The Ethics Of Therapeutic Cloning

I am writing to address the problem I have with cloning. Therapeutic and Reproductive cloning is a waste of money and time. Why would you pay fifty thousand american dollars to clone something or someone that won’t be an exact copy? Every person or animal in the world is made for a reason, so why make a clone if you’re one of a kind.

The surrogate mother will ultimately give birth to an identical twin to the donor of the somatic cell (“The Process of Cloning”). This process allows people to clone living things of any sort.

Imagine if you lived in a world where everyone was the same and had no physical differences. Everyone would have the exact same DNA. There would be no diversity within the population. If we continue to clone then this may be a possibility for the future. As of now there have been no cloned humans, but we are not too far away from being able to do so. Scientists have been cloning since as early as 1886, and have been cloning animals since 1996 with the birth of Dolly the sheep. Dolly the sheep was created by using reproductive cloning which is used to produce copies of whole animals (Cloning Fact Sheet NHGRI). Furthermore, there are two other types of cloning; therapeutic cloning and gene cloning. Therapeutic cloning is used to produce embryonic stem cells for medical research (Cloning Fact Sheet NHGRI). Gene cloning is used to produce copies of genes or segments of DNA (Cloning Fact Sheet NHGRI). Cloning should not be allowed because it is inhumane and unethical, results in more failure than it does results, and is unfeasible.

Another supplementary argument can be made on the topic of medical advancements made possible through the cloning process, mankind will be provided with organs and cells with which human’s lives will be saved. If a person needs an organ transplant the normal means of transplantation would involve the removal of an organ from another person. This organ could be rejected and many complications could arise, often with deadly repercussions. Human cloning would involve using the person’s own cells that could be cloned to produce a healthy, normal organ for use in the person. Through this process, there would be no

Organ donations not only save lives but also money and time. If organ donations became prevalent the organ recipient would no longer need dialysis. Since there is no need for dialysis the cost to use the machine would lessen; this means that the cost of equipment would decrease, saving the hospital and insurance company’s money. More lives would be saved as well as benefit from those that no longer need an organ. In the book titled “Elements of Bioethics” adult organ transplants are only that have medical insurance. If organs are taken from recently deceased the cost for those that has no medical coverage was lessen. The process of organ transplantation is life changing and time is crucial. With shorter waiting time it would put ease on the person’s heart to know that this lifesaving event would happen sooner rather than later. In addition, when the organ is taken from the recently deceased the risk would be eliminated from

“The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation.” (Corrie Ten Boom) As living creatures our organs are a very vital detail into who, what we are and how we work. We would not be able survive well and live our lives to the fullest that we possibly can, if we did not have them. Organ donation is a very important thing, whether it is just a kidney to be a live donor. Or giving it all when life is over and a new chapter begins. Even though people do attribute to organ donation there are just not enough people doing it, and now people are getting rich off of this misfortunes of others.

The idea of finding a way to cure people of diseases with their own cells is one that scientists, physicians, and those who are afflicted by such diseases find very enticing. Therapeutic cloning is a process that scientists believe has the potential to achieve such goals in the future. While therapeutic cloning brings with it a variety of potential benefits and innovations, it also carries with it a polarizing ethical conflict that poses a strong impediment to furthering such research and development. By realizing therapeutic cloning for its great potential benefits and world changing implications and disregarding any ethical considerations that may deter such advancement, the proper focus and open-mindedness necessary to achieve success in the field would be achieved. Therapeutic cloning, like all medical endeavors, includes a multitude of challenges and flaws, but no very important medical achievements come about without extensive research and continual attempts at success.

Organs are going to waste every year because not enough people are donating their organs. Many people choose to donate but their family members decide not to let them donate after they pass away due to the situation they are in. Different cultures agree that organ transplantation is a good act of

For many years there has been a large controversy over the use of cloning for therapeutic and reproductive purposes. The argument against therapeutic cloning is that creating an exact replica of one's self all for the use of harvesting its parts is considered killing another human being. However, some people are for this use so that they can survive as long as they can, and use the clones materials as a way to cure disease or heal injuries. On the other hand, reductive cloning also has two sides, for and against. People who believe that reproductive cloning is okay, want to create another version of themselves just to either have themselves as a baby or replace a loved one. But, people who are against reproductive cloning believe that it is a selfish or unreasonable act to have one birth a

