteworthy was that she was the result of the first successful cloning attempt using the nucleus of an adult cell. The technique that led to Dolly's birth involved transferring the nucleus of a mammary cell from an adult sheep to the enucleated egg cell of an unrelated sheep with gestation occurring in a third sheep. The possibility of applying this technique to human reproduction raised concerns worldwide with several countries moving for an immediate bans on human cloning because it took almost 300 experiments to get it right and although she appeared healthy Dolly died early. Cloning is morally impermissible because that technique has not proven to be safe. Developmental neuroscientists who try to grow cells outside the body (including myself) know very little of what is really required to make a cell exactly how it is inside the body because all the environmental factors inside the body have not been discovered. Neuroscientists still have not identified all the receptors, second messenger systems, signaling pathways and molecules that make up a nerve cell, we still don’t know how they are regulated and controlled. We still don’t know how the neural circuits are established and how cells migrate to their final location in the body. We have some idea as to how nerve cells develop and how and what maintains them but we are still very far from knowing the full story. Even when they grow cells outside the body like in petri-dishes, most of the time the cells change, they do not behave or resemble anything like they are in the body. Thus, this cloning procedure can produce severe developmental abnormalities in any resulting child. Unless we can guarantee a healthy baby the first time, we cannot allow human cloning. We need a total consent of the parent or the person who wants to be cloned and if the child turns out to be disabled who is to blame? If there are millions of millions of cloned babies who are born disabled and brain damaged, who is to blame who is responsible, the parent/person who consented or the scientists? Who pays compensation and medical expenses? Supporters of HC do not even know the health hazards of cloning, why would anyone still want to sign a consent form if you do not have all the information about the hazards? Scientists would not tell you all the inside information so there’s always that hidden information the public would never be allowed to know. Why would anyone want to be cloned when the information on HC is still lacking and faulty? Maybe in the future the public may be allowed access to more information but once you give your consent to be cloned and your clone does not turn out healthy-what are you going to do? Supporters of HC who believe that cloning oneself or cloning a loved one who have died, you are facing false hopes because it does not mean you are extending your present life. Despite having practically the same genes, many twins actually develop their own sense of individuality because they have separate brains and they experience situations differently because they sense the environment differently. Thus, your clone or your cloned pet/loved ones, who has a separate brain will have a unique identity, distinct personalities, develop a different interest/relationships and they make different choices. Just because they share a similar genetic makeup to you doesn’t mean their genes have programmed her/she to be exactly like you or to be exactly like the person you once knew. Cloning humans can be destruction to the stable family unit. Cloning humans promotes confusion and will threaten the stability of a family. If a woman clones herself, it is unclear whether she is the mother, sister, or both. It is also unclear whether the husband is the father of the cloned person. Cloning would mean that humans are replaceable-disrespecting the humanity. Advocates seem to think that we can harvest organs from the cloned individuals, so if we can do that, what would the cloned person think? That they are made just to harvest organs and be used as lab rats to look for cures for diseases? Once we take all their organs, what do we do with them? Cremate them or dump them elsewhere? This is just the same as ‘ethnic cleansing’ or discrimination and this is against our human rights. If millions and millions of clones are made, who pays for all the medical and living expenses? We already have so many people living in poverty and unequal distribution of wealth in this world, how are we to look after the cloned people? Do you want to pay extra taxes to pay for their welfare or pension? Those who support HC always say that this will help infertility and that it will be an important tool for our ongoing battle with genetic diseases. We should not accept HC just because it could help solve people who are infertile-give your reasons as to why solving infertility is a good reason to accept a new technology? Infertility is not a life-threatening condition, nor does it seem to reduce our equal opportunities. Give me a reason why if something relieves infertility, then it is good and should be accepted? Infertility is not a ‘medical’ problem. You must realize that infertility can, in fact, be prevented and less than 10% of the populations are ‘genetically’ infertile, that’s not enough subjects to accept a new technology. In framing the problems this way, infertile couples and supporters of HC are drawing away from the fact that many cases of infertility could be prevented. Sexual contraceptives (the pill), Chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis are responsible for 20% of the cases of infertility. Thousands of women every year have to deal with infertility problems due to pelvic inflammatory disease or polycystic ovary syndrome. Many women these days are also delaying childbearing and everybody knows that having children later in life means less chances of conceiving and an increase in the chances of having a child with Down’s syndrome. Environmental pollution and chemicals and amongst the poor, inadequate nutrition, poor health, abortion, infections following childbirth and limited access to health care all contribute to infertility. Get vaccinated-because childhood infection can cause infertility. If your concern is with solving infertility, then try to relieve it by solving these problems by non-technological solutions first. Given the low success rates of other reproductive technologies there is no evidence that cloning will work much better. Medical research should not be a health care business concerned with individual’s desires-it should be maximizing public health. HC is a way to cure all