Course Description

Science Research Program – Grades 9, 10, 11, 12


Full Year – Level H: Incoming freshman and sophomore students must apply for admission to this program in January of the prior academic year. Acceptance into the program will be based on a science teacher recommendation, a written essay, and excellent academic grades.


This is an ongoing program that is taken in conjunction with the student’s regular science course. There are several tiers to the program. During Year 1 students learn the components of scientific research including the scientific method and apply these concepts in various settings including designing and conducting an authentic science research project and communicating results by participation in at least one local science fair. Students also explore various applications of science topics through field trips, guest speakers and class projects. Advanced students (Years 2-4) select their science research topic, locate an out-of-school mentor (either in industry or at a local university) and compete in a variety of science fairs including the CT State Science Fair, Southern CT Invitational Science and Engineering Fair (SCSEF) and the CT Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (CT JSHS). Advanced students pursue their selected research in depth, perform statistical analysis and compete at a number of local and/or national science fairs and competitions. In Years 2, 3, and 4 students are grouped together in a non-traditional classroom setting and are required to meet individually outside of class with their Science Research Instructor biweekly to review individual goals and assess progress. All students participate in the culminating annual activity, Amity’s Science Symposium.


Tuesday, March 17, 2009

On Human Cloning

On Human Cloning: Three Views

The birth of Dolly, the first mammal cloned from the cell of an adult animal, sent intellectual and emotional shockwaves around the world when it was reported in early 1997. What's next? commentators asked. Could human beings now begin making carbon copies of themselves? If so, will those with the means use cloning to essentially cheat mortality? Could a form of the eugenics espoused by the Nazis now become reality if, say, a rogue government so chose? The cloning of human beings, many concluded, would be biologically wrong, socially misguided, and morally and ethically repugnant.

Your task: Write a persuasive letter discussing whether or not the idea of human cloning would be something beneficial to society. Support your arguments with facts from the source articles provided (at least 3 references).

Source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/baby/cloning.html

66 comments:

  1. Should Human Cloning Be Allowed?
    Zelun Wang
    Period 1 Science Research
    3/17/09

    Should Human Cloning Be Allowed?

    1997 was a year that shocked the scientific community. In July, the first mammal successfully cloned from a single adult cell was born. Given the name Dolly, she brought not only scientific breakthrough but also a load of moral and ethical issues. The world wondered what would happen next if humans were to be successfully cloned. The controversial issue of human cloning remains a hot topic of debate today, 12 years after the birth of Dolly. One good thing about human cloning is that it would allow the fabrication of organs for transplant. Furthermore, it can serve many reproductive benefits. Last, but not least, cloning is a very successful procedure. That is why human cloning should definitely be allowed.
    Bob was the victim of a terrible car accident. Not only does he have many broken bones, but complications caused him to lose his heart. He is currently on cardiac bypass, and his chances of survival are looking slim, because there are no hearts available for transplant. If human cloning were allowed, his dilemma would be solved. Cloning would allow scientists to create embryonic cells from the cells of a person, and then turn it into an organ that can be transplanted into a patient. “All kinds of tissues could be regenerated through the cloning process to allow people to survive pretty awful diseases,” says Dr. Lee Silvers, a molecular biologist at Princeton. For example, cloned neurons can be used to cure Parkinson’s patients, and cloned bone marrow can cure patients with leukemia. Dr. Don P. Wolf, a senior scientist at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center in Beaverton, agrees with Dr. Silvers. “Therapeutic cloning has the potential to revolutionize the practice of Western medicine,” he says. Cloning can also produce kidneys, skin, connective tissue, and much more. With this technology, transplant organs become much more available. Although some argue that cloning kills babies, the fact is, that is not true. The stem cells never actually turn into developing embryos. Quite oppositely, human cloning may save many lives.
    Human cloning can also help create life. Infertile couples have many choices of treatment to conceive. However, when all other treatments fail, cloning may lead to the ultimate success. Infertility is a very stressful problem for many couples in the United States. But, with reproductive cloning, it can be a problem of the past. Human cloning can be used to help infertile couples to have children. Furthermore, it allows single parents to conceive without the risks of having a donor. Cloning can also allow parents who have genetically inherited diseases to choose not to pass on those genes to their offspring. Further research may lead to even greater breakthrough. “We're going to go beyond cloning,” says Dr. Silvers, “where it's possible to take a skin cell, and turn a skin cell into an egg or turn a skin cell into sperm. This means that we will be able to overcome the worst cases of sterility.” All these reproductive benefits of human cloning show that it should be legalized in the U.S.
    Cloning is a safe and successful science. Why, then, should its potentials be limited? The science of cloning has been studied extensively by numerous scientists throughout the 20th and 21st century. “The success rate of cloning has become much, much, much better as the technology has become optimized,” says Dr. Silvers. He believes that technology has excelled so far that human cloning can realistically be a successful procedure. “It's perfectly clear that if cloning works in every other mammal in which it's been tried, it will work in human beings,” he said. Although some people like Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch say that human cloning is “ludicrous and irresponsible,” it is not so. Cloning is a very careful and precise science, and safety measures taken when cloning humans would ensure successful practice.
    In conclusion, human cloning should be allowed. First of all, it provides benefit to medicine in the creation of transplant tissues and organs. Furthermore, it helps the process of human reproduction. And last, but not least, it is a totally safe and proper practice. Despite grumbles about small problems and moral considerations, human cloning is a good thing. That is why human cloning should be allowed in the United States.


