The novel Brave New World presents us with a vision of a future where human beings are no longer born the “natural” way but are rather manufactured in identical batches to certain specifications. Where concepts like “mother” and “father” are scatological and children are taught only to keep the order and complete their predetermined occupations. By the end of the novel Mr. Huxley has us thankful that such a world is beyond our grasp. However, with the successful cloning of a Scottish sheep named Dolly, images of a Brave New World became so much closer to reality. Even just the word clone can summon dark images of lines of identical individuals with bar codes tattooed on their necks walking in lock-step fashion and it is due in no small …show more content…
Can we not also add a cloned child to the roster and still be ignorant of their origin? As unnerving as it might appear the method of procreation is completely arbitrary, more so ought we to be concerned with the intent of procreation if we must lay a blame. Physically a cloned child is no different from you or me but can we say that the child is any less human from extra-physical loss? Whether or not a clone would be less than human begs us that we ought first discern what it is that defines a person as a person. Detailing free will and individualistic identity necessitate the ability to be self-aware and to make decisions without requiring outside influence which, compose the basis of what delineates a human person. The problem of identity sometimes arises with identical twins in that we many times ascertain them to be the same person due merely to their often indistinguishable appearance. Experience however tells us that even though they have the same genetic profile they constitute discrete identities. A clone, against our intuitions, would not have the same identity as the one from whom they were cloned and additionally even were one to take a person and subject them to one scenario they would end up completely different than if you had subjected them in a
This argument that the clones are actually humans who are being stripped of their identities can be supported by exploring the Hailsham school and how the students
clone is created, and this act of reproductive cloning is regarded with controversy; is it
Science today is developing at warp speed. We have the capability to do many things, which include the cloning of actual humans! First you may ask what a clone is? A clone is a group of cells or organisms, which are genetically identical, and have all been produced from the same original cell. There are three main types of cloning, two of which aim to produce live cloned offspring and one, which simply aims to produce stem cells and then human organs. These three are: reproductive cloning, embryo cloning and therapeutic cloning. The goal of therapeutic cloning is to produce a healthy copy of a sick person's tissue or organ for transplant, and the goal of both reproductive cloning and embryo cloning is to
In this case of a parent cloning himself in order to have a child, the parent would have preset notions of what the child should become and how the child’s life should progress (Bowring 2004: 401). This link between parent and offspring along with the predetermination of the clone’s future would have profound psychological and social ramifications; the clone would have the expectation of following same life path as the parent, trying to live up to these expectations of others and of his own would create a standard that would prevent individuality possibly leading to depression or even suicide (Nelkin 1992: 180). The psychological problems associated with creating clones of living people would be great. Another situation would be creating a clone of a deceased person; an example of this would be a family creating a clone of an elder member of that family who recently passed away. In this example, the family would know the life that the deceased person had lived and would expect the clone to behave similarly. The clone would have the same genetic makeup as the deceased family member, but the clone would live a completely different life because he was born in a completely different time. The family would experience grief because the clone would live differently than the person they had known and the clone would experience issues with the expectations placed on him. This creation of a clone would cause harm to all involved on an emotion level (Bottum 2001: 1). The
The first problem that human cloning encounter is it is one of unethical processes because it involves the alteration of the human genetic and human may be harmed, either during experimentation or by expectations after birth. “Cloning, like all science, must be used responsibly. Cloning human is not desirable. But cloning sheep has its uses.”, as quoted by Mary Seller, a member of the Church of England’s Board of Social Responsibility (Amy Logston, 1999). Meaning behind this word are showing us that cloning have both advantages and disadvantages. The concept of cloning is hurting many human sentiments and human believes. “Given the high rates of morbidity and mortality in the cloning of other mammals, we believe that cloning-to-produce-children would be extremely unsafe, and that attempts to produce a cloned child would be highly unethical”, as quoted by the President’s Council on Bioethics. Since human cloning deals with human life, it said to be unethical if people are willing to killed embryo or infant to produce a cloned human and advancing on it. The probability of this process is successful is also small because the technology that being used in this process is still new and risky.
Human cloning is a highly controversial and divisive topic, so most people either feel strongly for or against it. There are many common misconceptions about cloning, such as the idea that when someone is cloned, the clone appears exactly like the subject. This is not the case; cloning is done by replacing the nucleus of an unfertilized egg and then transferred to a woman’s uterus to be carried out like a normal pregnancy. The only thing that the original human being and the clone would share is DNA. The clone could grow up to be a completely different person as the original human being, simply inside a body that looks the same. Therefore, it is not as if cloning could be used to create an army of clones of a single person like Hitler. However, human cloning is still morally wrong for many reasons.
Advanced research in reproductive cloning can reduce the suffering of individuals on many different levels, it can also have negative effects on the children who are being cloned. When a parent decides to clone a child due to the death of the original, the child can experience psychological harm. The parent may strive to have the clone be just like the child that they lost and have a sense of disappointment when those expectations are not realized. The parent can put too much pressure on the child to be like their previous counterpart and constantly remind the clone of what the original accomplished. Having the same genes doesn’t mean that it will become identical to the original (Glannon, 2005).
