Debate story: Cloning Valid or Naw?
Science and technology have been advancing exponentially. Scientists have been trying their best to help find cures to specific illnesses throughout the years. Some scientists suggest that the future of curing disease involves cloning. Others don't believe that cloning should be a part of human advancements.
Cloning has been possible to some extent for many years now. Scientists worldwide are trying to find ways to increase the lifespan of humans, find suitable organ replacements, cure illnesses such as Parkinson's, diabetes, and so much more as science improves, the possibilities of completing more complex experiments increase.
There are many types of cloning, and one might think that cloning means creating an exact replica of a living creature. But in reality, there are many different applications, such as generating specific organs and other critical biological structures.
There's been great debate over the years if human cloning should be allowed. There are many reasons why people are against cloning of any sort. One of the first things that come to mind is this morally ethical?
Governments worldwide have prevented scientists from conducting human cloning due to ethical conflicts. In the late 90s, President Clinton asked the National Bioethics Advisory Commission to gauge legal and moral issues with cloning. The report of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission determined that it was morally wrong to clone a human.
The issue of morals and ethics persists to this day, with back and forth from people who are with and against cloning.
Cloning can help people cure an array of different ways. For example, if someone needs a kidney, there are various ways one can get a new kidney, such as a donor or a relative willing to give up one of their kidneys. There is still a possibility of the recipient's body rejecting the new kidney.
With the help of stem cells and cells of the recipient, scientists can turn stem cells into any type of cell, which means that stem cells can be turned into organs or tissue. Using one's stem cell gives the body a higher rate of acceptance of the organ or tissue in need.
There are many reasons why the use of stem cells is still a controversial topic. Small amounts of stem cells can be found in an adult body, but they can also be found in umbilical cords. The most abundant place stem cells are found in embryos.
Gathering stem cells from adults can be a roller coaster of a ride. The reason is that adult stem cells are less potent than embryonic stem cells. Collecting embryonic stem cells usually preset of harvesting an embryo's stem cells early in the development stage. The use of embryonic stem cells, in turn, wouldn't allow the embryo to be born.
Human lives can be saved with the use of embryonic stem cells but at the cost of an embryo's life. The ethics and morality of saving a person out in the world at the price of using an unborn embryo are under great debate.
The United States Congress declared a ban on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research. The main reason for Congress's decision to ban stem cell research is that it would lead to a bad precedent by treating human life as objects.
Why:
Other organisms, such as single-cell organisms and plants, have the ability to clone themselves. Single-cell organisms recreate exact copies of themselves every time they reproduce with the signal cell organism sharing almost identical genes.
Scientists made it possible to clone a living creature successfully. To this date, no know has cloned a human due to many different reasons. But scents have cloned animals in the past, proving the possibility of cloning. The first mammal to have been cloned happened in 1996. Dolly, the sheep was its name, with the use of adult stem cells from the original sheep.
According to the National Library of Medicine, the success rate of cloning is roughly 50 percent making it half successful. The use of embryonic stem cells in adults is something some see as beneficial to human life.
The versatility of stem cells is something that sets itself apart from other methods of cloning. The vast applications stem cells can be used for is something scientists have yet to figure out.
There are many benefits and arguments against the use of cloning. But as science progresses, more possibilities of using adult stem cells can become more prevalent in the future.
Cloning might not be something only found in science fiction but soon be a part of future medicine depending on public opinion and what government officials say. The ethics and morality of what it means to clone and at what means are still one of the most debated topics.
