Should human reproductive cloning be banned and punishments leveled against it?
I strongly agree that reproductive cloning should be banned and punishable by law. There is only one thing that I believed only God has the ability to create.
I am not in favor of whatever type or form of cloning it is against in my policy of life. I believe in the creation of God and I believed that He is the only sole creator of the entire human being. No cloning or any science manipulation can twist of what I believed in.
Posted by: H4miJameHuman cloning should be banned because human life should only come from a mother and father.
It is best to stay out of the business of cloning human beings because who is to say that clones are human. Is there a hierarchy established? Will they have the same rights as humans that were birthed? Who is doing the cloning? What kind of genetic mutations will be done to the person. Is the clone only good for medical reasons? There are a lot variable and our society should not let this happen as a lot of questions that need to be answered may be left unanswered and human clones may not be treated as an equal human being because they were formed in a lab with specific scientific purpose.
Posted by: R3ubHockeyHuman reproductive cloning should be banned and punishments leveled against it because it has not proven to be safe.
Human reproductive cloning should be banned and punishments leveled against it because it has not proven to be safe. Human life should not be trifled with and successful higher mammal cloning hasn't happened too often. For people playing god until it's been safely worked out, there should be punishments because the damage they could do would outweigh the science.
Posted by: H0bi3InvaderWe do not need any clones in the United States.
Cloning may reduce genetic variability. Producing many clones runs the risk of creating a population that is entirely the same. This population would be susceptible to the same diseases, and one disease could devastate the entire population. One can easily picture humans being wiped out be a single virus; however, less drastic, but more probable events could occur from a lack of genetic diversity. For example, if a large percentage of an nation's cattle are identical clones, a virus, such as a particular strain of mad cow disease, could effect the entire population. The result could be catastrophic food shortages in that nation.
Cloning may cause people to settle for the best existing animals, not allowing for improvement of the species. In this way, cloning could potentially interfere with natural evolution.
Cloning is currently an expensive process. Cloning requires large amounts of money and biological expertise. Ian Wilmut and his associates required 277 tries before producing Dolly. A new cloning technique has recently been developed which is far more reliable. However, even this technique has only a 2-3% success rate.
There is a risk of disease transfer between transgenic animals and the animal from which the transgenes were derived. If an animal producing drugs in its milk becomes infected by a virus, the animal may transmit the virus to a patient using the drug.
Any research into human cloning would eventually need to be tested on humans. The ability to clone humans may lead to the genetic tailoring of offspring. The heart of the cloning debate is concerned with the genetic manipulation of a human embryo before it begins development. It is conceivable that scientists could alter a baby's genetic code to give the individual a certain color of eyes or genetic resistance to certain diseases. This is viewed as inappropriate tampering with "Mother Nature" by many ethicists.
Because clones are derived from an existing adult cell, it has older genes. Will the clone's life expectancy be shorter because of this? Despite this concern, so far, all clones have appeared to be perfectly normal creatures.
A "genetic screening test" could be used to eliminate zygotes of a particular gender, without requiring a later abortion.
Cloning might be used to create a "perfect human," or one with above normal strength and sub-normal intelligence, a genetic underclass. Also, if cloning is perfected in humans, there would be no genetic need for men.
Cloning might have a detrimental effect on familial relationships. A child born from an adult DNA cloning of his father could be considered a delayed identical twin of one of his parents. It is unknown as to how a human might react if he or she knew he or she was an exact duplicate of an older individual.Posted by: AnonymousThe lack of individuality.
People that have clones will lose their individuality; yes twins are born like that but they are born naturally and were meant to happen. Unlike when scientists decide to create someone for the sake of their experiments. Mothers most likely poor ones who need the money will be paid to use their baby to make a clone. Which would break their hearts if their baby was harmed or the clone of the baby. But say if the clone survived and not the actual baby all the blame would be put on that child.
Posted by: AnonymousPointless
Human cloning is pointless because it is impossible to raise a person with the same relationships and memories that any person had that is trying to be replaced. You should not be able to replace someone because everything happens because it is supposed to happen. Take in consideration the only possible way to clone someone and have them be the same is a brain transplant, but there will always be minor mistakes that lead to a irregular copy of the person.
Posted by: AnonymousYes, I agree cloning should be banned and have punishments leveled against it, because it is not our place to play God.
Cloning shouldn't be allowed because we're not God. He's the creator, not us. Who gave us the right to create another life form? People could use cloning for bad reasons. What good will come from it? Something made by man will never be like something made by the creator. They should not allow this because, basically, you're saying we don't need God.