    DISCLAIMER: This piece of writing does not reflect the author’s moral values and beliefs. It is written based on available information only for a grade in class and does not represent the author’s personal point of view on this issue.

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  2. Just a word about the rest of this year. Ms. Day told us we are going to come up with a new proposal and start looking for a mentor before the end of summer. I think we should focus on these 2 tasks instead of like....write long hard essays. If students have a good proposal and review of literature before the beginning of september we can get a jump start on our projects when school starts. It would be nice if this is done during the rest of the year because no one wants to work in summer =p. Also, my dad told me that to find a mentor/internship is very hard because no lab wants inexperienced sophomores to get in the way..

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  3. Indeed you bring up a good point, Zelun. Perhaps there is a bit of misunderstanding as to what our time-line for the remainder of the year is. Your final exam will consist of a brand new proposal -- one that can be carried out over the summer if you so choose or first thing in Sept. The 'pace' at which you work is completely dictated by the individual student. If you leave here in June with background research completed, a list of possible mentor names (and method which you can contact them) as well as a good, solid proposal, you set yourself up to conduct summer (or early fall) research. Advanced students left here last year with proposals...and some conducted summer resarch as a result.

    With regard to your comment about 'inexperienced sophomores getting in the way'.... I do not feel as though the professionals that have stepped forward to serve as mentors to students in this program thus far have had this mentality. Quite the contrary. Our limiting factor has always been based on laboratory protocol -- mainly age restrictions -- especially at Yale. Knowing that in advance, students ought to consider a number of advanced learning facilities in the New Haven area when designing their proposals. You should always create contingency plans so that you have options to fall back on.

    I hope this helps to clear up some of the confusion regarding next years research. We will begin our new proposals soon enough....I think we all needed a change of pace after the last few weeks of science fairs. We will focus on the Symposium (to be held May 21st)beginning in the next week or two.

    Incidentally, the assignment I gave you is a wonderful exercise in critical thinking and persuasive writing -- a skill that all good scientists need :)

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  4. ps.... If you are eager to begin another project from a unique angle....then the photolithography (team) project would be ideal for you.

