He and others are concerned that cloning with provide unethical incentives. "...we believe that the market for women's eggs that would be created by this research will provide unethical incentives for women to undergo health-threatening hormone treatment and surgery." (Statement in Support of Legislation to Prohibit Cloning) Furthermore, as Rifkin states:
We are also concerned about the increasing bio-industrialization of life by the scientific community and life science companies and shocked and dismayed that clonal human embryos have been patented and declared to be human "inventions." We oppose efforts to reduce human life and its various parts and processes to the status of mere research tools, manufactured products, commodities and utilities. We are also deeply troubled that at present there is no legal or ethical framework in place to regulate the accelerated commercial exploitation of this research.
Biotech Century: Anti-Cloning Initiative)
4. Conclusion
While cloning presents many new medial possibilities, it also faces many counter arguments and assertions that these medical advances will result in a danger to society in both a practical as well as a moral and ethical sense. There are also arguments from within the scientific community against human engineering. One view is that cloning may in fact retard advances in medical science. For example; "The California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative suffers from several major faults; fiscal, bureaucratic, scientific, and moral/ethical problems. Several provisions of the initiative are of questionable use and may actually hinder the medical cures it purports to encourage." (Deem R.)
The most worrying aspect of cloning is that if it is accepted and allowed to become just another scientific and medical process or procedure, will it affect fundamental societal aspects such as the family in a negative sense? There is also the alarming possibly that cloning techniques may be abused for economic purpsoes and this in turn raises the specter of commercially produced babies, for example. These are important issues and questions which have to be borne in kind in evaluating these advances in medical science and human engineering.
References
Barrera N. (2000) Tissue Engineering. Retrieved April 27, 2007, at http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/biology/b103/f00/web3/barrera3.html
Bedford-Strohm H. (2002) Sacred body? Stem cell research and human cloning. Ecumenical Review. Retrieved April 27, 2007 at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2065/is_3_54/ai_92136470/pg_4
Biology. (2005) Retrieved April 27, 2007, at http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/biology/variationandinheritance/4cloningandgenengrev2.shtml
Biotech Century: Anti-Cloning Initiative. Retrieved April 27, 2007, at http://www.foet.org/past/Anti-CloningInitiative.html
Darnovsky M. (2002) Embryo Cloning and Beyond. Retrieved April 27, 2007, at http://www.genetics-and-society.org/resources/cgs/200207_tikkun_darnovsky.html
Deem R. Arguments Against Proposition 71: The California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative. Retrieved April 27, 2007, at http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/stemcell.html
Kass L.R. (1997) the wisdom of repugnance. Retrieved April 27, 2007, at http://www.leemsilver.net/teaching/320/Wisdom%20of%20repugnance.htm
Pope Rejects Cloning. Retrieved April 27, 2007, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506EFD9163FF93AA15751C1A9649C8B63&n=Top%2fNews%2fScience%2fTopics%2fCloning
Profile: Dr. Severino Antinori. Retrieved April 27, 2007, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1477698.stm
Darnovsky M. (2002) Embryo Cloning and Beyond. Retrieved April 27, 2007, at http://www.genetics-and-society.org/resources/cgs/200207_tikkun_darnovsky.html
More stem cell research advances. Retrieved April 27, 2007, at http://www.biopeer.com/biopeer/stem_cells/index.html
Pope Rejects Cloning. (2002) Retrieved April 27, 2007, at http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506EFD9163FF93AA15751C1A9649C8B63
Statement in Support of Legislation to Prohibit Cloning. Retrieved April 27, 2007, at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020218/petition
Ethics of Human Cloning Genetic engineering and cloning have played important roles in agriculture for many generations. Bananas and seedless grapes, for example, are, quite literally, living genetic clones (Krock, 2001). Prior to the last decade of the 20th Century, human cloning was purely a subject of science fiction, but by the dawn of the 21st Century, researchers had already cloned several mammals successfully. In 1978, medical science had progressed to the
Kass Silver Ethics Cloning Genetic engineering is one of the most contentious and confusion ethical issues that is faced by modern society. An investigation into hypothetical cases where cloning is used can help to expose some of the ethical considerations implicit in genetic engineering technology. This paper will review the case of a child born as a clone of the father, using the perspective of Lee M. Silver, author of Remaking
(iii) in the United States, Brazil, Germany and France, humans have been receiving their own stem cells to re-grow heart muscle in the unforeseen incident of heart attack or injury. This was found to be successful in majority of the cases. (iv) in one more incident, the vision of 23 patients was restored after limbal adult stem cell transplants. This line of therapeutic care has assisted a lot of
Experiments in the late nineteenth century on frogs provided the groundwork for cloning (McKinnell 9-10). The method used a decade ago for the successful nuclear transplantation in amphibians required that the egg be enucleated, which meant removing the maternal hereditary material contained in the egg nucleus. Other hereditary material contained in the nucleus from a body cell would then be placed in the enucleated egg, and the resulting clone would
Cloning is among the feats in science that many of us, as part of our childish character, ideas, and imaginations, have only visualized before. We used to say in our mind, "what would happen if we create someone who is an exact duplicate of ourselves?" Again we say, "how convenient it would be to have that someone do the things we don't want to do." Or, "have that someone face the
Cloning In 1997, when the world first heard about Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult, the possibility of cloning a human moved from science fiction into the realm of reality. Now Congress is taking up the question of whether human cloning should be allowed. There are many pros and cons to this issue, but the benefits certainly outweigh the concerns regarding people's feelings against cloning. It
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now