...Until recently, scientists made a significant headway in stem cell research by the advancement of technology. As a result, the idea of cloning became a current issue. Initially, the idea of animal cloning was carried out based upon both the financial and technological inadequacy of the human cloning progress. Attempts to clone the Dolly the Sheep, accomplished in February 1997 by the research team at the Roslin Institute, even if the clone grew abnormally large and had certain diseases (“Dolly The Sheep”). When scientists, indicated that they began to study intensively for human cloning; opponents of human cloning imposed serious sanctions against cloning practices. After a while, as stated in an article in The New York Times, on November 26, 2001, the first cloned human embryo was released to the public by the company, called Advanced Cell Technology (Kolata). However, the ethical dimension...
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...Human Cloning Table of Contents: Advantages and Disadvantages Human Cloning and Divine Command Theory Human Cloning and Naturalism Human Cloning and Religion Human Cloning and Utilitarianism Human Cloning and Ethical Egoism Human Cloning and Kantianism Advantages and Disadvantages Like any other controversial topic, human cloning has numerous advantages and disadvantages, and based on these, one ought to decide whether to condemn human cloning as ethically right or not. On the one hand, there are several advantages for human cloning. These are mostly medical and political advantages. From a medical point of view, cloning can serve to improve the human condition. As a matter of fact, it provides cures to various diseases. With human cloning legalized, doctors would no longer treat cancer by chemotherapy; they would rather replace the affected cancerous organ by a new cloned one. Another way human cloning can serve to improve the human condition is by improving future generations. Some traits in human beings are unwanted and undesirable and can therefore be genetically dismissed in clones. Thus, future generations will not bear these unwanted characteristics. Furthermore, human cloning can serve to provide solutions to problems such as infertility and aging. Although Human cloning has a good number of advantages, it also has a lot of drawbacks. First of all, human cloning is the act of creating a new human being using technology and not the traditional way. This causes a...
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...Human cloning occurs naturally with phenomena like twins and triplets, but the same outcome of a genetically identical individual created in a lab is not as well received. Over the years, cloning has transformed from a thing of fantasy to one of reality. Current research is bringing us closer than ever to cloning humans, but what will happen if we succeed? The word clone is defined as being an exact genetic replica of a molecule, cell, plant, animal or human being. The term cloning refers to the technological process of creating a clone. The use of cloning technologies has been in place for the past 50 years, though it wasn’t until 1996 that the first mammal was cloned from a somatic cell. Dolly, the world’s first cloned lamb, brought cloning and its ethical implications into the spotlight after she was successfully cloned from an udder cell of a six-year-old sheep. Dolly was put to sleep in 2003 after suffering from lung disease, as well as premature arthritis. Having lived only six and a half years instead of the expected 11 – 12, Dolly’s passing also brought to light questions regarding the health and life expectancy of cloned animals. Though her life was short, she left a long lasting imprint in the field of modern biological research. The successful cloning of Dolly led to many other advances in the biological community, however, as of 2014 no human has ever been successfully cloned. Human cloning is a hotly debated topic in the science and religious communities...
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...Wanda Brewington Professor Maria Zaccaria Introduction to Ethics April 27, 2015 Outline THESIS: Is the use of stem cells favorable for healing and or curing human diseases more favorable for healing and or curing diseases more significant than the ethical concerns and arguments? I. What are stem cells? A) An unspecialized cell that can generate to one or more different types of specialized cells regenerated as blood or nerve cells. B) Stem cells are present in embryos and in tissues of adult organisms. II. How are stem cells used? A) Scientific Research B) Potential disease and treatment and or cures C) In vitro fertilization D) Cloning and Genetic Engineering III. Ethical concerns regarding stems cells. A) Scientific research perspective B) Political/Moral Ethics perspective C) Religious/Utilitarianism perspective IV. Conclusion | Stem Cells Risk or Benefit Since the introduction of DNA, scientists have researched many ways to treat and extinguish disease. One interesting way is through the use of stem cells. To get better understanding of stem cells, they are defined as non-specific biological cells capable of differentiating into specialized cells. Stems cells have a unique quality of developing and duplicating cells through the process of cell division. The distinctiveness of stem cells is that they are unspecialized, meaning...