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  5. More than a decade ago, the world was shaken by the birth of the first cloned mammal, a sheep by the name of Dolly. Since then, the realm of possibility in the science of cloning has expanded to concern human beings as well. Scientific communities everywhere have buzzed with debate over the issue of cloning both for reproductive purposes and for therapeutic purposes. Many good points have been brought up for both sides of the issue, but I maintain that no matter which way you look at it, it is very unlikely that human cloning would have momentous benefits on today’s society. Cloning should not be viewed as an alternative for infertile couples, there are other, more ethical ways to advance the medical field, and genetic engineering could prove to have disastrously detrimental effects on the future generations of the human population.
    One of the strongest arguments being made in favor of human cloning is that fact that it allows sterile couples to have children of their own. Instead of both parents contributing genetic information, cloning would require the genes of only one parent. The offspring would then be genetically identical to that parent. So what’s wrong with that, one might ask. Dr. Lee Silver, a molecular biologist at Princeton University, describes human clones as “later-born identical twins.” He even goes on to say that these later-born twins would be born to “a person who would want to treat it as an individual, rather than as a twin,” playing to the fact that many twins struggle to maintain their own individuality in the shadows of their twin. The problem here is that identical twins occur naturally, not by some artificial process developed for decades in a laboratory. And what difference does individuality make among the millions of neglected children already here on this planet? There are children being abandoned in the streets each day, with no family and nowhere to call home. No matter where they are, they all have that in common. They all could benefit from a loving home, and they all deserve to be loved just as much as biological children would be. So rather than trying to create a cloned child for an unmarried 50 year old woman, why not encourage her to adopt and rescue a child in need?
    In addition to the reproductive doors human cloning would supposedly open, people are also considering the medical benefits of cloning. Theoretically, culturing cells from patients could help in meeting demands of organs needed for transplants and other surgeries. In the case of bone marrow, there would be no risk of rejection in the patient’s body because the original cell would have been from the patient him/herself. While this sounds good in theory, as they say, it’s always easier said than done. There are a number of health risks associated with these procedures. Human cloning is still in its developmental stages at the moment, and results are very inconsistent. For example, in the case of in vitro fertilization, doctors went through the first 103 women without a single success, and, finally, on the 104th time, they got a success. The feat will no doubt be even harder with cloning. Even in animals, cloning has a pretty high frequency of birth defects. There are a large number of cloned calves that are born too big and have health problems. As long as that frequency of birth defects and complications is high, and there are no means control it, then it would be unethical to use this technology for any medical purpose. Perhaps when and if further research and experimentation proves cloning to be a safer, more reliable method, the issue of therapeutic cloning can be reconsidered.
    Lastly, the idea of genetic engineering is really a serious thing. There are reasons why Mother Nature works the way she does, and humans have no right to go against that. In the world today, genes are distributed equally. The poorest people in the slums of rural India can have the most favorable genes while the famous multi-millionaire celebrities in Hollywood may be susceptible to the most fatal genetic diseases, or vice versa. On some level, there is the same kind of genetic diversity throughout the world, and there is nothing preventing anyone from having the chance to move up or down in society. That is the way the world should work. But with genetic engineering, people will have the option to give advantageous genes to their child, and those that can afford something like this will obviously be the wealthier upper class. As a result, the gap between social classes will widen and widen until a permanent divide is created. If allowed to continue limitlessly, the two groups may become unable to breed together due to dissimilar genes, and there is a possibility of the creation of two or more separate species of humans.
    The story of Dolly the sheep that has grabbed so many people’s attention twelve years ago has now become a full-blown, controversial issue. Since 1997, many advances have been made and valuable new knowledge has been acquired in this area. The question now is whether or not to continue. While human cloning does create many new opportunities for parents struggling to conceive their own child, there are other priorities regarding children that should be placed ahead of that. While cloning does seem to hold promise for the medical field, it is still years and years before that idea can be turned into reality. And finally, there is no doubt that fooling around with Mother Nature is sure to bring consequences, some of which are ludicrous to think about. So before asking yourself again whether or not continuing to pursue human cloning would be a good idea, keep in mind that there is such a thing as knowing too much for one’s own good.

