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At what stage does an embryo become a human? Is it moral to kill an embryo to save a life?
Does man have the right to have a child, regardless of the method used in conception? Is a cloned child different from a naturally-born one?
Is a clone a human being too? Do we have the right to harvest organs from them?
How should cloning and its research be regulated? Who regulates such?
Is cloning playing God or manipulating nature?
Cloning: ethical issues pondered
By definition, cloning in biology refers to the process of creating a genetically identical copy of an organism. It is actually a phenomenon that naturally occurs in nature – a good example of this is bacteria or identical twins. For many years, genetic researchers have been cloning agricultural produce such as carrots. It is only in recent decades that cloning of animals, and even humans, has been attempted.
A tadpole in 1954, Dolly the Sheep in 1997. The endangered gaur, a large bovine animal, was successfully cloned using a cow as a surrogate mother in 2001. Attempts to clone animals have been met with limited success. The clone usually dies prematurely and is often unhealthy. Animals could be cloned to reproduce a beloved dead pet, to recover extinct species or to preserve endangered ones. Cloning livestock animals could have some commercial value too. Still, these reasons are met with a barrage of ethical questions and concerns.
Due to the possibilities brought about by the successful attempts at animal cloning, scientists have been looking at the possibility of reproducing humans through this method. Now, more than ever, human cloning is the subject of heated arguments and controversial debates, raising many issues of ethics, morals and science.
Human Cloning
Human cloning is the process of artificially creating a human being genetically identical to another. There are four ways to produce a human clone.
Embryonic cloning is the process of artificially replicating how identical twins are produced naturally by inducing a fertilized embryo to duplicate.
Reproductive cloning is the method of producing a human being genetically identical to another. This has been done with animals, and newborns often carry genetic deformities, leading scientists to hesitate applying this process to humans.
Therapeutic cloning involves the extraction of a stem cell from a pre-embryo with the purpose of generating a whole organ or tissue. The embryo dies but the organ or tissue will be transplanted to a sick person, thus eliminating the need for donors and immunosuppressive drugs.
Replacement cloning, currently existing only in theory, involves replacing a damaged or failing body part through cloning.
Why would anybody want to clone a person?
A heartbroken family might want to bring back a dead loved one. A childless couple may want to explore cloning as an option to adoption or other fertilization methods. A sick man would have a clone to replace his failing organs. Valid reasons maybe, but are they ethical?
Opinions regarding human cloning greatly vary. Religious groups and traditionalists believe that the embryo is already alive because it is conceived – and harvesting stem cells from it is tantamount to killing a life. Many opine that it is wrong to kill a life, even at pre-embryonic stage, to save another. However, others believe that an embryo is not yet a person prior to gestation, as it is still incapable of memory, awareness and thought. Thus, to prohibit cloning and stem cell research would be to hinder science, progress and the possibility of improving quality of life and lengthening the human lifespan. The scientific world, as well as the general public, has yet to reach a consensus on the ethical issues of cloning.
But just because it is possible does not mean that it is right.
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