Pros and Cons of Cloning

Pros and Cons of Cloning

January 19, 2011

Contrary to popular notion, cloning started more than a century before Dolly, the first cloned mammal, became famous. It cannot be denied, nonetheless, that Dolly awakened the imagination of the populace regarding the pros and cons of cloning. It is a debate that continues to polarize society 15 years after the birth of the most famous sheep on Earth.

Inclusions in the Discussion

We must emphasize that the cloning referred to in this article refers to reproductive, gene and therapeutic cloning. Reproductive cloning is used in the creation of an animal with the same nuclear DNA as another animal, the latter of which may be currently or previously in existence. This was the technology used in the creation of Dolly.

Therapeutic cloning refers to the production of human embryos for the purpose of research. It has also been applied to create new organs or tissues for transplantation into a waiting patient with possible applications in the treatment of diseases like diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and even cancer.

These two types of cloning – there is a third type known as gene cloning, by the way – are at the center of heated debates. If you wish to cast your vote on the pros and cons of cloning, it is important to acquire as much reliable and relevant information and education on the matter.

Advantages of Cloning

With that being said, the following are the generally accepted benefits of cloning:

• Easy replacement of internal organs and tissues for patients in need of transplants instead of waiting for suitable organ donors, alive or dead. Since the transplanted organ contains most of the recipient’s genes, there is a lesser chance for rejection as well. • Cloning can be a solution to the infertility issue among couples. Theoretically speaking, parents can choose the desirable qualities in their genes to be passed on to their children. • Genetic research can immensely benefit from cloning especially in combating the wide range of genetic diseases.

Tipping the balance in the pros and cons of cloning is the fact the gene cloning can be harnessed to produce superior plants and animals to feed humanity. Genetic engineering has made great advances in this regard although it is also polarizing.

Disadvantages of Cloning

Of course, there are disadvantages to cloning that prevent the advances in this area to be made. Such disadvantages include:

• Genetic diversity and its benefits are weakened with the replicating process in cloning. We may be exposing ourselves to a compromised ability to adapt to our surroundings, not to mention that the beauty of diversity is lost. • Unethical practices can result from cloning as unscrupulous individuals can breed individuals with certain traits.

Probably the most contentious issue in the debate about the pros and cons of cloning is the ethical side of the process. Is it ethical to act like God by creating an embryo that develops into a human being? Is it ethical to kill a pre-embryo in order to harvest its stem cells, which will then be cultivated into an organ for transplant purposes? Is it ethical to mess around with nature in the first place?

Indeed, if you must take sides in the pros and cons of cloning debate, your main responsibility is to enter it with an open, educated and informed mind first and stable emotions second.

Pros and Cons of Cloning

When Dolly, the first cloned sheep came in the news, cloning interested the masses. Not only researchers but even common people became interested in knowing about how cloning is done and what pros and cons it has. Everyone became more curious about how cloning could benefit the common man. Most of us want to know the pros and cons of cloning, its advantages and its potential risks to mankind. Let us understand them.

Pros of Cloning

Cloning finds applications in genetic fingerprinting, amplification of DNA and alteration of the genetic makeup of organisms. It can be used to bring about desired changes in the genetic makeup of individuals thereby introducing positive traits in them, as also for elimination of negative traits. Cloning can also be applied to plants to remove or alter defective genes, thereby making them resistant to diseases. Cloning may find applications in development of human organs, thus making human life safer. Here we look at some of the potential advantages of cloning.

Organ Replacement: If vital organs of the human body can be cloned, they can serve as backup systems for human beings. Cloning body parts can serve as a lifesaver. When a body organ such as a kidney or heart fails to function, it may be possible to replace it with the cloned body organ.

Substitute for Natural Reproduction: Cloning in human beings can prove to be a solution to infertility. Cloning can serve as an option for producing children. With cloning, it would be possible to produce certain desired traits in human beings. We might be able to produce children with certain qualities. Wouldn't that be close to creating a man-made being?!

