The Moral And Ethical Aspects Of Cloning

Essay, Research Paper

When a parent goes to buy an action figure for their child for Christmas the parent have many different selections to choose from. When the parent finds the exact toy their child wants there may be many of the same action figures on stock. All of those action figures had master model that they were designed from. This figure that is produced from the model is an exact replica of the original. This process is called cloning. We as humans are infatuated with science fiction because we like things that are from another world or far into the future. Being able to clone a human or animal has always been a science fiction infatuation. The movie to be the biggest box office seller of all time was about cloning. Jurassic Park caused people to ponder the aspects of being able to clone an animal that had been extinct for many years and bring it back to life. The science community has always believed that cloning an mammal would be to far out of reach, especially cloning humans. But in February of 1997, Nature published a paper written by Roslin Institute of Scotland announcing that they had successfully cloned a mammal from an adult cell. For many years scientists have been able to clone many different things from animals other than mammals but this was the first time ever. This sent every biotech companies, genetic engineering firms, and countries into mad frenzies. Biotech companies asking how they did it. Genetic firms pondering the financial prospects and countries wondering what the moral and ethical aspects of this find could mean. Since February numerous stories and studies have been done on the science of cloning, how it can help us or how it can hurt us. Many countries have already banned cloning. Many wonder if someone was able to clone a mammal could they clone a human. Should we condone the practice of cloning or should we ban it.

The word clone derived from the Greek klon, meaning twig or slip, refers to asexual reproduction also known as vegetative reproduction (McKinnell 6). Cloning is not a new process but it has been practiced for many years. Plants, like potatoes, are grown by taking parts of the potato and planting it into the ground from that yields another potato.

Many people have argued exactly what cloning is. A seemingly trivial – but, in fact, critical – biological flaw in an ethical discourse was published by Paul Ramsey in 1970. He asserted that cloning is reproduction by enucleating and renucleating an egg that has already been launched into life by ordinary bi-sexual reproduction (McKinnell 3). Others have different ideas about what cloning is. Joseph Fletcher, described cloning as A fertilized ovum or zygote is extracted from the oviduct and the fertilizing done in vitro. Next, its nucleus is removed (enucleated) and a body or somatic cell is donated (McKinnell 4).

Scientists once thought that cloning an animal from an adult cell was

impossible. Although every cell contains the complete genetic blueprint for making a new animal, those instructions cannot be read in adult cells; they ve become specialists, producing cells only for a single body part. The Scottish team figured out how to turn on all the genes needed to make a lamb from a single adult sheep cell (Begley 57). In our bodies our cells hold the code to create a human being. Everyone of our cells hold the material for life, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The only thing that keeps the cells from being the same is when a person was still a blob of cells, all the cells decided what the

wanted to be. Since they didn t need the genes from the other cells they shut those genes off only leaving the genes needed. For this reason no one has been able to take an adult cell and create a clone of the same animal. They have never been able to get those other genes found in the cells to express themselves but the scientists Roslin Institute figured out how. The technology to clone an animal or human is readily available to anyone who would like to attempt to clone. In a very summarized way this is how the Roslin Institute cloned a sheep. A Finn Dorset ewe provides the mammary cell for cloning. A mammary cell contains copies of every gene needed to make a sheep, but only genes for proteins required by mammary cells are active. Cells grow and divide making carbon copies of themselves. But if the cells are starved of nutrients, they enter a quiescent state. At this point all of their genes can be activated. A Scottish Blackface ewe provides the egg. The egg, or oocyte, is kept alive in a laboratory dish. The nucleus is removed from the egg. The mammary cell and the egg fuse with a spark of electricity. Molecules in the egg then program genes in the mammary cell to produce the lamb embryo. Clusters of embryonic cell are grown. Embryos are implanted into a surrogate mother. The lamb that results is a clone of the donor ewe.

Andre Helegars, of Georgetown University reflects the attitude of many working biologists: I think fundamentally the problem is that too many people believe that cloning is an end, namely, to production of an individual. Factually, cloning is a means. It is a means of cell study and an enormously important one (McKinnell 5). People seem to be scared of cloning because they believe another Hitler could be created. Many people don t realize that cloning could be used for some good. Medically, cloning could save many lives from cancer