Paper Topic:

ethics of cloning

The Ethics of Cloning

Cloning , a boon and a bane

As the science and technology of biomedicine rapidly advances , it poses major ethical issues on which people are seriously divided . The argument in favor of proceeding with research at unrestrained pace is mainly advocated by scientists and medical experts who would like to see some fantastic therapeutic benefits of 21st century know-how come to daylight . On the other side of the debate are people , sometimes led by religious groups , who are concerned we may going too far too fast , both in

terms of research and the eventual possible widespread use of these technologies

However , the issue is much more entangled and the division of opinion gets more accentuated in regard to genetic engineering than cloning and stem cell research . There seems to be a fair degree of consensus that if cloning technology research advances our ability to heal humans with greater success , it ought to be pursued . Such research would not require or encourage the destruction of life in the process , though there is the ethical conundrum of destruction of embryos here . Most people would at the same time agree that cloning research must not be pursued indiscriminately . We must be careful to distinguish between cloning for therapeutic purposes - which ought to be pursued - and cloning for reproductive purposes - which ought to be put under the lid for the fear of unleashing pure chaos . Thus , the general consensus seems to be that this research must be conducted under strict guidelines and with strict limitations to ensure that the research is indeed serving therapeutic purposes (Rantala Milgram 1999

The difference between therapeutic cloning using embryonic stem cells and reproductive cloning is the distinction between creating cloned body tissue or organs for therapeutic purposes and creating cloned human beings . Reproductive cloning is generally viewed as morally abhorrent because it is seen as unnatural and a "commodification " of human life and it captures public fears about the power of science to pursue a eugenic agenda . When governmental organizations of today debate ban on human cloning , the main issue in such debates would be whether to ban outright all forms of embryo cloning , which the majority of countries seem to support , or to permit the cloning of embryos for research purposes (therapeutic cloning ) while outlawing human reproductive cloning (Kunich , 2003

A historical perspective on the cloning debate

In August of 1975 , Dr . John Gurdon , a British scientist , reported the first successful cloning of frogs using nuclei from adult frogs transplanted into enucleated eggs . This success generated great enthusiasm among scientists for developing techniques for cloning animals . Over the next two decades the initial enthusiasm greatly declined because not only did the cloned frogs never develop into adult frogs , but further experiments seemed to indicated that cloning a mammal from either adult or fetal tissue might never be possible . As scientific interest in cloning waned , so did the apparent need for extensive ethical discussion concerning the possibilities of human cloning

On February 22 , 1997 , Dr...

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