...When one thinks of cloning they make think back to a science fiction movie they saw where clones took over the world or a book of the same genre where clones did something evil. Cloning has always been looked at as a futuristic endeavor, but truth is that cloning is here already. The most famous case of cloning is with Dolly the Sheep, which was the first animal to be cloned from a somatic cell. With cloning comes a wide variety of potential for science, some of which include organ transplantations and reproductive uses. The latter is what will be focused on in this paper. Reproductive cloning is the process of creating an animal that is genetically similar to the donor animal through somatic cell nuclear transfer. This is the same process...
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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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...Mirroring the World: The Aspects of Human Cloning Mirroring the World: The Aspects of Human Cloning Looking into a mirror presents an image that is strikingly similar to your own, but what if this image could come to life. Through extensive research, scientists have discovered a way to create life through a process called cloning. Cloning can simply be described by making an exact copy of an object. No one would have ever thought science could reach a level in history where you can actually make an exact duplicate of any organism. With such a large hype over this new discovery, there have many opposing arguments that carried along through the years with the research. Growing circulations have revolved around this issue creating a question asking, “Has Genetic Engineering gone too far?” Trial and error is the key concept in cloning, which follows suit through its complicated process, complications, and alternatives that will together to give us a sneak preview of the future ahead of us. A Step into the Process Cloning can be done in a few methods to create new life. The most common type of cloning is known as “somatic cell nuclear transfer.” In English, the method is basically saying that someone takes the DNA from the clone and DNA from the unfertilized egg and fuses the cells together to create the exact copy. This is one way to create a clone; the other involves the egg of the female species being copied. The scientist then extracts the donor’s genes from...
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...Argumentative Essay 21st March, 2013 Cloning The twenty first century has brought in many extraordinary breakthroughs one of which happens to be cloning. Cloning can be defined as the process of creating a cell, tissue line or even a complete organism from a single cell (Jane Maienshchein, 2001). Cloning was a mere dream that people in the past used to have and wish upon, where cloning has been seen to be an impossible desire that no man can achieve. However, nowadays technology has reached levels that people thought would never reach and spread into so many branches and depths that now it has become safe to say that nothing is really impossible. Breaking the impossibility, many questions are being asked and many arguments are taking place around human cloning. Cloning has been considered to not just human beings but to animals as well. When the sheep dolly was cloned, the issue of cloning became something familiar to read about in the news. Many headlines have helped the public consider about taking part in this serious issue that is human cloning. Questions start to rise regarding the possibility of human cloning, and of course technology, they are questions that never stop. What has started out as thoughts and ideas about human cloning written down on papers, are now ideas that are being turned in to live experiments preformed in the labs. Away from the different views of the religious organizations and people’s thoughts and disagreement, cloning can be considered a predictable...
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...The control and manipulation of genetic material has become common place in our society. What was once the dream of science fiction authors and fans has become reality. Such topics as stem cell research, in vitro fertilization, and cloning have created quite a stir in scientific communities. However, these advancements do not come without a cost, or without ethical dilemmas. First, a definition of these terms is required. Following that, we will explore some topics and the ethics associated with them. Stem cells exist in all living things. These cells go on to either produce more stem cells or specialize to become different types of living tissue. Stem cells can be broken down into two main classifications, embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells. Embryonic stem cells, as the name would imply, are only found in developing embryos. These cells are the most versatile. On the other hand, adult stem cells are only able to transform into a select few types of tissue. (Bongso & Lee, 2005) In vitro fertilization involves the fertilization of an oocyte outside of the female reproductive system. Fertilization occurs in a Petri dish, after which time the embryo is reintroduced into a female uterus where it is allowed to implant and develop. (Seibel, 2008) Cloning is a scientific method of producing an offspring that is genetically identical to the parent. In cloning, only one parent is required, therefore it is considered to be asexual reproduction. (Rugnetta, 2012) All of these...
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...Ethics in the 21st Century and Beyond Morality and Ethics study of Human Cloning and The Holocaust | Marcus D. Taylor 12/5/2011 Both morality and ethics will become a downgraded value as time goes on. And this is an ongoing version of the ideologies of events that happened the past. As time approaches a new dawn the world will be forced to adapt to change. There will be questions on what changes will affect the morals and ethics accepted from its society. Morality will change as it has in the past due to the evolving technology. Take for example the new technological developments of Cloning. Cloning is one of the most extensively discussed topics in the modern world. It is a subject that universally evokes immense reactions from society. Cloning is the technique of producing a genetically identical duplicate of an organism by replacing the nucleus of an unfertilized ovum with the nucleus of a body cell from the organism (Yourdictionary.com). In 1903, plants were the first living organisms to be cloned, pioneering the concept. Progressive developments in research now usher in greater advancements in this technology, including the successful cloning of the sheep now known as “Dolly” in 1997 by Scottish scientist, Dr. Ian Wilmut. Logically, the next step is to clone human beings. Is human cloning essential for improvements in enhancing the quality of life? Since cloning still raises scientific as well as ethical, moral and religious issues...
