To Clone or Not to Clone
- Aunella Meco
- Jun 10, 2018
- 4 min read
In the play "a number" by Caryl Churchill, a father by the name of Salter thought he deserved a second chance at raising his first son (Bernard 1). He does this by cloning Bernard 1 to eventually create Bernard 2; a copy of Bernard 1. However, as the play goes on there turns out to be more copies of Bernard 1..... DUN DUN DUNNNNN...... *dramatic piano music inserted here* Interested in the play? go buy it! No spoilers here people!
All jokes aside let's get the basics down; what is human cloning, how it done, and where can I do it? human cloning is the process of creating a genetically identical copy of oneself. This is done by inserting a somatic cell (any cell other than the sex cells) into a donor egg, the growth of those cells are then ignited by some sort of electrical shock to get the cells to grow, once that is done the egg will be placed inside of a voluntary surrogate. lastly, where can you do it? EVERYWHERE OF COURSE!!! JUST KIDDING! absolutely no where..... yet.
Whether human cloning should be accepted in todays society has been a huge debate for decades now. Many scientists worry that if human cloning were to be accepted it would raise ethical and human dignity issues. To give an example; in 1988 the world health organization had confirmed that " cloning for the replication of human individuals is ethically unacceptable and contrary to human dignity and integrity" (Caulfield,2003). For instance when doing research on the human genome it was clearly stated by a universal declaration that "research on the human genome should fully respect human dignity, freedom and human rights" (Deryck Beyleveld, 2003). Then there are others that worry that the clone itself will not have its own human rights and be used as scientific technology, for example in the protocol to the convention for the protection of human rights with regards to the application of biology and medicine on the prohibition of cloning human beings it was stated that " human cloning may become a technical possibility" and "Considering however that the instrumentalisation of human beings through the deliberate creation of genetically identical human beings is contrary to human dignity and thus constitutes a misuse of biology and medicine" (Paris,12.1.1998). Therefore, in todays day human cloning will not be accepted or tolerated in any sense.
Interestingly enough cloning of an organism has been attempted many times. For example the most popular known organism to have been cloned was Dolly the Sheep. Dolly was created using the same procedure explained in the beginning of the blog; they had taken cells from a sheep and used those cells to put into an egg, shocked the egg to get the growth stages started and inserted it into a sheep as surrogacy.
The cloning of a human has also been attempted. Scientists in North Korea had claimed that they had cloned a human; however the operation was aborted right before the human embryo began to grow ( MacLean’s,1999).
Human cloning could mean a whole different spectrum of medicine and science, but human cloning can also mean a catastrophic spiral in todays society and how people will react to such news. There is no doubt in my mind that people will have a hard time adjusting to the fact that there might be a clone of somebody walking the streets. Then there will be those that will find human cloning legalized absolutely amazing and will take advantage of the opportunity.
All I know is we must be careful with what we put out in the open for every person to have access to. Whether or not human cloning itself should be legalized is a huge controversy on its own. Using cloning as a source of food supply would seem more ideal. To clone vegetables or plants that are in high demand or even fruits; that would seem like a world I would happily live in. We have to reflect and think about todays world and whether or not we really need to have human cloning become another issue facing todays society. Is human cloning worth fighting over?
Are there any benefits to human cloning? I am sure there are. Do they outweigh the cons? that is something you must decide for yourself. Is there a possibility of having cloning legalized? I honestly have no idea. But what I do know is if you're interested in learning more about human cloning click on one of the two links below and learn away!
Resources
Council of Europe: Additional Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine, on the Prohibition of Cloning Human Beings. Paris. (1998)
Beyleveld D, Brownsword R: Human Dignity, Human Rights, and Human Genetics. The Modern Law Review. (1998, 61: 661-681. 10.1111/1468-2230.00172).
MacLean’s,“Human cloning?: Cloning research in South Korea.” Dec 28, p 110; anonymous. (1999).
Anonymous. “Embryo experiment succeeds.” New York Times, Oct 24. (1993)
Jenny: The other Mothers: The blog for someone other than an ordinary mother; 10 Hilarious Baby Memes That Will Make You Pee a Little (July, 2015)
Aussie Memes; Human Rights - Everyone has the right to be human - Tony Abbott Meme, (2013)
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