Human cloning: ethical, scientific, and legal perspectives

¶ … agree with President Bush's ethical opposition to all human cloning? Should cloning only be used for therapeutic purposes or not at all? Does every person have the right to reproduction, even lesbians or gay men through the use of cloning? The paper will be in the first person narrative.

Human Cloning

The successful cloning of Dolly, an adult sheep in the recent past, can be seen as one of the biggest advancements in science today. And even more dramatic is the news of the world's first cloned baby Eve, as announced by Brigitte Boisselier (of Clonaid) led by a bunch of UFO worshippers who call themselves the Raelians. However, the dramatic achievement of human cloning has simultaneously raised many issues. Is it ethical to clone a human being? Is it religiously correct? Is it morally viable? Is it legally acceptable? Somehow, human cloning has become a major public issue with politicians, students, scientists, and leaders; more or less everyone having a certain point-of-view different from the other.

The possibility of human cloning brings with it many questions and many apprehensions. Some fear that a clone would not be an individual in himself or herself but instead would merely be a duplicate of the original having no identity of its own whatsoever. Others fear the exploitation scientists can take up to create human beings with more perfection or with more "impossible" personality traits which might not be easy to achieve in a regular human being. Somehow, for the common man, the concept of manufacturing human beings is somewhat repulsive and brings out aggressive reactions from most people who have a brain with which to think!

A personally find the concept of human cloning as repulsive as many others. Life after all, should not be genetically engineered. It should not be converted into a science fiction movie. After all, who knows when an army of Hitlers and Stalins will be created by some twisted scientist who has the mind of Frankenstein? Isn't one Hitler sufficient for the world? Do we need to give scientists the opportunity to create even more horrific creatures for the world to endure? It makes no sense at all. Moreover, who is going to be controlling the kind of clones or the number of clones being created? And if you look at it from the clone's perspective as well (though even the thought is severely irritating), what are the clones' rights and interests? What authority does he have over his life or his personality? He is after all just a creation and that too not by God but by mere mortals.

Another argument I have against human cloning is the extent of risk involved. Dolly is a sheep. Animals have forever been used as guinea pigs for scientific games. But humans? Who takes the responsibility for any biological damage or mutation? Who accounts for losses of cloned humans; they are after human aren't they? Secondly, lets just assume for now that the scientists work out the perfect technique with almost negligible chances of failure, who can then control who is cloned, how many are cloned and dare I say WHAT is cloned? And who can then stop public demands to create a clone with this characteristic or that? Who can stop public expectations to create the perfect child who grows up to be the perfect man or woman? Who answers all these questions?

Lets just take it from our own point-of-view. Would you or let's say would I like to have a genetically engineered clone just like me? No I would not! Would you? And if such a clone is created, how can I be sure what limitations it has? How can I control someone exactly like me doing whatever comes to his mind or whatever is put in his mind for that matter? Why should I even allow such a thing to exist? Its morally, ethically, socially, religiously and from every other aspect that I can think of, wrong! Think of it from my parent's point-of-view. Who is their child? Where did this identical NEW child come from? Why did he come into this world? For what purpose? If my twin were supposed to exist, wouldn't God have thought about it?

Many counter arguments in favor of cloning have come up. It might be a solution for couples that cannot conceive a child. They would prefer to go through the process of in vitro fertilization to at least produce a child with which they can have a biological bond. Then there can be freaky parents who want to have children with certain traits and now can do so by specially engineered gene transplantation technologies to give them the perfect child. But then again, is it really easy to accept this kind of genetic manipulation? Can we really convince ourselves that it is really the right thing to do? And who can even guarantee its success?

A personally agree with President Bush's ethical opposition to cloning. The subject has gone through much debate politically and the President's point-of-view is completely valid as to the benefit of human cloning and the moral and legal risks that are involved. The argument to allow cloning for therapeutic benefits or for life saving purposes is also not quite acceptable or convincing to me. There are much deeper issues here than just the desire to achieve therapeutic success or a masterful human being. That's really not the need of the day is it? We are what we are. If millions of us can live and accept the way we are why can't the rest who propagate cloning? If hundreds of people die because of therapeutic failure, why don't we ever care to think that maybe their time had come and that God really intended them to die? Who are we to interfere with death? Is there anything us humans DO NOT want to control? Now we want to create the perfect human race with all the perfect characteristics and the perfect brain and intelligence. What's next? Cloning the universe? The galaxy? The sun? The moon? The stars? Where does it end this obsessive desire for power and control? Where does it stop?