Term paper on Creation Cloning As An Alternative

Free Creation Cloning As An Alternative papers

Creation Vs Darwinism
Creationism is the theory that man, the earth, and the rest of the universe was originally created rather than randomly exploding from nothingness into chance existence. Of all the generations thus far to inhabit the Earth, we have the least excuse for not recognizing the quiet presence of The Sci

Creationism
Creationism is the belief that the origin of the universe, of life, and of the different kinds of plants and animals on earth are due to the intervention of God. The other belief is the belief of evolution developed by Charles Darwin that contradicts creationism. Evolution states that all species i

Creation: Cloning As an Alternative

God created a man, and from one of his ribs, he created a woman. Then, the two of them created a new life. This was all naturally done. It was God's most wonderful creation. Cloning brings up a life dilemma. Cloning puts in a single or a group of individuals the power of creating and granting life. And this is done by basically duplicating one individual, by creating a twin of somebody else. Furthermore, cloning is a life dilemma because it makes the whole human race to choose one more time between right and wrong.

The first thing that must be cleared up is what is cloning and what is a clone. The biological definition of clone is "an organism that has the same genetic information as another organism or organisms" ("Cloning" 1997). Therefore cloning is the production of a genetically identical duplicate of an "organism" ("Cloning" 1997).

People who argue in favor of cloning believe that it could directly help in curing diseases or to acquire new data for the sciences of embryology. Also, agricultural industry thinks cloning can help them as it improves. Cloning may be able to help the industry to produce better farm animals. The goal is to produce farm animals with ideal characteristics for the agricultural industry and to be able to manufacture better biological products such as high quality milk for humans. For instance, "at Roslin are trying to produce a sheep that produce milk with beneficial proteins for Cystic Fibrosis patients" (Kolata, 24 February 1997).

Scientists also are looking to help the endangered species to increase their population. But, they are mainly focusing their efforts for the improvement of life for humans. For example, "scientists foresee the cloning of pigs to produce organs that humans will not reject" (Wills 22). There are also possibilities that cloning could provide benefits to those who would like children. For instance, couples who are infertile, or have genetic disorders could use cloning to produce a child. Cloning could also provide children who need organ transplants to have a clone born to donate organs. Furthermore, it could help to provide a copy of a child for a couple whose child had died.

On the other hand, people against cloning believe that the biggest problem with the use of cloning is the decline in genetic diversity. Everyone could have the same genetic material and information. Also, if everyone has the same genetic information, then a disease would be able to eliminate all the population. Another argument is that cloning will not help endangered species. Currently, zoologists and environmentalists trying to save endangered species are not having so much troubles keeping population numbers up, but not having any animals to breed that are not cousins. The technique of cloning is not full developed yet. It is just in its developmental stages. Therefore, errors are occurring when scientists carry out the procedure. In his article Harris clearly states that: "For one thing, we're far from having perfected the procedure with animals" (Harris 5). If scientists try to clone endangered species we could possibly kill the last females of specie. Another problem is the debate about the moral rights of clones. Some say their rights will not be respected because clones are not granted a natural birth. That people would not receive clones with such excitement as a child of a couple who conceived naturally.

Most people do not accept or feel uncomfortable with cloning. In fact, a "national Time/CNN poll found ... that 74 percent of Americans thought it was wrong to clone a human and 91 percent said they would never even consider doing it" (Harris 2). These may be because the human race is taking nature into their own hands by cloning animals or people. Society is starting to question when the line for getting involved in natural events it is going to be drawn. Religious organizations also claim that cloning does not respect the fact that humans have souls. "They also consider its practice unnatural, and claim scientists are taking the work of God into their own hands" (Bruce, 1998).

Most believe that cloning is a way of loosing our uniqueness. People who believe cloning is wrong argue that cloning would deprive a person of uniqueness. They argue that identical twins are not unique from each other, but that they are new in genetic variation and unique from anything that came before them. People also wonder what mental and emotional problems would result if a clone were to find out that he or she was cloned.

On the other hand, some scientists think that people have misconceptions about cloning. In his article Mr. Hopkins clearly states that "without having read a single article, heard a single presentation, or taken a single bioethics class, most Americans have already received training in the ethics of cloning" (1). People do not really know or understand cloning yet. Because of the lack of understanding people tend to fear cloning. To fear the unknown is really a human characteristic. The biggest misconception about cloning is the fact that people think, "one would get an adult copy of oneself" (Hopkins 3). Media has not done anything to help in this matter. They have not explained to the population what cloning is or how it can help the human race. Their information about cloning has been bias to the point where cloning seems to be totally negative.

Cloning really reaches beyond the laboratory where the actual process takes place. It brings very controversial issues up such as religion, ethics, and morality. Ancient Greek's ethics might be helpful to answer if cloning is ethical or not. "The only ethical system that can effectively speak against cloning is an ethic of individualism"(Husted 1) which states that every person has his or her own uniqueness. But, "Utilitarianism - the ethic of the greatest good for the greatest number - must support human cloning" (Husted 1). There is a chance that cloning would help the human race by helping to improve life for the greatest number of people.

"Cloning". Encyclopedia. 1997 edition.

Kolata, Gina. "With Cloning of a Sheep, Ethical Ground Shifts." The New York Times. 24 February 1997: publication web site page.

Wills, Christopher. "A Sheep in Sheep's Clothing?." Discover. January 1998: pp.22-23.

Harris, Mark. "To be or not to be?" Vegetarian Times. N. 250, 1998, pp.64-65.

Bruce, Dr. Donald. "Cloning, a Step too Far? (1998, January 5) Society, Religion and Technology. Project, Church of Scotland, [WWW Document]

http://webzone1.co.uk/www/srtproject/srtpage3.htm

Hopkins, Patrick. "How Popular Media Represent Cloning As an Ethical Problem." The Hastings Center Report, v 28, n.2, 1998, pp. 6-8.

Husted, Gladys. "Is Cloning Moral?" Nursing and Health Care Perspectives, v.18, n.3, 1997, pp. 168.

Silberner, Joanne. "Seeding The Cloning Debate." The Hastings Center Report, v.28,n.2, pp. 5.

Henahan, Sean. "Access Excellence." Nature Magazine. February 27, 1997.

Foote, Robert. "Artificial Insemination to Cloning: Tracing 50 Years of Research." 1st ed. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 1998.

Editorial. "Cooling Down Over Cloning." P. 151. The Lancet, v. 351, n.9097, 1998.

Ramsey, Paul. "Fabricated Man: The Ethics of Genetic Control." P. 174. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1995.

Cole-Turner, Roland. "Human Cloning: Religious responses." 1st ed. Louisville, KY. Westminster John Knox Press, 1997.

Chawla, Anil. "Molecular Cloning of DNA." [videorecording]. Strewsbury, MA: Biotech Visions, 1994.

National Bioethics Advisory Commission. "Cloning Human Beings: report and recommendations of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission. V. 110, 5p. Rockville, MO: The Commission, 1997.

You should cite this paper as follows:

MLA Style
Creation: Cloning As An Alternative. EssayMania.com. Retrieved on 12 Mar, 2010 from
    <http://essaymania.com/71691/creation-cloning-as-an-alternative>