Help in Genetic Research: Cloning technologies can prove helpful to researchers in genetics. They might be able to understand the composition of genes and the effects of genetic constituents on human traits, in a better manner. They will be able to alter genetic constituents in cloned human beings, thus simplifying their analysis of genes. Cloning may also help us combat a wide range of genetic diseases.

Obtain Specific Traits in Organisms: Cloning can make it possible for us to obtain customized organisms and harness them for the benefit of society. It can serve as the best means to replicate animals that can be used for research purposes. It can enable the genetic alteration of plants and animals. If positive changes can be brought about in living beings with the help of cloning, it will indeed be a boon to mankind.

Cons of Cloning

Like every coin has two sides, cloning has its flip side too. Though cloning may work wonders in genetics, it has potential disadvantages. Cloning, as you know, is copying or replicating biological traits in organisms. Thus it might reduce the diversity in nature. Imagine multiple living entities like one another! Another con of cloning is that it is not clear whether we will be able to bring all the potential uses of cloning into reality. Plus, there's a big question of whether the common man will afford harnessing cloning technologies to his benefit. Here we look at the potential disadvanatges of cloning.

Detrimental to Genetic Diversity: Cloning creates identical genes. It is a process of replicating a genetic constitution, thus hampering the diversity in genes. While lessening the diversity in genes, we weaken our ability of adaptation. Cloning is also detrimental to the beauty that lies in diversity.

Invitation to Malpractices: While cloning allows man to tamper with genetics in human beings, it also makes deliberate reproduction of undesirable traits, a probability. Cloning of body organs might invite malpractices in society.

Will this Technology Reach the Common Man?: In cloning human organs and using them for transplant, or in cloning human beings themselves, technical and economic barriers will have to be considered. Will cloned organs be cost-effective? Will cloning techniques really reach the common man?

Man, a Man-made Being?: Moreover, cloning will put human and animal rights at stake. Will cloning fit into our ethical and moral principles? It will make man just another man-made being. Won't it devalue mankind? Won't it demean the value of human life?

Cloning is equal to emulating God. Is that easy? Is that risk-free? Many are afraid it is not!

By Manali Oak

Read more at Buzzle:

Ethical Issues of Cloning

The rapid advancements in science and technology over the last couple of decades has meant that mankind is exploring newer frontiers and challenging long-held beliefs and notions. One such field is cloning. Creating exact copies or cloning human beings has always fired the human imagination. This desire has manifested itself in various art and entertainment depicting cloned humans. The successful cloning of Dolly in 1997 further fueled talk about the possibility of human cloning. Over the years, cloning has come to mean an artificial and identical genetic copy of an existing life form.

To explain in a scientific way, cloning means replacing the egg nucleus of an organism with the donor's nucleus. This nucleus contains unique genes of the donor. The procedure involves removing the nucleus of a somatic cell and inserting it into an enucleated or unfertilized egg cell. Unlike natural reproduction, wherein the egg contains a combination of genetic material, this egg which grows into an embryo contains only the donor's gene.

Theoretically, this might seem fairly straightforward. However, a high failure rate along with prevalence of high deformity and disability rates in cloned animals, strongly suggests cloning might not be applicable to humans.

The Ethical Issues

Yes, cloning does have its share of advantages. Not only does cloning help homosexual and sterile couples to have biological offspring, but also helps in in-depth research, for example; in the case of motor neuron disease. Embryonic stem cells can be cloned to produce tissues or organs to replace or repair the damaged ones. Human cloning could allow parents who have lost a child a chance to redress their loss using the DNA of their deceased child.

On the flip side though, cloning presents us with certain issues like the kind of life a cloned individual will lead. Would he live like a unique individual or would he have to live like a genetic prisoner? Should parents choose the traits of a future child as is possible with cloning? These and other such issues present an ethical and moral dilemma for scientists and experts alike who see cloning as a potential danger to human identity. Here are some of the major ethical issues of cloning.