diseases? No, there is no scientific evidence showing that the majority of the deaths from cancers, strokes or heart diseases are from preventable genetic causes. This is not to say that genetics does not play a role in these diseases at all, but such a role is not as essential as the argument makes it appear. In most cases, particular genes may be necessary for a disease to be present, but such genes are not sufficient because other biological and environmental factors must also be present for the disease to occur. Such things are smoking, drugs, drinking alcohol, eating the wrong foods, lack of exercise, lack of vaccination and occupational health hazards all contribute to the onset of diseases. Is HC helpful in cases where the existence of a particular gene guarantees the existence of a deadly disease? First supporters seem to think that HC is the best way to avoid hereditary diseases. If other techniques exist that can help us with this endeavour, you supporters need to prove not only that HC is good but it is also better than other techniques. Many of the well known hereditary diseases are due to incestuous relationships and inbreeding especially in certain cultures such the middle-eastern cultures. This could be easily prevented by stopping and banning inbreeding amongst certain populations. The best medical breakthrough in the history of mankind is the mapping of the human gene. All 30, 000 human genes has been mapped and every single gene can be studied. There are techniques in which a gene gun can be used to encounter a defective gene so that it can obliterate the expression of the disease, there all other medical and scientific techniques which are far more reliable and cost effective. We should be spending time and money to help further improve these technologies because they are successful and they do work. HC is not a good enough case to help prevent genetic disease because a disease caused purely by a faulty gene does not occur in a large number of people. In these cases, however, parents and people have other options which are available such as pre-implantation diagnosis or gamete donation. We are not an endangered species and we have enough men around who produces enough sperm to impregnate a million women around the world and the evolution of survival of the fittest explains natural selection of the best of the species and evolution of human beings from their less-developed ancestors. The game of natural mating ensures that the most physically well-developed individual from the species, which is best suitable for survival and propagation, is successful in reproducing. Even in the development of the human race, the initial period of evolution demanded that the individual with the best physical development succeed in reproducing to withstand the vagaries of nature. Human beings have, however, evolved to such a stage that sex no longer is a means of reproduction. Sex has become more for pleasure and enjoyment. Simultaneously, the emphasis has shifted from brawn to brain. The present system of reproduction favours brawn. Many of the supporters of HC have desires to further reproduce physically attractive cloned individuals which means they are going to be more people that look good but have very little intelligence because remember there is no gene for intelligence (or not one that has been mapped by the Human Genome Project anyway). A lot of the arguments for HC all seem to be out of an individual’s desire. Their desire to live for hundreds of years (which is ridiculous because cloned human beings are totally different beings and their genes have undergone so many replicative cycles that they will age faster so they’ll die faster) or the desire to have good-looking children or to replace people for the army because they don’t want to go but cloned humans will also have brains=feelings so what if they don’t want to go join the army? We have enough people on this planet to form an army to combat any danger. Our world is already over-populated, where millions of children are in desperate need of good homes, a world where some mothers are just lucky enough to have children of their own but they still lack access to health care, food and an education. Desire is not a strong case for approving the cloning of humans. Oh, and lastly but not least, some real results: research by Matzuki and Shiga (search pubmed) on cloned animals showed that the endocrine system of cloned animals sucked and they die faster due to inappropriate development. Endocrine characteristics of cloned calves.Matsuzaki M, Shiga K.Department of Animal and Grassland Research, National Agricultural Research Center for Kyushu Okinawa Region, Kumamoto, Japan. animal@affrc.go.jpTo examine the possible link between endocrine status and perinatal problems related to cattle cloning, plasma concentrations of cortisol, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and components of the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system were compared between 13 somatic cell cloned and seven control Japanese Black calves (five produced by artificial insemination [AI] and two produced from in vitro fertilized embryos [IVP]) immediately after birth. Five cloned calves required delivery by cesarean section (C-section), while all of control calves were delivered by spontaneous vaginal delivery. The C-section delivered clones were heavier at birth, followed by vaginally delivered clones and IVP controls, and AI controls were the lightest. The neonatal mortality (death within the 1st week) of C-section delivered clones was also high (4/5) compared to that of vaginally delivered clones (1/8) or controls (0/7). Plasma concentrations of cortisol and IGF-I were lower in the clones than control calves although the plasma ACTH level was not different between the groups. A striking difference was observed in plasma IGF binding protein (IGFBP) profile in which cloned calves had a greater relative abundance of IGFBP-2 compared with controls. Observed differences suggest that insufficient prepartum rise in plasma cortisol of cloned calves failed to initiate the switch to an adult mode of the IGF system during late gestation and therefore parturition was not spontaneous. Inappropriate developmental changes in endocrine system may be partly responsible for the fetal overgrowth and perinatal complications associated with the cloning technology.
This Message is being posted for educational purposes, as well as for comment and criticism, by the visitors to the HumanCloning.org Foundation website (www.HumanCloning.org ).
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