Cloning

What if I told you you could be immortal? What would you say if I told you there would be no more disease, and cancer and AIDS would be a thing of the past? The only thing you need to do is have a sample of your DNA taken to be analyzed and cloned. Now what do you think? Still want to be immortal and disease free? Cloning has been a serious issue not only to scientists but to political officials across the globe. If human cloning ever becomes successful anywhere there can be serious repercussions.

Since Scottish scientists reported the successful cloning of a sheep named Dolly in 1996, new research in cloning has grown as rapidly as the ethical controversy surrounding the procedure. In May of 1998, scientists at a Massachusetts cell research firm announced the production of genetically identical calves using a new cloning technology that could make it possible to create "designer" cattle (www.ornl.gov). In addition, that June, the news about the successful cloning of a mouse swept through the scientific community. Although it was reported that the majority of the mice had shown signs of vision loss and an early age of death (www.ornl.org).

The apparent success of animal cloning has fueled the emotionally-charged debate over the prospect of cloning human beings, which was set when Chicago physicist Richard Seed announced plans to clone a human by the year 2000 (www.humancloning.org). Attempts of any kind to clone human beings must be stopped and outlawed in the entire world because of the disastrous things that human cloning is sure to cause. It is no coincidence that this fledgling science has generated a lot of negative media attention. Almost every single religion is avidly against it because it is not very hard to realize that it is both immoral and unethical. As soon as President Clinton was made aware about Seed's proclamation he immediately renewed his push for federal legislation to outlaw both public and private attempts at human cloning. He did this because he is aware of the possibility that this technology can get into the wrong hands and that could abuse the power once it is available. There have already been several anti-human cloning bills introduced in Congress such as the Human Cloning Prohibition Act introduced in the Senate and the Human Cloning Research Prohibition Act introduced in the House (www.ornl.gov). The Earth is already very overpopulated. Also, environmentalists worry that humans are growing too fast and that soon their will not be enough resources for them on this planet if they continue to grow at this rate. Creating more and more people will just exacerbate the problem exponentially. The potential cataclysmic repercussions of the allowance of human cloning can make anyone shiver. The power is sure to fall into the wrong hands. Imagine an entire race of convicted murderers and violent criminals. If "designer" cattle could be made that what would prevent someone from making "designer" people. One could create one thousand Hitler-like people and the world as we know it would be nothing but utter chaos.

Some say that human cloning would be a great thing because infertile couples could have children. It is obvious that this won't matter at all when earth is overpopulated, everybody is starving, and the world is in total chaos. In addition, others argue that human cloning could help end diseases and genetic imperfections and that it could help drug makers create genetically engineered animals for medicinal reasons. Another reason some scientists and doctors look forward to human cloning is because there will be ample supply of organs