Cloning

Are You Who You Think You Are?

Many people say that everyone in the world has a twin. Today, science and technology has the ability to make this myth reality through the process of cloning. I am strongly against cloning for many reasons. People should not utilize cloning because it would destroy individuality and uniqueness, cause overpopulation, animal cruelty, it is against morals and ethics, and it violates many religious beliefs.

In order to strongly argue against cloning, there must be an understanding of its process and what exactly it is. Simply stated, a clone is a duplicate just like a photocopy. A good example of such "copies" that occur are identical twins, which are duplicates of each other. "The first step of DNA cloning is to isolate a complete gene and is to chromosomal sequences and then to gradually begin flaking the chromosomal sequences of a single DAN molecule. Then the DNA clone can be electronically labeled and used as a probe to isolate the chromosomal sequences from a collection of different types of genes, which should contain cloned sequences that would represent the whole gene. This action will produce new sets of cloned cells identical to the mother cell. The new set of cells are isolated and likewise the simplified process is repeated all over again until the cells form a complete organ. In order to produce a complete organism the DNA must be altered in a variety of ways to come out with the finished product to be the complete organism" (Boisselier). In simple terms, a cell is taken from a donor woman. Then an

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unfertilized egg is taken from a second woman. The DNA from the cell is removed and transferred to the egg. The egg is then implanted into a surrogate mother. The resulting baby is genetically identical to the original donor.

Human cloning destroys individuality and uniqueness. "What makes people unique is the fact that we have different genes and cloning would lose these important parts of our body's makeup" (Boisselier). There would be less of a variety of people and everyone would be the same. This would not only be the good qualities, but also the bad that would pass on. Since clones and the original donor will look alike and have the same DNA, it would be nearly impossible to tell the difference. Overtime, they would lose their individuality and uniqueness. For example, say a crime was committed. It would be impossible to know which one committed the crime. The biggest problem with cloning on a large scale is the decline in genetic diversity.

Cloning will cause an increase in animal cruelty. It will be just another means of keeping animals unjustly enslaved and subject to pain for selfish human purposes. Animals should not be treated as objects.

If cloning is made legal, it will cause overpopulation. A shortage of food and water would occur that would have been needed to feed