Many people associate it with science-fiction novels, not with real life, but animal cloning is a process that is being attempted today all over the world, and human cloning might be next. But should cloning be made illegal? According to the Washington Post, cloning should be made illegal because all nursery rhymes would have to be rewritten: Mary didnt have a lamb, she had two lambs and a sister named Bridget who looked exactly like her. Mary and Bridget went to school one day with both lambs, but the school board threw them out as cloning was against the rules.
Also, the role of the father is not important in cloning. He can make one child, but the next is done by Xerox machine. Cloned children, however, would also celebrate Fathers Day. All cloning should be made completely illegal because such an insignificant amount of births are successful, nearly all clones have health problems, and the technology is far from perfected. Very few animal clones make it to birth, and the ones that do usually have serious health problems, including physical deformities (such as enlarged umbilical cords) to life-threatening conditions (like being born with no immune system) (Boyce 42).
Less than three percent of all cloning attempts succeed: . . . scientists have good reason to be pessimistic: several years of animal cloning work has taught them that most cloned animals never even make it to birth and the rare ones that do all too frequently have [serious health] problems (Boyce 42). Because of all of these facts, cloning should never even be considered on human beings. Scientists estimate that fewer than a quarter of [cloned] newborns would survive without intensive care (Boyce 43).
A very high probability of animal clones having all sorts of problems including poorly developed lungs and failing hearts, to grossly enlarged placentas and misshapen heads exist in all cloning attempts. Any attempts to clone a human with todays technology would almost always produce a child with some sort of defect, whether major or minor. Many [cloned animal] newborns have poorly developed lungs. And cattle have been born with deformed heads (Boyce 42). Scientists say that they see some sort of genetic problem almost every time they clone and they do not know what is wrong with the cloning process, or why the clones are not normal.
While arguments over the ethics of human cloning have dominated [debates,] these scientists say the real issue is the likelihood that clones would have genetic abnormalities that could be fatal, or subtle but devastating (Kolata 1). Some animals appear to be normal, but may in fact have brain development problems that are not apparent because they are not sophisticated enough to demonstrate them. Just before Christmas, we had a cloned lamb that was perfectly formed, said Ian Wilmut, co-creator of Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from a single adult cell.
The likelihood that a human cloning attempt would produce fetuses and babies suffering from severe abnormalities calls for a clear response: Its wrong, and should be made illegal, to court such disasters (Griffith 6). The diseases and defects that human clones would have alone should convince everyone that human cloning should not be allowed. It can be a unique abnormality in each case [of the clones]. We shouldnt deliberately produce [human clone] babies that could have abnormalities (Kolata 1). There is also a procedure called therapeutic cloning or research cloning that should also be made illegal.
Republican] Sen. [Sam] Brownback [of Kansas] said that such cloning was destructive, not therapeutic, and shouldnt be permitted (Griffith 6). Many people do not support this type of cloning, either. Anti-abortion groups have also enthusiastically opposed research on therapeutic cloning since embryonic stem cells were first isolated in 1998, saying that therapeutic cloning was illegal, immoral, and unnecessary (Griffith 6). “Obtaining stem cells from a human embryo is morally wrong because it involves the destruction of a human life.
Human life is inviolably sacred (Griffith 6). The Food and Drug Administration also does not support therapeutic cloning. In the United States, both therapeutic and reproductive human cloning are barred from federal funding, and the Food and Drug Administration has asserted it has jurisdiction over any experiments that involve human cloning (and could be expected to reject them on safety grounds) (Griffith 6). If the Food and Drug Administration does not support cloning, then it is most likely not safe to clone anything. Many experts agree.
George Seidel, a cloning researcher at Colorado State University, has seen all sorts of things go wrong with cloning experiments and says that cloning is not safe (Kolata 1). Other experts agree with Seidel. Dr. Ian Wilmut, one of the scientists who cloned Dolly, said he believes “it is almost a certainty” that cloned human babies would be born with defects. It took 247 attempts to produce a Dolly, he added. Any attempt to clone humans, he said, would be reckless and irresponsible (Kolata 1). Cloning humans would be a dangerous thing.
There would be many health concerns, not only to the cloned baby, but to the mother as well. Many cloned animals do not even make it to birth, due to the fact that they are unusually large and do not have enough room to develop in the uterus. Cloned animals have nearly always had some sort of obvious defect, and the ones that do not look normal almost always are not really normal. Also, there are 30,000 genes and the chances are extremely small that an egg cell would reprogram all of these genes correctly (Kolata 1). As a result, the clones are not normal. Because of all of this, cloning should be made illegal.