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...wish come true. Cloning is the creation of an organism that is an exact genetic copy of another. A) Some of the reasons people give to justify cloning are medical purposes, reviving endangered or extinct species, reproducing deceased pet and finally cloning humans. B) Whatever the benefits of human cloning are, I believe that there are serious risks which could even endanger the life of human kind. Therefore human cloning should not be allowed. o There are several arguments against cloning A) One is “the health risks from mutation of genes” 1) An abnormal baby would be a nightmare come true. A particular worry is that the genes used from an adult to create a baby would continue to grow, so that on the day of birth, the genes would be as old as the adult. But many attempts at animal cloning produced disfigured monsters. For example this is a cloned calf which was born in this way and died after a while. This is a mouse with an ear on its back, created by scientists. 2) However, some abnormalities may appear long after the birth. Even if a few cloned babies are born apparently normal we will have to wait up to twenty years to be sure they are not going to have problems later – for example growing old too fast. B) There are also emotional and ethical risks 1) What happens when a woman clones herself and the clone grows up and finds out her mother is also her sister, and her grandmother is her mother. And what happens to a marriage...
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...James A. Byrne ¡ John B. Gurdon Commentary on human cloning Introduction Human cloning refers to the production of genetically identical humans. This cloning is possible via either ‘‘embryo splitting’’ or ‘‘nuclear transfer’’. Embryo splitting involves the separation of an early human embryo into two or more parts. Each of these parts has the potential to develop into a blastocyst (late embryo), which, if implanted, can develop into a child. This is how genetically identical monozygotic twins are created. Artificial embryo splitting has been successfully implemented in various mammals including sheep (Willadsen, 1981), cows (Willadsen, 1989), mice (Agrawal and Polge, 1989) and monkeys (Chan et al., 2000), but has been performed only to the pre-implantation stages in humans (Hall et al., 1993). Recently the American Society for Reproductive Medicine declared that human cloning by artificial embryo splitting was an ethical procedure to increase the number of implantable human blastocysts used in certain infertility treatments (ASRM, 2000). However, embryo splitting can produce only a limited number of cloned individuals as the early embryo can be separated only a limited number of times, and the procedure is not able to produce a ‘‘clone’’ of an adult that already exists. The other method for producing cloned humans, nuclear transfer, does not suffer from these limitations, and the rest of this article will focus on human cloning achieved via this technique. Nuclear transfer (or...
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...Introduction Human embryonic stem cells (hES cells) are currently discussed not only by the biologists by whom they were discovered but also by the medical profession, media, ethicists, governments and politicians. There are several reasons for this. On the one hand, these ‘super cells’ have a major clinical potential in tissue repair, with their proponents believing that they represent the future relief or cure of a wide range of common disabilities; replacement of defective cells in a patient by transplantation of hES cell‐derived equivalents would restore normal function. On the other hand, the use of hES cells is highly controversial because they are derived from human pre‐implantation embryos. To date, most embryos used for the establishment of hES cell lines have been spare embryos from IVF, but the creation of embryos specifically for deriving hES cells is also under discussion. The most controversial variant of this is the transfer of a somatic cell‐nucleus from a patient to an enucleated oocyte (unfertilized egg) in order to produce hES cells genetically identical to that patient for ‘autologous’ transplantation (so‐called ‘therapeutic’ cloning); this may prevent tissue rejection. The question ‘Can these cells be isolated and used and, if so, under what conditions and restrictions’ is presently high on the political and ethical agenda, with policies and legislation being formulated in many countries to regulate their derivation. The UK has been the first to pass...
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...their friends and family, have more time in life to accomplish things they set out to do, and they could simply enjoy more of what life has to offer. This is a great mindset for anyone to have since life is a beautiful thing and worth living. With all of the advanced medical technology on this specific subject and the new findings that are constantly being done to prolong the human lifespan, we start to enter into the area of what is ethically right and wrong and wonder how much is too much? There are many different forms of medical treatment that can save someone’s life. This will vary from medicine to surgery and many things in between. Not everyone will agree on some of the techniques used, but most people understand why someone would want to save their life. Since people will try to save their own lives if they are dying, many scientists believe that there is no difference in trying to extend a life through medicine, or trying to create a life from another person through a cloning system. This is where the tables turn from helping mankind, to hurting what God has created for us. There are many conflicts between prolonging life and Christianity. Some people say that the world is entering into an area we do not belong, while others say we have already crossed that line. How Religion Is Impacted By Science Extending the Lifespan of a Human Introduction Currently, physicians have the know-how and advanced technology which...