“We are only at the Wright brothers stage of development with respect to cloning” (Yount 110). The power of cloning can be harnessed and used in many different ways; the use of cloning is a new frontier for this time period, just like the power of flight was to the time period of the Wright brothers. The first major cloning breakthrough was made by Dr. Ian Wilmut, a 52 year old embryologist of Scotland, who announced on February 22nd, 1997, that he had successfully cloned a sheep named Dolly (Yount 11). This discovery was broadcasted throughout the entire world, and many different opinions were projected scrutinizing the morality and ethics of his work. The first cloning technique was performed using the nuclear transfer technique, also called
A thirty year old woman has the perfect life: a great significant other, a lovely house, and her dream job. There is just one problem: she cannot have kids, even though she has always wanted some. Luckily, technology has advanced and there is an easy solution: she can clone herself! Now imagine that she went through with it and the clone died. She would feel terrible. Or maybe her cloned child is going through an immense amount of psychological trauma because of identity questions or discrimination against their very existence, and all she can do is watch. Or maybe the government is still cloning her through some fine print agreement, and is experimenting on other versions of her without her knowledge. It all sounds a bit sci-fi, does it not? However, if human cloning were ever to be achieved, any one of these scenarios could become all too real. Cloning is not that far out of reach either. Animal cloning started around twenty years ago, and therapeutic cloning, or cloning to create stem cells, is on the rise (Cloning). Human cloning should not be legal because cloning harms many clones, takes away the uniqueness of life, treats life like a product, and has the potential to be used for unethical purposes.
Many people have asked, "Why would anyone want to clone a human being?" There are at least two good reasons: to allow families to conceive twins of exceptional individuals, and to allow childless couples to reproduce. In a free society we must also ask, "Are the negative consequences sufficiently compelling that we must prohibit consenting adults from doing this?" We will see that in general they are not. Where specific abuses are anticipated, these can be avoided by targeted laws and regulations, which I will suggest below.
Many ethical and moral dilemmas arise when discussing human cloning, and one can have many positions for and against each. To understand the issues surrounding human cloning, one must have a basic
However, human cloning will undermine human individuality. One of the key features of each human being is that they represent a combination of genotype and interaction with the environment, which is unique. Uniqueness is a major factor of our humanity. It is claimed that even `identical twins', are not completely genetically similar. It has been suggested that undermining the individuality or uniqueness of each human being may undermine respect for human life.
Human cloning, one of the most fascinating chapters in scientific history. Cloning goes back to the first mammal that was successfully cloned, Dolly the sheep. Dolly was duplicated on July 5, 1996 and since then the world has had many scientific advancements. Abby Norman, author of “How Close Are We to Successfully Cloning our First Human” said that other types of mammals such as goats, rats, pigs, mice, and rabbits have been cloned successfully but cloning other mammals and primates may not be so easy. Scientists are not yet able to successfully clone a human, but believe they will be able to do so by the 2020s. (Norman) Along with such a controversial topic there comes many who would agree that copying a human would be beneficial while on the opposing side some would argue that replicating someone’s genes is ethically wrong. Cloning is a very important topic and according to the President’s Council on Bioethics, “The prospect of cloning-to-produce-children, which would be a radically new form of procreation, raises deep concerns about identity and individuality, the meaning of having children, the difference between procreation and manufacture, and the relationship between the generations” (“Human Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical Inquiry”, 2017). Although useful for studying genetic diseases, human cloning produces issues as to whether it should be allowed or not because some believe the copy will have the same personality and
In 1996, “Dolly the sheep” was born. Dolly was the first mammal cloned from an adult cell. This process was immensely difficult, “of the 277 attempts to fuse an adult sheep cell nucleus with an egg, only 27 developed normally” (Elsner 597). Although this paved the way for most of the cloning that takes place today, like human reproductive cloning, the success rates and dangers it proposes outweigh any benefits. Human reproductive cloning is a reproductive technology that helps a parent produce a genetically identical offspring. It is a practice that seen to be unjust in many aspects. Some even argue this process as “playing god” (Halmoff 3:32). Human reproductive cloning presents countless psychological and physical dangers that disrupt the natural order of life.
After examining three articles called Arguments for and Against Creating Human Clones, President Bush Calls on Senate to Back Human Cloning Ban, and All the Reasons to Clone Human Beings, I have decided to go against cloning since it’s never right to substitute something or someone that you care about. Cloning abolishes every ounce of consciousness because if you have a duplicate of an animal or an individual living with you then what will usually come to perception is nothing but pure remorse or a lot of grief. After a while that awareness is going to transition you and it’ll crack you from within knowing that this isn’t the legitimate animal or human that was evoked. Along with, it can revision you because if for some unhinged reason, you’re ok with a cloned mortal or a cloned mammalian living with you without perfecting the idea that it’s not going to work out with you then you’ll soon accept the full understanding that the duplicate was always the prime. Afterwards, you will start creating so called “memories” with something that was never the real deal. There’s frequent reasons to go against cloning since it causes a lot of uncomfortable moments.