Human Cloning – A Dangerous Invention

Cloning is an advanced technological invention for producing a genetic twin of a living thing. In mammals, DNA is taken from an adult animal and is then inserted into an egg cell from another animal. This egg is then divided into an embryo. The embryo is then transplanted into a surrogate mother and grown to term. This process has worked in animals like cows, sheep, goats, mice, pigs, while such attempts could not succeed in rabbits, rats, cats, dogs, monkeys, and horses.

In 1997, researchers at Scotland’s Roslin Institute reported that they had successfully cloned a sheep named Dolly, from the cell of an adult ewe. In 1998, scientists at the University of Hawaii, cloned a mouse, creating not only dozens of copies but three generations of cloned clones. In the same year, two research teams succeeded in growing embryonic stem cells.

In November 2001, scientists were able to clone the first human embryo. From pure scientific analysis, it was an unprecedented milestone in the field of genetic engineering technology, but the news created a fetter among the moralists and governments. The then US President Mr. George W. Bush condemned human cloning as “morally wrong”. “We should not as a society grow life to destroy it,” said the President “The use of embryos to clone is wrong.”

Many US states, including California, have banned cloning and the US Congress is also considering imposing such a ban. The company Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) in Worcester Massachusetts USA, which claimed to clone the first human embryo, said, “This Corporation (ACT) is creating human embryos for the sole purpose of killing them and harvesting their cells.”

Scientists at ACT said that the experiments were aimed at aiding stem cells research to treat a wide range of diseases providing hope for people with spinal injuries, heart diseases, and other ailments. According to Dr. Robert P. Langa, one of the scientists at ACT, this latest experiment “sets the pace for human therapeutic cloning as a potentially limitless source of immune compatible cells for tissue engineering and transplantation medicine.”

When stem cell research could be so beneficial in curing various diseases in human beings, then why human cloning is being condemned. The crux of the matter is human cloning shall not be stopped at stem cell research; its potential for gross abuse will make it a virtual Frankenstein.

The opponents of human cloning say that an embryo at any stage of development is a human life, worthy of protection and any kind of research that entails destroying an embryo is immoral, unethical, no matter how worthy the intent may be, It involves using a human being as means. It turns human life into a commodity and fosters a culture of dehumanization. Another group of anti-moralists feels that such making of fuss against cloning is unreasonable and illogical. They ask, “Why do we permit abortion? We permit in vitro fertilization which creates nine or ten embryos, of which all but one will be destroyed.” Worse things are happening in our country where several female fetuses are being destroyed illegally by parents, they are eager to have a male child.

The scientists have now started talking of designer babies. It makes it theoretically possible to genetically engineer our children, with added height or intelligence and removing defective genes or disabilities such as cystic fibrosis or alcoholism. The advocates of human cloning gave a number of arguments as to how cloning could take modern society forward, and how it could prove a panacea for several diseases.

Every such invention has merits and demerits. Human cloning could be misused to destroy the existing humanity and civilization. We have seen the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the spectrum of germs and chemical warfare, Scientists, philosophers, thinkers, philanthropists from all over the world spoke out against human cloning, prompted by fears that the world has taken a step further towards a nightmare of humans replicated in the lab. The human cloning can tear the society to pieces. It can endanger the very existence of human being in this world.