There are three primary types of cloning, recombinant DNA technology or DNA cloning, reproductive cloning, and therapeutic cloning. Therapeutic cloning, also referred to as somatic cell nuclear transfer(SCNT), was first accomplished in November 2001 by the Advanced Cell Technology. Therapeutic cloning is similar to reproductive cloning, but the purpose is to harvest embryonic stem cells from a developing embryo. This Cloning was designed as treatment for diseases. In therapeutic cloning, the core of a cell, commonly a skin cell, is embedded into a prepared egg whose nucleus has been extracted. The nucleated egg starts to break down continuously to form a blastocyst. Scientists then extract stem cells from the blastocyst and use them to grow cells that are a

The ethical issue for the majority of people in the U.S. does not seem to be whether donating organs should be allowed, but instead should someone be compensated for their donation. As described earlier, the U.S. has a major shortage of organs and an even greater shortage is found in some areas of the world. However, countries like Iran have found a way to eliminate their shortage completely. “Iran adopted a system of paying kidney donors in 1988 and within 11 years it became the only country in the world to clear its waiting list for transplants.” (Economist, 2011) Although this sounds promising, it is important to look at the effects on the organ donor. In a study done on Iranian donors who sold their kidneys, it was found that many donors were negatively affected emotionally and physically after donating and that given the chance most would never donate again nor would they advise anyone else to do so. (Zargooshi, 2001) Additionally, many claimed to be worse off financially after donating due to an inability to work. (Goyal, 2002) To some, this last set of findings would be enough to supersede the benefit of clearing the organ waiting lists.

Science today is developing at warp speed. We have the capability to do many things, which include the cloning of actual humans! First you may ask what a clone is? A clone is a group of cells or organisms, which are genetically identical, and have all been produced from the same original cell. There are three main types of cloning, two of which aim to produce live cloned offspring and one, which simply aims to produce stem cells and then human organs. These three are: reproductive cloning, embryo cloning and therapeutic cloning. The goal of therapeutic cloning is to produce a healthy copy of a sick person's tissue or organ for transplant, and the goal of both reproductive cloning and embryo cloning is to

Though many have agreed that cloning should not be further researched there are still those who believe otherwise. Why exactly do people believe that research on human cloning should be allowed? A significant reason is that cloned embryos are believed to be a necessity for research on embryonic stem cells that have proven to have the potential to revolutionize medicine worldwide. “Scientists believe that cloned embryonic stem cell research will lead to cures for many diseases and will provide tissues and organs for transplant and treatment of degenerative conditions.” (Lauritzen) Although most scientists are nearly unified in their opposition to cloning humans for reproductive purposes (Klotzko pg. 120), on-going research towards other goals makes it difficult for most to oppose the research. This is because research done on therapeutic cloning is directed and motivated by the anticipation that cloning technology will have compelling health benefits to many. Cloning is hoped to possibly lead to transplant therapies with the assistance of cloned embryonic stem cells that are altered and modified to individual patients using their own DNA.

The first problem that human cloning encounter is it is one of unethical processes because it involves the alteration of the human genetic and human may be harmed, either during experimentation or by expectations after birth. “Cloning, like all science, must be used responsibly. Cloning human is not desirable. But cloning sheep has its uses.”, as quoted by Mary Seller, a member of the Church of England’s Board of Social Responsibility (Amy Logston, 1999). Meaning behind this word are showing us that cloning have both advantages and disadvantages. The concept of cloning is hurting many human sentiments and human believes. “Given the high rates of morbidity and mortality in the cloning of other mammals, we believe that cloning-to-produce-children would be extremely unsafe, and that attempts to produce a cloned child would be highly unethical”, as quoted by the President’s Council on Bioethics. Since human cloning deals with human life, it said to be unethical if people are willing to killed embryo or infant to produce a cloned human and advancing on it. The probability of this process is successful is also small because the technology that being used in this process is still new and risky.

Scientific experimentation has led us to many great discoveries such as: Chemotherapy, heart surgery, and bone marrow transplants. Recently scientists have discovered a new way to heal humans. This is known as cloning. Although they have yet to clone a human they have cloned sheep. Cloning has brought up a huge controversy among the American people. There are two sides to the story. Either you agree with cloning or you don’t. The only way to help make that decision is to look at the good and bad points of cloning.