Is Cloning Acceptable?

Paper # 3

Cloning

Introduction to Philosophy

As the entire world continues to see substantial gains in science each year, many moral decisions must be made. Today more than ever individuals must decide whether or not to cross moral boundaries to pursue science that could potentially put an end to many problems facing our world. For years these boundaries have been broken with cultural advances including equal rights for all and interracial marriage. In the near future science will make it possible to clone human beings, forcing everyone to decide whether it is morally acceptable to clone. Is America ready to take the next step and pursue cloning for the benefit of medical and scientific advances? America along with the rest of the world is not ready for cloning and will never be accepting of cloning.

There are two different types of cloning, each with different goals and benefits. The first is therapeutic cloning which produces stem cells and even organs for transplantation. Instead of waiting on a donor list and hoping that an organ will arrive that would save your life, organs could be mass produced creating a perfect match that would be readily available. The second type of cloning is reproductive cloning. Reproductive cloning refers to allowing the clone to be created and live a regular life with the exact same DNA as the donor. Currently therapeutic cloning is being looked at as the first logical reason to clone. "Some types of disease and injury have no potential therapies other than those involving embryonic stem cells(cp #26, 3)." If perfected cloning could save thousands of lives and extend the life expectancy for the entire world. "The medical and scientific benefits of therapeutic cloning are so great that this research is morally required (cp#26,3)." Failure to pursue and eventually use this technology would result in many deaths that could have been prevented through therapeutic cloning. There are also justifiable reasons to pursue reproductive cloning. "Reproductive cloning also offers medical therapy for infertile couples (cp #26, 3)." For those couples who are unable to conceive and would like one of the parents genes to be passed on reproductive cloning would allow them to do so and produce a child that carried the same DNA as the donor parent. In addition to allowing an infertile couples to conceive, reproductive cloning could make it possible for the great minds of our lifetime to be recreated and have a positive impact on the world. Just imagine what Albert Einstein could do with today's technology and equipment.

Considering cloning has many scientific and medical solutions, cloning also presents various problems. Just the idea creating humans by means of production is comparable to a assembly line seems unnatural and unethical. "The idea of father-son or mother-daughter twins; the bizarre prospects of a woman giving birth to and rearing a genetic copy of herself, her spouse or even her deceased father or mother; the grotesqueness of conceiving a child as an exact replacement for another who has died; the utilitarian creation when necessary, in case of need for homologous tissues or organs for transplantation; the narcissism of those who would clone themselves and the arrogance of others who think they know who deserves to be cloned or which genotype any child-to-be should be thrilled to receive; the Frankensteinian hubris to create human life and increasingly to control its destiny; man playing God (cp #25, 5)." Everything listed above gives many reasons why cloning should not be taken to the next level, humans. The cloning of humans would create many uncomfortable situations that would only cause more problem for our world.

Consider a Father who is unable to have children, so as a couple Father and Mother, the two decide to clone the mother. Some where down the road the daughter will look exactly like the mother the father fell in love with many years ago, only younger and more attractive. Taking into consideration the fact that the father has no blood relation to the daughter, he might be inclined to start a relationship with the younger replica of his wife. On the mothers side of the equation, the mother would know exactly what the clone is capable of and expect the clone to fully utilize its potential. The mother would also have an unfair understanding of what the clone is going through