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          Is Human Cloning is beneficial to the Society ?

                                  Arko Adhya  

  Arka did his high school graduation from Richardson High School  in  Dallas,  Texas. Currently he is    'Sophomore'  (2nd Year ), doing  his  bachelors  in  Telecommunication Engineering at UTD. He likes music,  surfing  and  playing chess. 

 

The way technological knowledge in the world is growing from day to day, there is no way to predict where science may lead us in the near future. Just a few years ago, the concept of cloning was something fictional that scientist thought about but never seriously considered it a main form of experiment. But now cloning is one of the most controversial topics. Cloning is the process of making a genetically identical organism through nonsexual means. It all started with the first cloned mammal back in 1997, Dolly the sheep. Dolly sparked a genetic revolution all the world and from that time onward the interest of cloning raised exponentially. And maybe after few years later, science will reach such a height that cloning human beings will be easy as drinking a cup of tea. But before we take that huge leap we need to ask ourselves that whether the idea of cloning humans is a beneficial or a destructive one for the society?

The list of complaints about cloning begins with the fact that cloning humans decreases the value of uniqueness of the individual. According to ABC News, “About 87 percent oppose cloning humans, and 93 percent don’t want to be cloned themselves” (Rembert). With statistics that strong, it clearly proves public’s opposition to the cloning of humans. John Colvin, a writer for The Humanist magazine, says that if cloning is used frequently in our society, “…human biodiversity will be diminished and human evolution will cease” (Colvin). People will look the same, act in a similar way and their genes will also be more or less the same and the evolution to the human race will come to a stop. Fr.Frank Pavone, a well-respected writer, feels that clones would also fell less of human beings because “value is intimately tied to uniqueness” (Pavone). If people were being cloned one after the other, then there wouldn’t be much diversity in the society. This will also diminish the value of uniqueness. The following picture shows the fact that human beings have evolved through the ages but with the advent of human cloning, the process of evolution has stopped and the uniqueness of the human beings are lost.

         Among those 13 percent people who agree with the idea of human cloning may argue by saying that cloning beneficial in many ways. For example cloning may have the advantage of issuing talents and human receive genetically. Cloning an adult who is musically talented may result in a cloned child, who is equally good in music. In this way the society would be enriched with talented people. But on the other hand there is also a huge amount of possibility of cloning a dictator or a criminal who can be dangerous to the entire society. Dr. Patrick Dixon who is opposed to human cloning raises a question saying, “What would Hitler have done with cloning technology if available in the 1940’s?”(Dixon). He continues saying that “There are powerful leaders in every generation who will seek to abuse this technology for their own purposes”. Nobody knows the number of criminals, waiting for the announcement of human cloning. So according to our common sense what is better, to have a talented musician in our society or not to have another dozen tyrants like Hitler and Stalin who are capable of destroying the whole world? The following picture shows one of the most harmful effects of cloning. The picture signifies that human cloning may result in the making of another thousand of Bin Laden who can destroy the whole world.

        
People also argue saying that human cloning is advantageous in the sense that a couple who can’t have baby by biological means can contribute a cell from their body and can have a cloned child. This is a myth that people think to be a positive aspect of human cloning because there is a high chance that the cloned baby will not be normal. It may have some disorder and complications during birth or it may have problem related to cloning process later in his or her life. There is also a risk of cell aging. As described by Dr. Patrick Dixon, “The technique is extremely risky right now. A particular worry is the possibility that the genetic material used from the adult will continue to age so that the genes in a newborn baby clone could be-say-30 years old or more on the day of birth”. Many attempts to clone animals produced scary results with disfigured monsters. A cloned baby might look normal during birth but as time progresses complications may start showing up. So we might have to wait for 20 years to find what is wrong in the child. There are various such instances where the experiment was a failure as pointed out by Dr. Dixon “A cloned cow recently died several weeks after birth with a huge abnormality of blood cell production. Dolly the Sheep died prematurely of severe lung disease in February 2003, and also suffered from arthritis at an unexpectedly early age-probably linked to the cloning process”. So according to me it’s better not to have a child instead of giving birth to a monster or a cripple who is going to suffer the rest of his life. This is unethical to give birth to someone and let him suffer all through his life. The following picture strongly focuses on the fact that cloning may result in various health complications, and the child may be born with severe disabilities. 

         Another huge case against cloning is the emotional effect on the clone, for example a cloned child would in effect be a twin of one of his parents, which could lead to serious emotional difficulties. Dr. Dixon clarified this complicated situation by saying, “A child grows up knowing her mother is her sister, her grandmother is her mother. Her father is her brother-in-law. Every time her mother looks at her she is seeing herself growing up. Unbearable pressures on a teenager trying to establish his or her identity.” This is a serious problem as the clone gets frustrated very easily resulting in pressures on the emotional development of the child. This is yield harmful result including suicides and other violent behaviors.   

Human cloning would have yielded fruitful results and would have been considered the one of the greatest discoveries if the world was perfect, free of criminals and only made up of good and innocent people. But that is not he case. We stay in a world full of gray shades and the numbers of criminals are much higher than that of innocent people. So as per as present situation is concerned, Human Cloning will produce devastating results. So in brief it may be concluded that cloning can affect our society drastically. Some type of law needs to be passed and put into effect as soon as possible stating that cloning of human beings is wrong and illegal so that our society is saved from the evil effects of cloning and we can lead a normal and better life.

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