(Weiler, 1998)
The work of Dixon (1998) entitled: "Reasons Against Cloning" relates the following disadvantages to cloning:
1) Health risks due to mutation of genes - Dixon states: "an abnormal baby would be a nightmare come true. The technique is extremely risky right now. A particular worry is the possibility that the genetic material used from the adult will continue to age so that the genes in a newborn baby clone could be - say - 30 years old or more on the day of birth. Many attempts at animal cloning produced disfigured monsters with severe abnormalities. So that would mean creating cloned embryos, implanting them and destroying (presumably) those that look imperfect as they grow in the womb. However some abnormalities may not appear till after birth. A cloned cow recently died several weeks after birth with a huge abnormality of blood cell production. Dolly the Sheep died prematurely of severe lung disease in February 2003, and also suffered from arthritis at an unexpectedly early age - probably linked to the cloning process;
2) Emotional Risks - a child grows up knowing her mother is her sister, her grandmother is her mother. Her father is her brother-in-law. Every time her mother looks at her she is seeing herself growing up. Unbearable emotional pressures on a teenager trying to establish his or her identity. What happens to a marriage when the "father" sees his wife's clone grow up into the exact replica (by appearance) of the beautiful 18-year-old he fell in love with 35 years ago? A sexual relationship would of course be with his wife's twin, no incest involved technically. Or maybe the child knows it is the twin of a dead brother or sister. What kind of pressures will he or she feel, knowing they were made as a direct replacement for another? It is a human experiment doomed to failure because the child will NOT be identical in every way, despite the hopes of the parents. One huge reason will be that the child will be brought up in a highly abnormal household: one where grief has been diverted into making a clone instead of adjusting to loss. The family environment will be totally different than that the other twin experienced. That itself will place great pressures on the emotional development of the child. You will not find a child psychiatrist in the world who could possibly say that there will not be very significant emotional risk to the cloned child as a result of these pressures; and 3) Risk of abuse of the technology - what would Hitler have done with cloning technology if available in the 1940s? There are powerful leaders in every generation who will seek to abuse this technology for their own purposes. Going ahead with cloning technology makes this far more likely. You cannot have so-called therapeutic cloning without reproductive cloning because the technique to make cloned babies is the same as to make a cloned embryo to try to make replacement tissues. (Dixon, 1998)
SUMMARY...
It focuses on the controversy, and provides answers to the question of whether or not stem cell research is providing the benefits in the ways in which the public believes they will soon be benefiting from the research. The authors contend that partisan responses to the public's concerns over stem cell research are delaying the benefits of much needed treatments and cures that can be derived from stem cell research
Human Cloning Debate When Frankenstein was adapted for stage in 1823 the production's title was Presumption; or, The Fate of Frankenstein. A Victorian audience was concerned with the theme of a man's ambition to replace God by creating a new species. Equal emphasis was placed on this aspect of the novel in the 1831 introduction of Frankenstein, "It is Mary Shelly's critique of where such highly abstracted creative powers can lead
Human Cloning The subject of human cloning was once the stuff of science fiction novels and television programs. As technology and science improves, the creation of clones has become, potentially, a real likelihood in the impending future. For the follow, the definition of human cloning is that which has been designated by the American Medical Association: The term "cloning" will refer to the production of genetically identical organisms via somatic cell nuclear
Human Cloning: The Ethical Debate Human cloning is best described as "the creation of a genetically identical copy of an existing human or growing cloned tissue from that individual" (Wikipedia, 2004). The term usually refers to artificial human cloning; human clones in the form of identical twins are typical and commonplace, with their cloning occurring during the natural process of reproduction. "human clone" is a scientific replication of another person (Jones, 1998).
Legal costs might also haunt governments that allow cloning research. To prevent complications related to direct government investments in cloning research, legislation could open the door for privately-funded cloning research projects while at the same time banning federally- or state-funded research projects. However, most opponents of cloning cite the ethical costs involved in cloning legislation. Opponents of stem cell research sometimes "argue that permitting nuclear transplantation would open the door
Human Cloning This report aims to address various issues and concerns regarding human cloning. "On Sunday morning, 23 February 1997, the world awoke to a technological advance that shook the foundations of biology and philosophy. On that day, we were introduced to Dolly, a 6-month-old lamb that had been cloned directly from a single cell taken from the breast tissue of an adult donor." (Brannigan, 10) But that was a sheep
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