Posted by: UnwrittenBurl49Yes, I agree that cloning should be banned because the clone can be obviously different than the donor
The clone would be raised differently than the donor because of the environmental factors, the way it is raised, how the family treats it, and all these other factors. You can't recreate the memories that the patient had with the clone and the clone wouldn't be the same as the patient.
Posted by: AnonymousAbsolutely, there enough people in the world already. And humanity is quite good at reproducing without help.
Any argument made for cloning is made with an underlying principle of either deceit or evil. The best justification for creating a clone of human is merely just to see if we can. That is not a good enough reason to create a life. The opposing arguments, including human organ harvesting and creating a genetically identical pool for scientific experiments are evil at their core.
Posted by: SpoiledKrisYes, human reproductive cloning should be banned, and any attempts to break this law punished, because it could lead to unforeseen side effects.
Very little is known about the long term effects of cloning, even in animals. Not just in the cloned animals' lifespan, but in future generations of offspring that clone might produce. Even if cloned humans worked right now, we have no idea how they would work in the long term, without subjecting human lives to testing. Once the cloned genes are out in the gene pool, there would be no getting them back, and there is no idea what kind of mutations or defects they might include.
Posted by: H_BairdI support banning human reproductive cloning which may have negative social impact.
Cloning humans for any reason should not be encouraged. It may have a multitude of impacts on the society, and this may also create social unrest as well. It also gives provides possibilities for increased criminal activities. Moreover, cloning is fairly new concept, and we are still not aware what will be the long-term consequences along the generations. I believe human reproductive cloning should be banned and well controlled.
Posted by: SaroM0vi3Cloning should not be allowed
Well let's see, sure cloning can save people's lives from diseases and sure it can duplicate lost pets but is there really a use for cloning? Think about it, if the world didn't have cloning would anything drastic really happen? Cloning is just making an identical copy of an organism so why should we need cloning? There are already enough organisms on the Earth and cloning doesn't help. So what if it can save endangered species? If they were meant to be extinct then that meant that they were too weak to survive. Only the strongest and fittest can survive in the laws of the jungle. Human lives are not to be tampered with whether or not it saves their lives so that is why I don't think cloning should be allowed in this world.
Posted by: AnonymousOf course cloning should be banned; it's extremely frightening how such a practice could be abused.
Creating human life through cloning is something people are certainly not intended to do. Cloning will certainly lead to many problems. Imagining if that sort of technology got into the hands of any terrorists is terrifying! They could do so much evil with that. I cannot think of any circumstances when it would be beneficial to clone another person. Cloning small cells for the sake of research and surgery is another story, but cloning people is a most definite no!
Posted by: DizzyCaseyYes, it is unhealthy and should be banned.
Cloning is very unhealthy and can have many risks; it should be banned. Dolly the sheep, the most famous mammal to be cloned, was also afflicted with a grave premature arthritis. Continuing cloning can lead to worse effects and even lives lost. Cloning should once and for all be banned.
Posted by: AnonymousCloning should not be allowed? what are we? god?
Cloning should not be allowed under any circumstances, cloning is just playing god. Cloning is indeed a great advance in history of science, but cloning is just like playing to be god, where are our values as Americans? Our values as Americans with this kind of thing just goes down and yes it should be punished with jail.
Posted by: R0535BurnaYes, human cloning should be banned and the cloners punished, because cloning contradicts our morals.
No human being should ever be allowed to clone another human being. We have men sleeping with men, as it is. So, if we allow scientists to clone, then there will be no need to have the two sexes. Our morals will forever be corrupted if cloning exists. Should human beings be allowed to do such a thing, there will be no limit on what we can create. While having no limits on human creativity is good, it is our responsibility to have guidance in what we do. Humans are faulty in nature, and can do some unintended damage to the human race.
Posted by: JaggedGiuseppeCloning of humans is completely unethical and should be banned.
The practice of cloning humans in no way should be legal, and should be punishable. Man has no right to play God, and should leave this alone. Aside from Hollywood movies, the imagination can really run wild as to what could possible go wrong here. Armies of clones, malfunctioning clone maids, or worse, all could in theory become reality.
Posted by: 5h035Bowyes, i think we should ban cloning
Sometimes when the scientist is in process it can do something wrong. You have to carefully treat it right and not make any mistakes. The clone may not sometimes be born as expected. It can have some issues and people can misunderstand it. If the cells aren't combined good then the clone can not be healthy to the other person. Some people may also want to feel unique.
