Example research essay topic: The Issue Of Human Cloning - 1,635 words

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Human cloning is a big issue in the science world. When people think of human cloning they think of the positive aspects of the issue. Having a cloned superstar around, being able to have a person reborn after a tragic death and even as far as using a cloned person for spare parts. Cloning could affect the human race. Although there are good reasons why cloning should remain legal, there are just as many reasons why this procedure could have negative affects. Health risks can be very serious when attempting to clone a human being.

Disasterous mutations and abnormalities could occur in the cloning process. Emotional effects may also be a consequence to cloning that could lead to negative family problems. One example is the possibility of family separation. On the other hand there could be positive benefits to cloning humans.

In my opinion a strong ban should be put on human cloning. Science has advanced so far that tampering with human lives is now a concern. Doctor Patrick Dixon stated that he was e-mailed by a young lady that asked if it was possible to have her dead father cloned (17). The answer to that question is yes. A dead person can be cloned. This is an example of why there are people that would like to see human beings cloned.

According to author Philip Cohen, all that is needed to clone a person is a few living cells left behind on a drinking cup, or exchanged in a handshake (2). If an individual had enough money and a few live cells they could re-create any person they wanted to. According to Dr. Aaron Hawley, a clone is an organism that has the same genetic information as another (26).

There are some positive aspects to cloning human beings. At this time only six percent of Americans think it would be a good idea to clone humans. Some of their reasons are very strong. Examples of a few of the reasons included by Dr. Dixon are recovering someone that has passed on, attempts to improve the human race, assisting medical research, and just plain curiosity (21). These reasons would have a strong impact on human beings as a whole.

From a positive point of view, yes, we would benefit from most of these examples. The fact is that only wealthy people would be able to provide the money to have a human cloned. The rich people would have control over cloning. Prices of cloning humans are quoted at being $ 200, 000, according to Jack (no last name given) who is willing to pay for the procedure (1).

The cloning process would not be for the average American, because the majority of the people living in the United States would not be able to afford to pay for the procedure. Most of Americans, or the average income families would not have enough extra money to even take the chance of cloning a human being. Scientists have a harder time cloning mammals than cloning any other species in the world. Dr. Dixon reports that Cloning experiments have already been carried out successfully in frogs as long ago as 1952... when it comes to mammals there has been a deliberate conspiracy of silence (33).

It would be absurd for anyone to pay $ 200, 000 and not be guaranteed to receive a perfect clone. There have been cases where cloned mammals have been created disfigured, such as sheep born with no heads. The first cloned sheep was named Dolly. When this news hit the press, according to Time Magazine, it had taken 277 attempts and 29 implantation's to produce one healthy Dolly (Heston 65). Hopefully, no one in his or her right mind would take that risk with a human.

There are some very intriguing reasons that would lead a wealthy person to pay for their child to be cloned, even though there is a chance that the clone might come out deformed. Most parents would do just about anything to insure that their newborn child was born healthy. Dr. Dixon states that if a person were to pay to have the embryo of their child twinned (cloned) one of the embryos could be implanted and allowed to develop into a baby, while the other is frozen (29). By freezing one of the embryos, it could later be thawed out and implanted into a surrogate mother. The frozen embryo would only have to be used if the first-born child had a serious illness and needed spare parts, such as organs, shortly after the birth.

Many people strongly disagree with this procedure, but when a child is in serious danger of dying, often times a parent would go to great lengths to do anything medically possible to insure the childs health. Emotional risks could play a big part in the pleasure factor of cloning of human beings. An example of this would be a young married couple having their child cloned to be exactly like the mother. The damage may not be apparent until 18 years down the road, when the father sees his daughter looking exactly the same way that his wife looked when he fell in love with her 20 years before. The chance of a sexual relationship could form between the father and the daughter. There would technically be no crime of incest involved at all, because the daughter is a clone of the mother.

Since the daughter was a clone she would not be a carrier of the fathers genes. For obvious reasons, this could lead to the break up of a family. The wife could end up as a jealous woman and divorce the husband. Most people do not realize how much cloning could effect humans in ways never imagined. The problem is the lack of knowledge that people hold on the subject.

A clone is not born with the same memory of their original copy. The upbringing of the clone would build his or her character. A good percentage of the American people that support human cloning dont have an educated idea of how complicated the process is (Hawley 28). There is a sophisticated procedure that biologists and other scientist go through to complete a human clone. Keep in mind that it took scientist 277 tries to clone one flawless sheep. Abortion is a very sensitive subject in America.

If that is the case, then cloning should be even more sensitive. Because human cloning is more complicated, than cloning sheep, even more deaths and lethal birth defects can be expected during experimentation (Hawley 26). Politicians have tried to ban abortion, and there have been activist groups that are against the issue. They say that an abortion is killing the life of one unborn child. Cloning is even worse.

If scientists attempted to clone a human being there would be multiple deaths and birth defects caused by human error. The unsuccessful cases of cloning humans would overwhelmingly outweigh the successful cases. This would ultimately lead to the loss of money and lives. Just think, what if it took scientists 277 tries and $ 200, 000 for every clone they produced successfully?

Is it really worth it to waste that much money and have that many deformed or dead children as a product of cloning? Cloning seems like it is far worse than abortion if you consider the facts. As of now, there arent any visible activist groups to fight against the cloning of humans. Presently, animal cloning is acceptable for the scientists that want to see what they can do with their cloning power. However, there is no reason to start cloning human beings. People in the United States take pride in being independent and doing his or her own thing.

So, why start impregnating mothers with our twin brothers and sisters? How stuck on ourselves can citizens of the United States be to want another person exactly like themselves? We want to be independent and unique in life, but we will pay money and sacrifice lives to do just the opposite. No one can save their own identity for themselves anymore. If someone wants you to be cloned bad enough they can find more than one way to do it.

It is horrible to think that another woman can have your twin baby, without you having any knowledge of it. There are some celebrities going as far as copyrighting their DNA. There is even a web site called web where people can access information on how to copyright their own DNA. If you are seriously worried about being cloned, take President Bill Clintons idea. After he had a Guinness (beer) during a presidential visit to Dublin, his entourage reportedly bought the glass to ensure no one got hold of his DNA (Cohen 10).

Cloning is getting out of hand. We need to put restraints on what scientist are allowed to do with human beings. Cloning humans is infringing on our rights, as American citizens, of the Constitution. Our right to privacy should not be jeopardized by the cloning of human beings. What is the world coming to when we have to buy the cup we drank out of at the bar, because we think someone might get some living cells off of the glass and make a clone of us?

Works Cited Cohen, Philip. Born to make you happy New Scientist 25 Aug. 2001 < web d = 23051800 > Dixon, Patrick. Demand grows fast for human cloning Global Change Future wise < web Hawley, Aaron Cloning Becomes Complicating Health and Science Magazine 7 Aug. 1999: 26 - 28 Heston, Carter A Cloning War Time Magazine 5 May 1999: 65 - 66 Jack, (no last name given) Cost of human cloning Online posting. 15 Dec. 1999. Cloning and Infertility. ' < web

Research essay sample on The Issue Of Human Cloning