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...as cloning. A revolutionary advancement, we are now capable of achieving with the technology and knowledge obtainable to us. When it comes to cloning, there is three types; therapeutic/research, reproductive human cloning and reproductive animal cloning. The mere thought of cloning has always been science fiction to me, something you only see in movies. Now that i'm faced to ponder whether or not any kind of cloning should be permitted. I believe that, just because something can be done, doesn't mean it should be done. I urge you to please consider all the moral and ethical values we have as people, when its comes to permitting any type of cloning. As the outcomes, can be great in positive and negative gravity. The possibilities that come with therapeutic cloning, are enough to make...
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...De-extinction or not? The ethical dilemmas of cloning extinct species have been a...
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...Ethics: Cloning is often regarded as being immoral, however as of yet there have been no sufficient arguments to show immorality. Ethical problems arise in the research of human cloning. There are unknown risks associated to cloning, unsuspecting subjects in trials, and psychological expectations. The problem is not human cloning itself, but rather how we would use cloning once it becomes a reality. The safety and best interests of someone who may be cloned should be of utmost importance. The questions of the procedure of cloning should be scrutinized. SCNT does not have very high success rate – less than five percent of cloned cultured cells develop into a living organism. In the case of Dolly (the cloned sheep) there was a 0.4 percent chance...
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...The Human Cloning Prohibition Act has repeatedly failed to pass in 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2012, and 2015 which attempted to amend the Public Health Service Act. The Human Cloning Prohibition Act did not pass because of organ transplants, stem cell research, and genetic modification. The Human Cloning Prohibition Act has tried to have been passed in 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2012, and 2015 and has failed every time. This is partially due to the vague definitions of the act of cloning in regards to scientific research. One such example of this is in the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 1998 which stated that it is unlawful to use human somatic cell nuclear transfer technology(SCNT) (“S. 1601 – Human...”). SCNT...
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...Cloning, both a whole organism and an individual organ, is a sign of potential for the scientific community. Cloning a whole organism can be done by two methods. The first, artificial embryo twinning, involves separated an embryo into individual cells in a Petri dish. These embryos are placed in a surrogate mother for their development and are identical because they all had the same fertilized egg. The other method of entire organism cloning is called somatic cell nuclear transfer or SCNT. SCNT involves isolating a somatic cell, or any cell that is not a reproductive cell, and removing the nucleus and DNA from an egg cell. The nucleus is then transferred from the somatic cell to the egg cell. Now, the egg cell with a new nucleus develops like...
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...It is possible to clone mammals. Is it morally acceptable to clone a human being? Defend your answer against those who would not agree with you. By: Martin Pierce Student Number: 1057404 In cloning for medical-research purposes the development of the embryo is halted as soon as a cluster of stem cells develops. The stem cells are then harvested for research purposes. Due to the fact that no infant is born (in fact the embryo never even gets past the blastocyst stage), it is argued that this type of cloning has nothing to do with human cloning. (Hatch Backs Limited Cloning, 2002). For this reason this paper shall take the statement “to clone a human being” as meaning cloning that results in a fully formed human and not on the cloning of embryos for the purposes of research. The issues around cloning are in the main more ethical than theological and yet most of the objections to cloning come from religious sources, even if those objections are not religious in nature. The first objection is that cloning leaves God out of the process of human creation. This only makes sense though if your definition of God is of a being that plays a role in the birth of each member of our species. Even holding to this view it does not necessarily follow that cloning is comparable to playing God (Brannigan, 2001). How can science prevent a supposedly...
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...Biotechnology The question of whether humans should have the right to clone themselves leads to interesting questions on the nature of human individuality. There is also the ethical question of whether human reproductive cloning in order to replicate ones genetic identity should be allowed at all. If reproductive cloning to create an entire human being were possible, and accessibility and cost were not a factor, should humans have the unrestricted right to clone themselves? The right or even need for humans to clone themselves is as complex a moral or ethical issue as it is a complex bimolecular and genetic procedure. There may be no definitive answer to the ethical or moral dilemmas but in my opinion there is not a reason compelling enough to justify human reproductive cloning of an entire human being, even if it were technically possible at this time. There appear to be too many issues and unknowns in both the science and ethics of human reproductive cloning to allow it even if it were possible. The fear as portrayed in science fiction about armies of replicated humans threatening society and all of our identities being at risk are certainly unfounded as the science proves out (Sommers Smith, 5C - 23). Unlike the renowned geneticist James Watson I am not so certain that having the ability to clone a human would make it a benefit to our society, or should make it a requirement to do so (Grace, pp. 214-215). The unknowns about human cloning seem to far outweigh our suppositions...
