Cloning

“And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed in to his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.(Genesis 2:7) The Lord God then took one of his ribs and closed up his flesh, and with the rib from which the Lord God had taken from man he created woman.(Genesis 2:21-22a)” Is cloning necessary for advancements in improving the quality of life? People often question whether or not we as a scientific nation are trying to play the role of god by the divisive issue of human cloning.

Early in 1997 Scottish scientist Ian Wilmut revealed to the world that he had successfully cloned an adult sheep, known as Dolly. With this discovery the world realized that cloning was no longer part of a science fiction movie. Since then the cloning of human beings has been one of the most largely debated topics in the world. From schools to the White House discussions have begun regarding the ethical implications of cloning. Several polls done by Time magazine (The Ethics of Human Cloning 1998) showed that 75% of the people thought that human cloning was a bad idea. Furthermore, seventy-four percent believed that cloning was against God’s will, and, when asked if they would clone themselves if presented with an opportunity, 91% said no. However, when asked to define human cloning an estimated 95% could not provide it correctly. Opponents of human cloning often argue that it is immoral and unethical to clone human beings for both religious and humanitarian reasons. Moreover others describe human cloning as a luxury for the wealthy and as a tool for the Organ Market Development. Differently, I feel that cloning is immoral and a bad idea for the following reasons.

First of all cloning may reduce genetic variability. Producing many clones runs the risk of creating a population that is entirely the same in certain areas. This population would be susceptible to the same diseases. That means that one disease could devastate an entire population. One could easily picture this population being wiped out by a single virus. However, less drastic but more probable events could occur from lack of genetic diversity. For example, if a large percent of the nation cattle population are clones, a particular strain of mad cow disease could destroy most of the population. The result could be catastrophic food shortages. If human identical clones are made and disease strikes, what could we do to stop it from devastating our entire population? How many people would have to suffer and die for the sake of technology?

Second, cloning is currently a very expensive process. It requires large amounts of money and biological expertise. It took Ian Wilmut and his associates 277 tries to successfully create Dolly. Since then a new cloning technique has been created that is proven to