Religious Belief and Control

Cloning goes against the basic belief of certain religions that only God has created life and its various forms in nature. Humans cannot act as God. Even when genetically identical twins are born, their embryo splits spontaneously or randomly to give a new unique genetic combination. Cloning involves a controlled split of the embryo to produce a tailor-made genetic make up. Ethically, it is wrong for any human to have control over the genetic make up of any other individual. More so, the cloned individual would be generated for specific purposes. This in essence is wrong wherein the purpose of an individual's life should be more than just satisfying someone else's needs.

Relationships and Individuality

Cloning creates a new human, yet strips him off his individuality. A man, along with his clone can never be dignified as a single identity. The uniqueness attributed to humans from God might be at stake. The replication of an individual is a major blow to his most distinct feature - his identity. Another fact is that we are unsure how the cloned individual might react and behave with regards to his family and parents. Furthermore, if the cloned individual is cloned from his grandparents and not his parents, would he/she be considered a sibling? How would he/she react? How would the parents and family regard the cloned individual? When we are unsure about the implications or consequences of such situations, it is ethically wrong to subject any individual to such tests as fellow human beings.

Failure Rate

Physicians and doctors have a moral obligation to ensure and translate the safety of any medical procedure to his/her patients. As of now, no one can guarantee that the child born due to cloning would be a healthy one. As indicated earlier, the high failure rate in cloning mammals and other species is completely unacceptable when it comes to cloning humans. Moreover, in case of a failed cloning attempt, putting down mammals or other species in itself is distressing. Translating the same in case of human clones is ethically and medically unjustifiable, as well as criminal.

Legal and Other Issues

Besides the above mentioned issues, there are other issues which may seem technical as of now, but can arise out of lack of knowledge or unforeseeable circumstances.

Altering Gene Pool

If cloning becomes widespread, the genetic diversity of humans will go down. This would result in the decrease in immunity of humans against diseases. Thus making humans susceptible to epidemics and unknown diseases. Some advocate human cloning as ethically unacceptable because it is seen as a threat to the entire human evolution. Though this issue is slightly hypothetical, it still can pose a potential threat to all humanity. Along with reducing generic diversity, there are risks of transmitting degenerative diseases from the donor human to the clone. Trans-genetic manipulation, where genetic material from one species is artificially inserted into another species, if applied to humans, would lead to transfer of diseases from other species. Thus, large-scale cloning might prove to be a serious blow to the entire human race in future.

Illegal Cloning and Clones

Cloning could have legal implications as well. A cloned child having multiple donors might complicate parental right issues as well as inheritance and marital eligibility issues. Another view held by many experts, suggests that there is a possibility of clones being developed without the concerned individual's consent. This will definitely create legal issues not to mention violation of medical as well as moral ethics. Many people are also concerned that clones would be produced with a specific need and purpose in mind and such cloned individuals would be traded or sold, amounting to human trafficking which is illegal.

At the other end of spectrum are some experts who are of the opinion that the embryo does not require any particular moral consideration. They say that, at the stage when an embryo is cloned, it is just a bunch of cells that contain DNA, which are not very different from the millions of skin cells that we shed everyday. The embryonic cells at that stage cannot be considered equivalent to a human being because it does not have thoughts, self-awareness, memory, awareness of its environment, sensory organs, internal organs, legs, arms, and so on. They think that the embryo attains human identity or individuality much later during gestation, perhaps at the point when the brain develops so that it becomes aware of itself.

In view of the highly debatable aspects about cloning and weighing in on the pros and cons of this process, UNESCO passed a non-binding United Nations Declaration on Human Cloning, in March 2005, which states: Practices which are contrary to human dignity, such as reproductive cloning of human beings, shall not be permitted. In the United States there are no federal laws that ban cloning completely, yet 13 states have banned reproductive cloning. Although many countries have banned cloning, many countries allow therapeutic cloning, a system in which the stem cells are extracted from the pre-embryo, with the intention of generating a whole organ or tissue, so that it can be transplanted back into the person who gave the DNA.

Since human cloning raises some serious concerns, it would be highly irresponsible to pursue this method, without giving it a serious thought. New issues are bound to crop up with advances in this field, and only time can decide its fate. Until the benefits are discussed by society to outweigh the harm, it would be inappropriate to participate in cloning of humans.

By Rita Putatunda