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...Contrary to popular notion, cloning started more than a century before Dolly, the first cloned mammal, became famous. It cannot be denied, nonetheless, that Dolly awakened the imagination of the populace regarding the pros and cons of cloning. It is a debate that continues to polarize society 15 years after the birth of the most famous sheep on Earth. Discussion We must emphasize that the cloning referred to in this article refers to reproductive, gene and therapeutic cloning. Reproductive cloning is used in the creation of an animal with the same nuclear DNA as another animal, the latter of which may be currently or previously in existence. This was the technology used in the creation of Dolly. Therapeutic cloning refers to the production of human embryos for the purpose of research. It has also been applied to create new organs or tissues for transplantation into a waiting patient with possible applications in the treatment of diseases like diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and even cancer. These two types of cloning – there is a third type known as gene cloning, by the way – are at the center of heated debates. If you wish to cast your vote on the pros and cons of cloning, it is important to acquire as much reliable and relevant information and education on the matter. Advantages of Cloning With that being said, the following are the generally accepted benefits of cloning: • Easy replacement of internal organs and tissues for patients in need of transplants...
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...The subject of human cloning is a complex issue, and with complex issues there are a variety of different opinions on the subject. Allowing general access to cloning should not be allowed as it will cause a social and ethical controversy. However, limiting it to only medical access such as life threatening situations is another way to strengthen the limitations. Cloning is the process of creating a new organism by copying genetic information from a single “parent” organism. In a way, a clone is a time delayed twin. It has the exact DNA of the original person it was copied from. There are two different methods of human cloning, therapeutic and reproductive. Both processes use nuclear transfer, the nucleus of an egg is removed and replaced...
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...Cloning is paradigmatic because it signifies both a specific medical technique and the mode of operation of modern technique. As a specific technique it allows the reproduction of biological organisms, including humans. As a mode of operation it signifies the turning of given phenomena into human-induced processes, and in doing so seeks to control, if not outright eliminate, otherwise given differences. In the latter sense, cloning is equally applicable to biological organisms and cultural artifacts, including law. Seen from this perspective the homogenization of international law in the field of biotechnology is a telling case of the cloning of international law. The essay will begin with a science fiction account of cloning through a brief discussion of Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World.17 I will then move to discuss two case studies of genetic regulation, which simultaneously address the problem of cloning and reproduce the problem on a different level. The first concerns human cloning and the 2005 United Nation Declaration on the Human Cloning.18 The second concerns stem-cell research and a more recent decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the case of Brüstle v. Greenpeace (2011), to impose a blanket prohibition on patenting the outcome of stem-cell research. The two cases represent the growing international governance of biotechnologies. Both regulations set limits on the use of specific biotechnologies either by an outright prohibition of...
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...Nathan Johnson Persuasive Essay Human Cloning Cloning humans has recently become a possibility that seems much more realistic in today's society than it was twenty years ago. It is a method that involves the production of a group of identical cells or organisms that all derive from a single individual (Grolier 220). It is not known when or how cloning humans really became a possibility, but it is known that there are two possible ways that we can clone humans. The first way involves splitting an embryo into several halves and creating many new individuals from that embryo. The second method of cloning a human involves taking cells from an already existing human being and cloning them, in turn creating other individuals that are identical to that particular person. With these two methods almost at our fingertips, we must ask ourselves two very important questions: Can we do this, and should we? There is no doubt that many problems involving the technological and ethical sides of this issue will arise and will be virtually impossible to avoid, but the overall idea of cloning humans is one that we should accept as a possible reality for the future. Cloning humans is an idea that has always been thought of as something that could be found in science fiction novels, but never as a concept that society could actually experience. "It is much in the news. The public has been bombarded with newspaper articles, magazine stories, books, television shows, and movies as well as cartoons¨...
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