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Cloning the Human Race: The Importance and Advantages of Cloning Technology
by Seah Nili |
“Genetic essentialism reduces the self to a molecular entity, equating human beings, in all their social, historical and moral complexity, with their genes” (Nelkin & Lindee, 1995, p. 2). Cloning geniuses will create life with an ability to have similar potential as that of the genius. Although we cannot replicate the same environment as that genius, the traits of exceptional talents and intelligence are there.
Cloning “extraordinary individuals” like Gandhi, Beethoven and Einstein, “would produce individuals with the same genetic inheritances” (Nussbaum & Sunstein, 1998, p. 149). This, however, does not mean the clone will be able to repeat history and accomplish what these individuals once did. “Human
behavior is a function of genetic endowment interacting with social and environmental forces” (Nussbaum & Sunstein, 1998, p. 271).
The importance of the environment with respect to any individual is a major factor affecting one’s behavior and character. Genes are another essential factor, which greatly affect an individual. “Social identity and social ties of relationship and responsibility are widely connected to, and supported by, biological kinship” (Kass & Wilson, 1998, p. 36).
There are many people who still think that cloning Hitler will also mean repeating what he did. Scientists reassure the public that this is not possible, as for such historical events to be repeated, all the circumstances that allowed Hitler to be what he was would have been repeated as well. If Hitler was cloned and brought up in a well-to-do, happy family which he enjoyed being in, this clone will not follow the footsteps Hitler as his background is no longer the same. However, he might become one who can speak incredibly well and eventually become a well-respected leader.
V. The future of the human race
Dolly’s life span holds the key to a new path for the human race. Scientists are observing her closely in her protected enclosure within the walls of the Roslin Institute. If she lives to the age of a normal sheep, it will mean her DNA from an adult sheep had no effect on her age, and thus it is possible to reverse the age of one’s DNA to zero. However, if her life span is shorter than other normal sheep, we can only prove her life began from the age of her cloned cell.
Dolly’s success was among many failures as “the British transferred 277 adult nuclei into enucleated sheep eggs and implanted twenty-nine clonal embryos, but they achieved the birth of only one live lamb clone” (Kass & Wilson, 1998, p. 14).
Still, human cloning and its technology have their benefits and research work should be continued. Abortion is legal although it is to kill a fetus. “If there is a right to abort fetal life, there must be a parallel right to create life” (Nussbaum & Sunstein, 1998, p. 211).
Terminally ill patients in hospitals are waiting for a solution to end their suffering. For example, leukemia patients need a healthy bone marrow that matches their bodies, or they will die. AIDS and other diseases are still incurable. Many doctors and scientists see cloning as a very conceivable way of solving these problems and freeing these suffering people soon.
To ban cloning research will cause a technology which may someday cure diseases, prevent the deaths of people who wait unceasingly for an organ for transplant, give hope to people who otherwise cannot have their own child, and allow more people with extraordinary traits to be born into this world. Thus, the continuation of human cloning and its technology are major benefits to the human race. Human cloning is a possibility in playing a big role in our future.
VI. References
Barnett, S. A. (1998). The science of life. Australia: Allen & Unwin.
Chellam, R. (1999, October 1). Clone research – dangerous to wish it away. The Business Times.
Human Cloning Foundation. (1998). The benefits of human cloning. [Online]. Available from:
http://www.humancloning.org/benefits.htm
Kass, L. R., & Wilson, J. Q. (Ed.). (1998). The ethics of human cloning. Washington D.C.: AEI Press.
Kolata, G. (1998). Clone: The road to Dolly, and the path ahead. New York: William Morrow and Company.
Nelkin, D., & Lindee, M. S. (1995). The DNA mystique: The gene as a cultural icon. New York: W. H. Freeman.
Nussbaum, M. C., & Sunstein, C. R. (Ed.). (1998). Clones and clones: Facts and fantasies about human cloning. New York: W. W. Norton.
Rantala, M. L., & Milgram, A. J. (Ed.). (1999). Cloning: For and against. US: Carus
VII. Bibliography
Bell, G. (1982). The masterpiece of nature. London: Croom Helm.
Kassirer, J. P., & Rosenthal, N. A. (1998, March 26). Should human cloning research be off limits? [Online]. Available from:
http://www.nejm.org/content/1998/0338/0013/0905.asp
Levine, J., & Suzuki, D. (1993). The secret of life. Boston: WGBH Educational Foundation.
McKinnell, R. (1979). Cloning: A biologist reports. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
McKinnell, R. (1985). Cloning: Of frogs, mice, and other animals. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Nossal, G. J. V., & Coppel, R. L. (1989). Reshaping life. Oakleigh, Australia: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge.
Pollack, R. (1994). Signs of life: The language and meanings of DNA. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Ramsey, P. (1970). Fabricated man: The ethics of genetic control. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Roleff, T. L. (1998). Biomedical ethics: Opposing viewpoints. San Diego, US: Greenhaven Press.
Silver, L. M. (1998). Remaking Eden: Cloning and beyond in a brave new world. New York: Avon Books.
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