Posted by: Anonymous
Cloning can help with donating organs
You could live longer and always have donatable organs from your clone. If you needed another kidney, or another leg, arm, etc. you would always have an extra because of that clone. And even though it might seem wrong, we could make it legal, and you could just be one of the people who dont get cloned. Its not mandatory its a CHOICE There is no such thing as playing god in science, remember that.
Posted by: AnonymousWe make babies every other way, why not this one?
For those who say we should ban cloning for reproduction, the argument comes in that it is unnatural. So is artificial insemination. So is in vitro fertilization and pre-implantation genetic testing. If anything, cloning actually solves some of these dilemmas by bypassing the need for donor eggs or sperm, which involves an unknown strangers' DNA in the making of a baby. If deformity and defects arise from such cloning, we must realize that genetic mistakes occur on their own, such as Governor Palin found with her son Trig's Down Syndrome. And unlike natural reproduction, cloned offspring would likely be screened and discarded if defects were found, increasing the odds that they would be healthier than most children, once the technology was proven sound. If cloning for reproduction does create monstrosity, the first press report of such a monster would go viral in minutes. The cloning would then end by popular opinion and boycott more solidly than any law could cause.
Posted by: Pir4AndThere are many potential scientific benefits to human reproductive cloning, so, therefore, it should not be banned.
Human reproductive cloning is sometimes seen as somewhat unethical, but its use has many scientific benefits. It is not something that should be used to clone oneself, but, if they can isolate genes that affect thinking and feeling, then clones could be harvested for medical information. It would also expedite disease recovery, as they could test potential medicines on these clones without FDA approval.
Posted by: MuteNeal88I see no reason to ban cloning.
I have not seen a single valid argument against cloning. I'm convinced that people are just responding to fear of change. Of course we don't know what will happen; we never do. Of course it will be abused; everything is. Should we ban pregnancy by implantation because it's unnatural? Cars are unnatural too. I think we should let people who actually understand cloning and gene manipulation make the decisions about it. If you were smart you wouldn't tell a surgeon what he was or wasn't aloud to do during surgery.
I know the invention of cloning is not the same as the car or even the heart transplant but it wouldn't hurt to have a little perspective.Posted by: yarinaHuman clones are a naturally occurring condition that could be used to help people who want children have them.
If there was human cloning I could run off multiple copies of my oldest son. who is a great kid but he's biracial and as such there's no way he'd ever find an organ donor or other medical help. Unless there's more work with stem cells he's in all kinds of trouble. Sure, we'd like to have more kids conventionally but we were fortunate to have him. I would like to see other families be able to have genetic children again. It could be a way of helping people who are from nearly extinct cultures (like my own family) and preserving genetic diversity. Clones are not the same person. Anyone who has known identical twins understands this. And, identical twin pregnancies are more risky. With cloning there could be identical twins who were able to have single pregnancies. A lot of good could come of cloning.
Posted by: groovyboxWhy would we ban people from making more people?
I understand that cloning can be abused. I don't understand how the abuse of cloning is any different than the abuse of parenthood we see every day.
The arguments against cloning fall into four main categories.
1. Don't play God.
I don't see how cloning a person is playing god anymore than having a child is. If you believe god is the only one to give life then you must believe that god must be involved in the creation of each clone.
2. What if someone made an army/slave-labor!!!?
I just about laughed at this one. Guess what? We don't need clones to makes armies or slaves we do it with people who are already alive. It's difficult and expensive to clone someone and you are going to have to wait for that clone to grow up (at least a little) before you can use them for anything (not unlike the people of our actual armies/slaves). In other words a clone is no more likely to end up in some kind of diabolical scheme than any other person. Either way it mostly depends on who your parents are. Which takes me to the third point that keeps coming up.
3. Clones will be mistreated, have identity crises and cannot replace another person.
These are all true statements for every human who has ever lived (probably even Jesus).
I argue that it is less likely that a clone will be abused by their parents than a non-clone simply because a clone is always planed. The same rights that govern every person would also govern clones. This means their identity would in no way be tied to their donor. They would probably be even less like their donors than two identical twins because there would probably be an age discrepancy between them. And lastly no one would expect a clone to replace a person any more than they would expect a son to replace his father or brother or anyone else.
4. We don't know what the repercussions will be.
This is true with all change. No one knew what the long term effects of a liver transplant would be but here we are thousands of life saving operations later.
