Cloning concepts and applications

Speech on the Benefits of Therapeutic and Reproductive Cloning

Introductory Statement:

I would like to start this presentation with one very simple ethical principle that I believe should applies to any view of ethics in society and another equally simple principle of American life that is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution: (1) Any technology whose potential ability to help human life far outweighs its potential harm should be pursued aggressively, and (2) Religious beliefs should never be allowed to affect legal decisions, because the Constitution guarantees the separation of church and state in this country.

First Point - Separation of Church and State and Cloning Technology:

Both of those concepts are central to the issue of cloning technology, because the therapeutic potential of cloning technology are virtually unlimited and the only source of objection to maximizing this potential comes from religious beliefs about the origin of life.

As Americans, we all have the constitutional right to our own religious beliefs, but we also have a constitutional rights not to have the religious beliefs of other people intrude into our rights.

Except for the religious objections that cloning technology is immoral because every fertilized human ovum is a human being with the same rights as fully developed people, it is hard to imagine any reason to prohibit its full development. (Sagan, 1997)

Second Point - Regulation is Sufficient to Protect Society from Irresponsible Cloning:

Many human activities involve risks. Cars can be deadly if driven irresponsibly; valuable drugs can kill if wrongfully prescribed; and practically any medical procedure performed by qualified physicians can do more harm than the conditions they were intended to treat.

We don't outlaw the manufacture of automobiles; we don't prohibit drug companies from making drugs to treat sick people; and we don't make surgery illegal.

We handle those risks by regulation: we set a minimum age for driving and we punish drunk driving; we regulate the process of manufacturing drugs and require that they are tested very carefully before we allow them on the market; and we require medical doctors to obtain advanced degrees and extensive training before we allow them to operate.

Third Point - Cloning is No Different from Anything Else We Regulate for Safety:

Without regulation, cloning can be performed in irresponsible ways that could have very harmful results.

It could be misused to try to create human beings for unethical experimentation; it could be misused to try to create slaves; and it could be used to try to create hybrids of half human-half animal organisms.

The answer to these possible problems is not to ban cloning technology, but to regulate it so that only responsible uses of the technology are allowed and unauthorized uses are punished, the same way we regulate everything else in society.

Fourth Point - Cloning Technology is Not Intended for Cloning of Human Beings:

When uninformed people think about cloning technology, one of the first things they picture is reproducing human beings.

Cloning technology is not advanced enough to do this in a responsible way, at all, and it won't be for quite a while (Soares, 2002).

Even when that time comes, the irresponsible use of technology will be regulated in the way that I already explained.

Meanwhile, people are so afraid of the science fiction-type of scenarios that they often fail to consider the tremendous benefits represented by cloning technology.

Fifth Point - Cloning Technology Will Cure Many Congenital Diseases:

Many congenital diseases are presently incurable.

Diseases like Cystic Fibrosis, Sickle Cell Anemia, Diabetes, Parkinson's Disease, and Alzheimer's Disease, among many others.

Virtually any human disease that is genetically transmitted can probably be cured by cloning technology (Krock, 2001).

Human diseases that require genes from both parents can be eliminated by using the genes of only one parent to create a child, even though that application of the technology will not be possible for many years (Soares, 2002).

In the meantime, other application of the same technology already allows scientists to manipulate the genes within the cell by removing portions that cause disease without harming the cell.

In agriculture, we already do this all the time by genetically engineering better crops and also healthier, disease resistant cattle (Krock, 2001).

Sixth Point - Cloning Technology Will Cure Many Types of Paralysis:

Thousands of people are paralyzed because of traumatic accidents.

Since the war in Iraq, thousands of American soldiers have been injured, and some of them paralyzed by explosions that shattered their spinal columns.

Traumatic paralysis is often irreversible because the network of nerves in the human spinal cord cannot repair themselves when they are badly damaged.

Applications of cloning technology will allow us to grow new nerve tissue for implantation into damaged spinal cords to restore their functions (Sagan, 1997).

Seventh Point - Cloned Human Organs Can Save Thousands of Lives Every Year:

Medical applications of cloning technology already allows doctors to grow human skin for burn victims.

The exact same technology will allow us to make human organs by actually cloning the cells from the same person to make replacement organs (Soares, 2002).

This means an end to long waiting lists for donor organs and will make the difference between life and death for thousands of people every year who die before a donor organ can be found for them (Soares, 2002).

Cloned organs also means the end of donor organ rejection, because the new organs are actually genetically identical to the recipient who is also the "donor" (Krock, 2001).

Cloned organs means the end of anti-rejection drugs that turn off the recipients' natural immune system. This is important, because one of the biggest risks to recipients of donor organs is from the diseases that their bodies can no longer fight because of the anti- rejection drugs they have to take for the rest of their lives after organ transplantation (Krock, 2001).

Eighth Point - Cloning Technology Allows Infertile Couples to Have Children:

Cloning technology already allows infertile couples to have their own children by in- vitro fertilization (Sagan, 1997).

Future development of cloning technology will actually allow single people to have children with their own genes instead of having to combine their genes with anonymous sperm donors or anonymous egg donors (Krock, 2001).

Cloning technology will allow people who have genetic diseases in their families to have their own children instead of adopting or risking the continuation of the disease, because it will enable them to have the defective disease-causing genes removed before artificial insemination with their own genetic material.

Closing Statement/Outline: