Human Cloning a Moral and Ethical Wrong

Human Cloning a Moral and Ethical Wrong.

Michael Conley

April 21, 2003

Michael Conley

Human Cloning, Is it Ethically and Morally Wrong

Thesis: The cloning of human beings is morally and ethically wrong, and the question as to whether the research into the cloning of human beings should continue is no, as it would cost the human race more than it is worth, not money but the ethical and moral cost is way high.

I. Short definition of what cloning is

A. What is cloning

B. What is not cloning?

II. Trial and error (Dolly vs human)

A. Started with 434 sheep oocytes

1. Only one live birth
2. Dollys’ life was not normal (health)

B. Human DNA

1. More complicated.
2. How many human oocytes needed?

C. The mistakes

1. What to do with the mistakes?
2. If destroyed is it murder

III. Emotional cost.

A. New race.

1. Prejudice.
2. Distrust.










B. To the scientist.

1. Would they be able let the clone go.
2. Emotional cost of destroying the mistakes.



IV. Public opinion.

A. Majority against.

1. Some scientist against.
2. Graph or table of a poll taken by me of 100 people.


V. View of the Catholic Church.

A. Interview with Father Sullivan.

1. Quotes and paraphrases from the interview.


VI. Conclusion.

Human cloning should be banned as the cost to the human race would be excessive beyond our ability to tolerate.






Note – Due to some of the words dealing with this topic, there will be a short list of definitions added to the end of the research paper to help understand the text.




Human Cloning a Moral and Ethical Wrong

An Abstract by Michael Conley


It took 277 tries to clone the lamb Dolly, a sheep whose life was not healthy and was ended short of a normal life span. To clone a human being whose, DNA is much more complicated than that of a lamb, would be a complex process with an unknown and unpredictable result. A majority of people are against human cloning and see no medical or scientific benefits from it. Allowing human beings to be cloned would demean the value of human life with the knowledge that they are no longer unique and can be replaced with another just like them.
















Can Human Beings be cloned? If so, should the cloning of human beings be allowed? To answer the second question is no, the answer to the first question is maybe. The technical problems involve cloning human beings are enormous, and may never be overcome. The moral and ethical questions involved in cloning human beings are as many; if not more as the technical problems involved in the cloning of human beings, and should be given precedent over the technical problems. While it is important to know how to do something; it is more important to answer the questions as to whether we should clone human beings. The cost of cloning a human being would be extremely high, not financially but morally. The cost may very well be a morally bankrupt society that places no value on human life.
Before going into the issues of human cloning let us define just what cloning is. To clone a person is to take a single, normal body cell, remove the nucleus and replace that nucleus with the nucleus of the human to be cloned, apply an electrical charge to stimulate growth; if successful you will have an exact genetic copy of the individual you wanted to clone (Branningan 12). This is no guarantee a clone human being will be exactly like the person they were cloned from. To many other factors, such as upbringing, social, and environmental conditions contribute to the making of an adult human being create an exact copy of another human being. Cloning is not genetic engineering which is to make a person to order by altering their DNA at conception.
The trial and error process involve in the cloning of animals are immense. Dolly the lamb took 277 tries to create a clone. That means 277 Cells were manipulated, 27 embryos were created and only one survived (Ruse 19), a very poor percentage of success. Human DNA is more complicated than that of a lamb, and the trial and error of cloning human beings would be even more complicated with the success percentage lower. The DNA of primate is much closer to that of a human being, and though scientists have tried to clone primates they have yet to succeed. The problem is that in primates the protein that has to be pulled out of an egg is so tangled with the eggs DNA that some of the eggs DNA is pulled out too, dooming any chance of pregnancy from the start (Human A4). This missing DNA causes many problems if pregnancy were to occur it would lead to all kinds of genetic disorders. Human experiments in cloning are bound to create many clinical mistakes, leading to dozens if not hundreds of abortions, or
extremely deformed children would be born. Studies in the cloning of mammals imply that many of the defects would not be evident until the clone reaches adulthood, often resulting in stunning, unforeseen death (Mcgee). It took 277 tries to create the Dolly the lamb, how many more tries would it take to create a clone of a human being? There would be mistakes: stillborn children, genetic disorders, deformities. How do we handle cloned children who are not born in perfect condition? Would such mistakes need to be destroyed, remember these are not animals, but human beings their destruction would raise all the same issues as abortion if destroyed in the embryonic stage of development, if the disorders were not discovered until birth, their destruction would amount to murder.
Destroying imperfect cloned human beings would take a tremendous toll on the scientists who created the clone too. Consider having to destroy your own child because of an imperfection you had no control over; now imagine how scientists would feel destroying a child they supposedly controlled every aspect of creating. The emotional toll would be tremendous, nervous breakdowns, and emotional disorders in such a situation would be extremely high among the scientist, not to mention the emotional problems that would be the burden of cloned human being if the scientist were to succeed. If scientists
were successful cloning a human being, the fear and distrust by the rest of the human race would be huge. It would be a new race among mankind and not to be trusted. Racial discrimination is bad enough but to intentionally create a new race to discriminate against is a huge mistake. To make matters worse it would be might prove impossible to discern a cloned human being from a human being that was not cloned, this would cause cases of mistaken discrimination making a tense situations worse.
The considerations about cloning human beings so far deal with how people, and scientist would handle the issues surrounding cloning. But, what of the person who is a cloned human being. What emotional hardships would such a person have to endure? Would the cloned child feel extreme anxiety trying to turn into, or dissimilar to the person they were cloned from (Mcgee). With all the emotional hardships growing up in the world today, why would we create more problems for people to overcome? The world is a complicated place to live and grow, with the additional burdens by creating clones of human beings we could very well be creating a group of people (scientist and clones) who might become amoral, and feel they were outside the normal boundaries of human behavior. Our history is rife with examples of human beings who thought they were outside the boundaries of society, that law of man did not concern them. Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Sadam Hussein were such people. Do we need to take the chance that we may create a race of people who may feel they are above the law, much to the regret of the rest of the world? No we must avoid that possibility by not cloning human beings.
The view of most of the worlds religions are against the cloning of human beings as it was stated by Bishop Wilton Gregory “Human cloning does not treat any disease but turns human reproduction into a manufacturing process, by which human beings are mass-produced to preset specifications” (Our Sunday Visitor). With no benefits to the human race, why spend money on human cloning when there is other research in desperate needs money for research that would benefit the human race? A better use of the money going into the research of cloning human beings would be spent for research into cancer, Alzheimer, or AIDS. The amount of money spent each year for research into human cloning could feed and shelter the needy of the world for years, which would be a benefit to mankind for generations to come.
The opinion of a majority of the public, politicians and scientist are against the cloning of human beings. (Ruse 27) In a poll done by the Pew Research Center in 2002, the results were overwhelming against the cloning of human beings. The data shows that the majority of people are against the cloning of human beings and that a majority of those opposed to the cloning of human beings are against it on moral grounds. That we continue to do research on the cloning of human beings or the cloning of any animal is contrary to the belief of most of the human race. In a poll done by the Pew Research Center in February 25 to March 10, 2002 showed that a 77% of the people polled are against research on human cloning, and the people who are against the cloning of human beings 72% claimed that the cloning of human beings is morally wrong (Polling Report pg.4). With so much of the public and scientific community against the cloning of human beings research into human cloning should stop.


Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates. Feb. 25-March 10, 2002. N=2,002 adults nationwide. MoE ± 2.5.
.
"Do you favor or oppose scientific experimentation on the cloning of human beings?"
%
Favor 17
Oppose 77
Don't know/Refused 6

If "Oppose":
"Is your objection to research on human cloning based more on the belief that the science is not yet safe enough but could be in the future, or the belief that it is morally wrong?"
%
Not yet safe 19
Morally wrong 72
Both equally (vol.) 6
Other (vol.) 2
Don't know/Refused 1
(Polling Report pg.4)

In the race to become the first to create a clone of a human being some scientist are ignoring the dangers involved. Those dangers to themselves, the clones and the entire human race that may be facing the gravest risk ever in the history of our species, that is the end of the idea that human life is special (Espijo 25). Being able to clone human would devalue the price we put on individuality and what makes each and everyone of us special. To clone even one person would cheapen that persons’ life and that of the clones.
What makes us special? Consider this, if Michel Jordan were to be cloned would he still be a great basketball player, or if there were dozens or even hundreds of Michael Jordan’s he would be just a average player. The ability to be special is what sets each and every one of us apart and makes us an individual. To give up the gift of being unique is too high of price to pay for the cloning of human beings.
Can cloning be stopped? Probably not, it would be like trying to uninvent the wheel, once something is done it can not be undone, or even kept from being done again. The difficulties in cloning human beings may never be solved, if this is true it will make the entire issue moot. But if the problems are solved should a human being be cloned? The answer is no! Just because we have the knowledge (power) to do something does not mean we should do it. The abuse of knowledge and power has been a failing of the human race throughout our history and we should not let the cloning on human beings be a repeat of this failure. As a race, humans have in our ability the tools for making the world a better place to live. Where love, kindness, and honesty have not improve the world, the cloning of human beings would not make the world a better place to live either (Espijo 10). Human cloning would not benefit the human race, it may possible harm it. So no, we should not clone human beings, or any creature. The research into genetic will not be halted or hinder by the ban on cloning of human beings, research can and should be continued in the field of genetics. Finding cures for diseases is a noble and respected endeavor that must never stop, but the cloning of human beings will not help and may hinder this endeavor.


Works Cited
Brannigan, Michael C. Ed. Ethical Issues in Human Cloning. New York: Seven Bridges, 2001.
Espejo, Roman, Ed. Biomedical Ethics Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego: Greenhaven, 2003.
“Human Cloning May be Impossible, Study Finds” St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 11 April 2003: A4.
Mcgee, Glen, PhD. “Primer on Ethics and Human Cloning”. February 2001, <htpp.//actionbioscience.org/biotech/mcgee.html>.
“What the Church Teaches: Human Cloning”. Our Sunday Visitor, Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, INC. , 2002>
Polling Report, Pew Research Center for the People and the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion and the Public Life Survey Conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates. Feb. 25-March 10, 2002. Adults Nationwide MoE + 2.5% <http.//www.pollingreport.com> “Lkd.” Search-human cloning public opinion “Lkd.” Science and Nature.: page 4 of 15.
Ruse, Michael and Sheppard, Eds. Responsible Science or Technomadness? Cloning. New York: Prometheus, 2001.