"But clones could damage the gene pool!" you say. With what? Genes that are perfectly identical to the donor? While it is true that gene manipulation is a small step up from cloning, injecting someone with a live virus is a small step from injecting them with a vaccine. In other words, cloning and gene manipulation should be carefully regulated. As far as unknown long term consequences, it's up to the individual to know who they are procreating with. If you are afraid of clone genes, don't sleep with a clone. There are lots of genetic disorders that may be passed from parent to kid but how much risk is ok is up to the parents.
As a rule of thumb, if you bring someone into this world you are they their parent and take on the legal obligations that go with it.Posted by: AnonymousNo clones in USA.
Cloning may reduce genetic variability. Producing many clones runs the risk of creating a population that is entirely the same. This population would be susceptible to the same diseases, and one disease could devastate the entire population. One can easily picture humans being wiped out be a single virus, however, less drastic, but more probable events could occur from a lack of genetic diversity. For example, if a large percentage of an nation's cattle are identical clones, a virus, such as a particular strain of mad cow disease, could effect the entire population. The result could be catastrophic food shortages in that nation.
Cloning may cause people to settle for the best existing animals, not allowing for improvement of the species. In this way, cloning could potentially interfere with natural evolution.
Cloning is currently an expensive process. Cloning requires large amounts of money and biological expertise. Ian Wilmut and his associates required 277 tries before producing Dolly. A new cloning technique has recently been developed which is far more reliable. However, even this technique has 2-3% success rate.
There is a risk of disease transfer between transgenic animals and the animal from which the transgenes were derived. If an animal producing drugs in its milk becomes infected by a virus, the animal may transmit the virus to a patient using the drug.
Any research into human cloning would eventually need to be tested on human. The ability to clone humans may lead to the genetic tailoring of offspring. The heart of the cloning debate is concerned with the genetic manipulation of a human embryo before it begins development. It is conceivable that scientists could alter a baby's genetic code to give the individual a certain color of eyes or genetic resistance to certain diseases. This is viewed as inappropriate tampering with "Mother Nature" by many ethicists.
Because clones are derived from an existing adult cell, it has older genes. Will the clone's life expectancy be shorter because of this? Despite this concern, so far, all clones have appeared to be perfectly normal creatures.
A "genetic screening test" could be used to eliminate zygotes of a particular gender, without requiring a later abortion.
Cloning might be used to create a "perfect human," or one with above normal strength and sub-normal intelligence, a genetic underclass. Also, if cloning is perfected in humans, there would be no genetic need for men.
Cloning might have a detrimental effect on familial relationships. A child born from an adult DNA cloning of his father could be considered a delayed identical twin of one of his parents. It is unknown as to how a human might react if he or she knew he or she was an exact duplicate of an older individual.Posted by: AnonymousCloning is inherently Legal Why should the europian and american countries be the only ones to ban it?!
All the comments for anti-cloning that I have come across throughout this debate have been extremely faulty or paranoid. I shall now work on debasing each one :
1) anon says - The clone would be raised differently than the donor because of the environmental factors, the way it is raised, how the family treats it, and all these other factors. You can't recreate the memories that the patient had with the clone and the clone wouldn't be the same as the patient.
This is a common misunderstanding among our people that clones are intended to be replacements for dead or dying family members and pets ( like in the 6th day Arnold Whatshisname's movie,) Clones are not replacements or carbon copy! each clone is an absolutely different individual with a soul of it's own (a point realized by the end of said movie,) and has the rights and freedoms as any other hman and child of God . furthermore many people confuse the soul to be a person's memory and concioussness , the person you are today has nothing to do with your soul as such that you are simply a combination of events unfolding through out the life of your body that lead to your current thought proccesses . copying someones being into someone else does not mean they both have the same soul nor does it mess anything up on the religious front just like losing ones memory doesn't mean that they no longer have a soul. We must take care of the physical material and let God take care of the soul and all.
2)Cloning shouldn't be allowed because we're not God. He's the creator, not us. Who gave us the right to create another life form? People could use cloning for bad reasons. What good will come from it? Something made by man will never be like something made by the creator. They should not allow this because, basically, you're saying we don't need God.
Who said that by cloning we are proclaiming to be God! One very sad thing I see now days is the lack of faith among the people. You are soo afraid of the march that you forget truly how powerful and wise God truly is. People today blaspheme by attributing qualities like weakness and helplesness to God we act as if we are ourselves the guardians of the Unviverse , the knowers of right and wrong we act as if God enlisted us to look after and for the humans ... but we Are the humans we are the children it is not our duty to police human progress we are not the ones who control which direction our species takes.
