Disadvantages of cloning In June 1998, president Clinton publicly condemned human cloning.

He opined that any discovery that touches upon human creation is not simply a matter of scientific inquiry. It is a matter of morality and spirituality as well. Each human life is unique, born of a miracle that reaches beyond laboratory science. When did president Clinton condemn human cloning so resolutely? What are the reasons lurking behind actually? Let us start discussing the reasons of opposing cloning deeply. The uncertainty of science technology Science and technology cannot solve everything. What if we allow to human cloning? Have we ever thought of the results of that? Will the results be controllable? Even scientists cannot promise they can. Obviously, there are some potential crises lurking behind. Of course, these kinds of uncertainty are not reasonable to stop all the developments of science and technology. But we believer that we should ban such extreme cases (such as human cloning) as long as they have potential in damaging humans future. Furthermore, in cloning Dolly, it resulted in the death of many embryos and newborns before success achieved. (The Dolly experiment started with 277 fused eggs, of which only 29 became embryos. All the embryos were transferred to 13 sheep. 1 became pregnant with Dolly.) In addition, even if the human clone survived, it is not guaranteed that it would develop normally. The genetic material in cloning Dolly came from a 6 year old mammal (what is an old stage of sheep). Dollys chromosomes could be found in older animals only. This finding made scientists start wondering whether Dolly, looking totally normal from its appearance, might have inherited genetic damage that would be shown in older age only or some other abnormalism. Losing the diversity of genes Human can live on the Earth relies on the diversity of genes. And the diversity of genes comes from parents having different sets of genes. The most horrendous part of identical genes is that it will weaken our power and adaptations, which make us subjected to great diseases easily. In addition, human cloning is just copying the identical genes, which means it will decrease the diversity of genes. Furthermore, the beauty of humanity lies in the differences we see in each other. Cloning would eliminate surprise and predict expectancy. The great diseases and leading to extinction As mentioned above, in human cloning, all human beings will be identical. Which means that entire human is at a risk of getting infected by the same type of pathogen. In scientific point of view, if every one has the same type of genes and they are closed to

each other they may not defend against the same kind of serious disease. Then cloning will be detrimental in terms of a great disaster. Another negative effect of cloning is inbreeding, as everyone has the same genotype and keep reproducing among themselves. This would lead us to our own extinction finally. Richard Nicholson of the British Bulletin of Medical Ethics said that cloning research may well be sowing the seeds of our own destruction. Cloning is playing God The clergymen opined human cloning is playing the role of god. Bishop of Catholic Albert Moraczewski mentioned that the power that God gives humans is over the fish, the birds, and all animals, domestic and wild, large and small. (Genesis, chapter1, verse 26). Adam and Eve have all the power, except they cannot eat the fruit of the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad. If they do so, they will die. So, Albert Moraczewski believes that human cloning is out of the Gods permission. There is no evidence that proves humans have the right to change Gods will. Transgressing the nature Human cloning transgresses nature, because it is not via the natural reproductive process, which is by a man and a woman. Human cloning is creating life. Inhumane A clone makes no differences as us. A clone must ear, drink and carry out any other metabolic processes in order to survive. The clone may even be better than his original host. It would be inhumane to treat them as special species. If human is cloned, this will turn us to be a property which can be sold to anybody else. In other words, selling humans is unethical, inhumane and immoral. Devastate parenting and family life The basic concept of a family is a couple falls in love and determines to care each other. Then the couple may decide to have children which they will love them dearly. But parents of clones might value their children according to how much they look like to themselves. Cloning, at a result, undermine the basic elements of loving, nurturing family and to accept each child as an unique individual. Cause unbalance to the society Cloning may arouses social side effects. It is ridiculous that reproduction is separated from love and other human relationship. The entire world may use cloning for eugenics

that would lead to efforts to selectively breed children who are of more intelligent, heavier and extraordinary. Persons that oppose cloning ~ In 1997- Feb, Carl Felbaum, president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization said: One of the prospects should not be, perhaps should never be, the extension of this technique to human beings. Now that it may be possible we would say its should be prohibited if necessary by law. ~ Stephen Grebe, an associate professor of biology at American University in Washington said: we are going to be facing this issue with humans. With that possibility open, I am concerned without adequate safeguards that this will become a reality. It may very well already be. ~ Jesse Rainbow, a university sophomore, lists reasons why some people have a kneejerk aversion to embryo cloning. A clone would not be a real person. But a clone would have exactly the same status that an identical twin already does. Both are derived from a single fertilized ovum. WHAT ARE THE RISKS OF CLONING? When we hear of cloning successes, we learn about only the few attempts that worked. What we don't see are the many, many cloning experiments that failed! And even in the successful clones, problems tend to arise later, during the animal's development to adulthood. Cloning animals shows us what might happen if we try to clone humans. What have these animals taught us about the risks of cloning? 1. High failure rate Cloning animals through somatic cell nuclear transfer is simply inefficient. The success rate ranges from 0.1 percent to 3 percent, which means that for every 1000 tries, only one to 30 clones are made. Or you can look at it as 970 to 999 failures in 1000 tries. That's a lot of effort with only a speck of a return! Why is this? Here are some reasons:

The enucleated egg and the transferred nucleus may not be compatible An egg with a newly transferred nucleus may not begin to divide or develop properly