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...Stem Cell Legislation What are stem cells? Stem cells are highly specialized cells. They are also known as pluripotent stem cells. These cells are formed as a part of a blastopcyst which occurs at the beginning stages of human embryo development; at this stage they are unspecialized and can be made into specialized cells. They have the potential to be developed into 130 types of human tissue. The fact that these cells can be cloned to replicate human tissue is a major breakthrough for scientist and for treating many medical diseases including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, diabetes and many more. The issue with stem cells is that a human embryo has to be produced for the stem cells to be obtained. These cells are removed from abortion clinics and from in-vitro fertilization clinics; now that is where the controversy comes in. There is controversy both within the Democratic and Republican parties on the subject of Stem Cells however, the Democrats are more leaning for support of the issue but there is more division between the Republicans. The people who are against abortion are opposed to stem cell research. This is because of the means of obtaining the eggs which is from destroyed embryos. The biggest organization which is opposed to stem cells reproduction is the Catholic Church. They have also been opposed to in-vitro; their argument being that it is unethical to use embryos that are not fertilized. In previous years, by federal law,...
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...Unit 9 Final Project HU – 245 - 10 Professor Ronald Wade Erin Broker 8/30/2009 Kaplan University Unit 9 Final Project Introduction Ethics is the area of study that deals with morality and how we make decisions about how we behave as individuals and how our actions reflect our values and conduct towards one another. This class focused on two viewpoints that helped us define morality and how to apply it in new ways of thinking and reasoning when dealing with issues in our lives: consequential reasoning and non-consequential reasoning. Through an evaluation of my collected works, I will attempt to show an improvement in the areas of analytical skill building, knowledge acquisition, and practical application that are the key objectives of this class. The objective of these three skill areas was to help us better understand how to think ethically and to understand why others think the way they do and how to come to a better understanding of a difference of opinions on various subjects. Analytical Skills Analytical skill building helps to improve your critical reading, writing and thinking skills. In unit 2 Case Study B, I evaluated a situation where an employee was upset with his employer’s treatment of its employees. In analyzing the situation, I was able to come to an understanding of how best the company should respect Mr. Lopez’s rights and moral dignity as an employee by using consequential reasoning: A company should take whatever steps necessary to...
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...to perform many special functions in a body. There are two main types of stem cells that scientists have found to be the most promising in the reproduction of tissues. They are adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells can be found in the earliest stages of fetuses. Embryonic stem cells are unique because they can be programmed to be any kind of cell in the body. Embryonic research has been experimented much more on mice. There have been no proven tests on human embryonic cells. Adult stem cells are not as much of a heated debate as embryonic stem cells are. “The use of ESC’s (embryonic stem cells) is unacceptable to some people because they can only be harvested from embryos that are destroyed in the process” (Aldhous, Reich). Embryonic stem cells have to be taken from an unborn fetus, while adult stem cells can be acquired from a fully developed being. From the highest political viewpoint embryonic stem cell research is not looked upon with fondness. The Bush administration shut down all government funding of embryonic stem cell research. Adult stem cells, also referred to as multi-potent cells, are cells taken from mature tissue and can renew themselves. But they can normally only renew themselves to the type of tissue in which they originated from. Adult stem cells are obtained mostly from bone marrow, but they can be found in other tissues like the brain. The marrow is taken from human donors from the back of the upper hipbone. Adult stem cell...
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...PART A: The Principal of family determination in organ donation ABSTRACT: This article is written by Mingxu wang,, Wen zang, Xueliang Wang. In this article the point which is stressed upon is that wether family should be given the right to give consent for organ donation of a person if he himself has not stated any statement regarding his will on organ donation. Many ethical views of different societies are discussed, especially the Chinese including the Confucians. Some cases are also explained at the end in which the families of the dead are taking decision about the organ donations. Other problems relating to this matter are also highlighted. There are many school of thoughts based on different religions and different societies. In this article the Chinese, Confucians and Mencius are discussed in detail. The Chinese place their families at a very high position. They give a lot of importance and thus during the process of deciding wether to donate the organs or not, the family is given the highest authority. Confucians however not in favour of the process of organ transplantation. Their point of view is different. They like to keep their moral values. According to them the parts of an individual are gifts from their parents and they should not be messed with.They should be left as such. My opinion, after reading this article, is that after a person dies and he has not stated that wether he would not like to donate the organs then the decision...
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...reproduction has been a hotly debated issue in recent times mainly because of its ethical implications. Despite the ethical implications, assisted reproduction also has some moral, social, and religious concerns coupled with some psychological and biological or genetic implications both to the conceived embryos and their mothers. It is not an overstatement to adduce that there are disastrous health implications and consequences associated with assisted reproduction, which more often than not are overlooked by physicians and those desperate for children. There are three main types of assisted reproduction namely – artificial insemination, In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), and surrogacy. The ethical concern of these procedures is that they are unnatural method of conception, creating life in the laboratory, and fertilizing more embryos than would be needed, which often leads to massive abortion. Creating “man-made human beings” could be morally and religiously unethical. Doing things unnaturally such as assisted reproduction could have some devastating consequences. For instance, in vitro fertilization usually comes with multiple births which are often accompanied by infant mortality, low birth weights,...
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