I wish to start with a simple question:
Do You Believe in God? Do You believe that he made you and that he looks after you? Do you believe him to be the wisest and to have full control over his own creation and his own people? If you believe all this then you must also believe that he knows what he is doing, you must believe that everything both Good and Evil only happens by his leave and his permission only. then comes the question. Why would God put us in a sandbox where we can do anythig that can possibly jepordize his plan , How could he possibly let us do harm to our selves?
Further more I believe the Moon should be protected as a natural habitat much like Antarctica so that my beautiful view of the night sky isn't destroyed by the view of a spotted gray yellow neon filthy ball with people crawling and mountains of Dump gliding over my head in the night sky. If you really need to colonize , then do it to the dark side of the moon ( the part we life can't see from the earth.)Posted by: AnonymousWhat we need to do at this very momen is to at least respond to the needs of the time whatever ethical complains are there as long as impose these things for the survival and preservation of every human individual.
Though we say that cloning is very unlawful and dehumanizing in the eyes of God, the decision is still in us and that decision is to legalize cloning, given the fact that its not always on the negative aspects. We are humans and we need to admit that we have our never-ending curiosity, and the existence of cloning is just a part of our curiosity, we have started it, we finish it!
we just have to ready with the fall outs, but human as we are we tend to be imperfect...but there will come a time that we would seek for the legalization of cloning when everything is too late....when are we going to act? tomorrow?...when everything's gone?...think of it!Posted by: AnonymousHuman reproductive cloning should be used in order to find cures that have been previously undiscovered.
Even though it seems like it could be science fiction, I think that there needs to be an open field for human reproduction cloning. Sure, there are ethical points to be made, yet I think human reproductive cloning will disclose a lot of currently closed links to genes and cures for diseases.
Posted by: PointlessElbert47It can be beneficial.
Human reproductive cloning can allow non-fertile couples to have children. They wouldn't become identical to the cell donor, and would have a separate personality. While it is true that many legal problems would come into play, as well as the clone's rights, these can be corrected. The technology is nowhere near being able to successfully clone a human to survive the normal age, and therefore we have time to decide the legal rules.
The sheer fact that people are concerned for their rights so widely proves that any problems will be brought to attention quickly.
Besides, they're people too. Should we not welcome a new life into this world?Posted by: AnonymousThere are many benefits to cloning.
Not only can human reproductive cloning produce opportunities for organ donation, but it can also help infertile couples. Clones are completely independent human beings, and if cloning is rendered safe, it will be the safest way to reproduce. They can be thought of like identical twins; they look the same, but they have many differences
Posted by: AnonymousHuman reproductive cloning not only should be legal, but government funding should be given to advance this field.
Human reproductive cloning would provide an increased quality of life for millions of people across the world. Those that can not see could be given new eyes, those who have bade hearing could be given new ear drums, and those that have bad organs could have replacements. As it stands now, many suffer for years in need of a new heart or liver, often times dying before one becomes available. Human reproductive cloning could therefore save and prolong many lives.
Posted by: 3v3nHipI oppose the outright banning of human reproductive cloning, due to potential benefits that it could provide.
There have been many examples of important results and knowledge gained from research into the cloning of animals. Cloning trials on mice have identified a number of gene sequences responsible for cancer, lymphoma and a number of other fatal diseases. It is reasonable to assume that research performed in the same manner upon human genes would bring even greater results. There does, of course, need to be a measured approach, and I believe regulations, both legal and ethical, need to be put in place. However, outright bans on the research will only hurt our knowledge, as a species.
Posted by: jaanekyonNo, because there's no good reason for an outright ban, as opposed to regulation.
Regulation is one thing, since we have to answer questions about the possible rights of clones. And also to prevent the exploitation of economically vulnerable people, who might be used in unethical ways by those hawking new genetic technologies. And regulation is also needed to prevent discrimination against people with unlucky genetics. But an outright ban is excessive, because science and progress demand an open mind.
Posted by: M4I4cFeIineHuman reproductive cloning can aid humanity in the future.
Human reproductive cloning has the possibility to enhance the life of everyone on the planet, by means of scientific advancement and the extension of life. Human cloning projects can be used for fertility issues, and to grow healthy cells to ease the suffering of those who are ill and dying, especially children.
Posted by: ThegaXen