Brave New World

Cloning: Good Idea or Terrible Mistake?

Through the use of cloning many scientific advances have been made in the fields of stem cell research and artificial tissue growth (Future 1). Cloning small sections of a body to create organs and living tissue could be very valuable in today's society. This technology could save many lives, as well as enhance the quality of many others, and should be emphatically endorsed. Stem cells "are unspecialized cells that can be formed into specific cells such as skin, cartilage, or muscle" (Health 1). Despite these potential benefits gained from this type of cloning, other uses would be a terrible mistake. Cloning should not be used to create a living being, either in a test tube or by viviparous birth, whether it is a sheep, a cow, or a human.

Some of the paramount reasons not to create a new life through cloning are supported through scientific evidence. Cloning a species to create prodigious numbers of identical individuals should not be attempted. Such a group, being genetically identical, could be annihilated if exposed to a disease to which they were vulnerable (Uses 3). A naturally occurring example of genetically identical individuals being affected by a disease comes from a species of gecko. No males exist, and reproduction occurs asexually. The eggs from females that develop into their offspring are simply cloned maternal cells. This species is prone to huge die offs when periodically exposed to infectious diseases.

There is further scientific justification to oppose the cloning of whole organisms. Repeated cloning of an individual leads to increasing degradation of DNA and abnormal base-pair substitutions. This phenomenon, known as genetic fade, usually becomes evident by the fourth generation of clones, and inevitably leads to disease and defects in the population. However, genetic fade can occur as early as the first generation of clones. For instance, "Dolly the Sheep died prematurely of serious lung disease in February 2003, and also suffered from arthritis at an unexpected early age, probably due to cloning problems" (Dixon 1).

There are also ethical reasons why cloning individuals in modern society should be averted. As depicted in Brave New World, a clone's level of intelligence is predetermined, thus significantly limiting their potential in life. Their jobs and careers are chosen for them, therefore eliminating any personal choice (Huxley). These personal freedoms, absent in the Brave New World society, are highly valued in contemporary western society. They are guaranteed in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States, and other similar documents in other civilized countries. In the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence it states "...that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" (Jefferson). These freedoms are the foundation of the stable democracy in the United States that has existed for nearly two hundred-thirty years.

A further justification against cloning lies in the civil unrest and conflict that would inevitably develop between the artificially created social classes. Because of the mandatory and arbitrarily determined levels of intelligence and freedom among the cloned population as depicted in Brave New World, a caste system would be produced. The creation of social groups with widely disparate roles and rewards would ultimately produce contemptuous feelings of one class against another. Such interclass hostility is illustrated in Brave New World by the following description of a member of the lower class: "The liftman was a small simian creature, dressed in the black tunic of an Epsilon-Minus Semi-Moron" (Huxley 58). Inevitably, discrimination against the lower castes and hatred directed toward the elite would result. Such a system contains all the elements that would eventually produce a rebellion of the lower classes against the upper, potentially destroying the society. The eventual collapse of the slave-based culture of the American South and the racial