Implantation of the embryo into the surrogate mother might fail The pregnancy itself might fail 2. Problems during later development Cloned animals that do survive tend to be much bigger at birth than their natural counterparts. Scientists call this "Large Offspring Syndrome" (LOS). Clones with LOS have abnormally large organs. This can lead to breathing, blood flow and other problems. Because LOS doesn't always occur, scientists cannot reliably predict whether it will happen in any given clone. Also, some clones without LOS have developed kidney or brain malformations and impaired immune systems, which can cause problems later in life. 3. Abnormal gene expression patterns Are the surviving clones really clones? The clones look like the originals, and their DNA sequences are identical. But will the clone express the right genes at the right time? In Click and Clone, we saw that one challenge is to re-program the transferred nucleus to behave as though it belongs in a very early embryonic cell. This mimics natural development, which starts when a sperm fertilizes an egg. In a naturally-created embryo, the DNA is programmed to express a certain set of genes. Later on, as the embryonic cells begin to differentiate, the program changes. For every type of differentiated cell - skin, blood, bone or nerve, for example - this program is different. In cloning, the transferred nucleus doesn't have the same program as a natural embryo. It is up to the scientist to reprogram the nucleus, like teaching an old dog new tricks. Complete reprogramming is needed for normal or near-normal development. Incomplete programming will cause the embryo to develop abnormally or fail. 4. Telomeric differences As cells divide, their chromosomes get shorter. This is because the DNA sequences at both ends of a chromosome, called telomeres, shrink in length every time the DNA is copied. The older the animal is, the shorter its telomeres will be, because the cells have divided many, many times. This is a natural part of aging. So, what happens to the clone if its transferred nucleus is already pretty old? Will the shortened telomeres affect its development or

lifespan? When scientists looked at the telomere lengths of cloned animals, they found no clear answers. Chromosomes from cloned cattle or mice had longer telomeres than normal. These cells showed other signs of youth and seemed to have an extended lifespan compared with cells from a naturally conceived cow. On the other hand, Dolly the sheep's chromosomes had shorter telomere lengths than normal. This means that Dolly's cells were aging faster than the cells from a normal sheep.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Cloning

Cloning in biology is defined as the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects, or plants reproduce asexually Cloning in biotechnology however refers to the processes used to create copies of DNA fragments (molecular cloning), cells (cell cloning), or organisms.

Pros and cons of cloning Pro #1: Cloning could help infertile couples have children Con #1: The element of uncertainty as well as Inheriting diseases Pro #2: Organ Replacement Con #2: Cell mutation causing the body to reject the cloned organ

In 1996, the topic of cloning was introduced when we became familiar with the story of Dolly the sheep who became the first mammal to ever be cloned. She was cloned from an adult somatic cell using nuclear transfer. On July 5, 1996 Dolly was born to not just one, but three mothers. Each mother providing something that helped bring Dolly into existence. One mother provided the egg, one provided the DNA, and another carried dollys cloned embryo to term. Due to a progressive lung disease and severe arthritis, Dolly was euthanised on February 14, 2003. After the cloning of Dolly the sheep in 1996, the idea of cloning became more of a reality than something you would hear about in science fiction. While no human cloning attempts have been made, there have been many advantages and disadvantages that involve the cloning of both humans and animals. According to a survey performed by the CDC in 2002, just over 7 million women and their partners are affected by infertility. Cloning could actually help infertile couples have children of their own through somatic cell nuclear transfer (a.k.a. Reproductive cloning). Through this type of cloning, an infertile couple would in fact be able to have children with a somatic cell from the male, a female egg and a surrogate mother. This process includes extracting the nucleus of a somatic cell and inserting it into an egg which has had its own nucleus removed. The egg is then stimulated and once an embryo develops, it can then be inserted into a surrogate mother who will then carry it to term. There are however, some disadvantages to this type of cloning. One disadvantage is the level of uncertainty there is. While Dolly the sheep was created using this same type of

cloning, you have to consider that there were at least 250 eggs that were used and Dolly was the only successful outcome so in the case of using reproductive cloning, you should think of the possibility that infertile couples may face the same heartbreak that they would as if they were doing in vitro treatments. Another disadvantage to this particular type of cloning is the chance of the clone inheriting a genetic disease. Since the somatic cells are extracted at random, there is no way of telling if the cells that are used contain traits of a disease. So if the cell used for the clone do in fact contain the traits of a genetic disease or disorder, the clone will most likely have it. Another advantage of cloning is organ replacement. According to womenshealth.gov, there are more than 150,000 people currently on the waiting list to receive an organ transplant. Unfortunately there arent enough donors to help the ones who are waiting. According to donors1.org, the average wait time for a kidney is 5 years while another organ like a heart or lung can be found on average within 4 months. Unfortunately the waiting list is so long that since it is based on a first come, first served basis, some patients die before getting anywhere close to getting the organ that they desperately need. With cloning, doctors can take cells from the existing organ and make a brand new replicated organ from scratch. This technique can greatly reduce the wait time for those who are on the national organ recipient list which will give them a longer life span. There are some disadvantages to this technique. One disadvantage is possible organ rejection due to cell mutation. Even though this technique uses the organ recipients own cells, there is a chance of the cells mutating causing a difference in the cell makeup of the original and the cell makeup of the new replicated organ. A slight difference in the DNA could be devastating especially in organ transplantation. Transplant patients generally take an anti-rejection medication to keep their bodies from rejecting the new organ but if you were to replicate the organ and a cell mutation occurs, it could completely ignore the antirejection medications since the organ would not be a compatible match to begin with. There are many ethical reasons that are also brought into play when the subject of cloning is brought up. Some religious groups consider cloning unethical because they believe that cloning and stem cell research is wrong since it involves using cells from unborn fetuses. I asked people about their personal views on this subject. One person said Cloning I find interesting, but what Im more curious about is what that could mean in terms of consciousness between two of yourself.. Another comment that I received was Its toying with nature as well as toying with God. Imagine if the tools used for cloning fell into the wrong hands? It would be catastrophic. However, it could be a great weapon to use in warfare.