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  6. In 1997 the first mammal was cloned from the cell of an adult animal. Dolly the sheep proposed a scary new side to science. Suddenly, people thought that scientist now had control over human life and could alter it at will. A new ethical dilemia rose up, is it moral to clone another human being that could possibly 1) have many birth defects as a result of an imperfect cloning process 2)scientists have not had any experience with human cloning and many cloned babies will die in the process 3)although human cloning is insufficient, the cloning of human cells can improve medecine. These are the main reasons why human cloning is immoral, but there are other ways to help people medically with the cloning process.
    First, humans made by cloning will have irregular genes and therefore have many birth defects. If scientist dabble with human genetics, if one gene is misplaced many birth defects can occur. Dr. Jaenisch confirms that "while some survive until birth and then die a few days or weeks after birth. Only a few percent make it to adulthood, and most of those that do are abnormal in some way." (Jaenisch) If we cannot make a method to clone humans with perfection, which is close to impossible as no one and nothing is perfect, otherwise cloning humans would only cause greif for deformed babies.
    Second, scientists have not gone farther than cloning human cells. Although they have succesfully cloned many animals, cloning humans is still yet unreachable. One, they are not expierienced enough with cloning to clone a human. Also, the genetic make up of humans is quite different to that of an animals. To be able to clone the genes to produce human thought is quite difficult to clone and perfect. Dr. Wolf a scientist from Oregon also believes that the risk of death is to high, "One of the problems with human reproduction cloning if it were to be done now, and you had adverse outcomes, it would be quite likely that we as the public would never know about them." (Wolf)
    Finally, although we should not be cloning humans, cloning can improve medecine. Scientists can clone cells in a human to recreate an organ to heal someone. Dr. Silver talked of someone who had parkinsons could have his neurons cloned to heal himself and be on his merry way. A man in need of bone marrow who cannot find a donor can have his bone marrow cloned and be healed. (Silver) Although cloning cells involves stem cell research that many people are against, recently scientists have found a new method to produce stem cells from skin and therefore the controversy over aborted fetuses is omitted. However, the cloning of organs is a more moral way to use cloning today than recreating a person.
    In breif, cloning other humans is immoral. Many birth defects can occur and although scientist have been able to clone does not mean it is perfect. Many cloned children will die due to imperfections in the process. There are more effective ways to deal with healing through cloning such as cloning cells to recreate organs. I urge you to ban human cloning. Thank You

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  7. Human cloning has always been a possibility, progressing from sci-fi movies to a near-reality when a mammal, Dolly, was cloned in 1997. However, even today, human cloning would be a menace to society. This practice would present several ethical issues. Also, the science behind human cloning remains imperfect, and thus endangers possible clones. Finally, human cloning would require full government cooperation. Human cloning would hurt society.
    Human cloning presents many moral problems. Foremost among these is the possibility of separating humans into two different strata in society: those who are genetically altered, and those who are not. That is, those who had ample funding would be able to improve their children’s genetic structure to make them leaps ahead of those who could not afford this treatment. This would merely result in the rich becoming richer, and the poor becoming poorer. “Eventually, if this went on long enough, it could reach the point where people in the upper genetic class could no longer breed with people who were not genetically engineered, which would lead to a division of our species into two or more separate species.” (Silver). Conversely, society without human cloning remains surprisingly genetically equal. That is, anybody, no matter how poor, is born into the world with just as much chance at success as the children of royalty. However, human cloning would create a clear difference between the two, limiting opportunity of the poor people. Some other ethical problems include the possibility of a deformed or debilitated child at birth, and how immoral it would be to selfishly bring this child into the world. However, the ethical considerations of human cloning should not even be discussed until we are sure that human cloning is entirely safe, which it is not yet.
    The scientific issues involved in human cloning are enough to prevent any speculation of this practice in the near future. There are several manifestations of these dangers. For instance, tests on mice and other animals have resulted in miscarriages, overly large organisms, infant mortality, short lifespan, and even obesity. Says Dr. Don P. Wolf, a senior scientist at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center in Beaverton and director of the Andrology/Embryology Laboratory at Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland, “We simply don't know enough about the human reproductive cloning process to consider offering this in the context of human infertility therapy.” Wolf argues that the probability of producing an abnormal child is so great that it outweighs any possibility of actually using human cloning at the current time. Ian Wilmut, who performed the study that produced Dolly in 1997, had to impregnate 13 sheep to get one offspring, a very low percentage. Also, at that time, people were worried that the aging of the initial animal would transfer to the new one, thus shortening lifespan. Specifically, the shortening of chromosome tips, which is a sign of aging, was thought to be transferred from mother to child. (Silver). Although this was over a decade ago, we still are not entirely certain how human cloning would work. Lab results still only see a few percent of all animals reach adulthood. According to Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch, a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and a professor of biology at MIT, “Humans are mammals, so we can predict a similar effect in human clones. There's no reason to think it would be any other way with humans. In fact, to try to clone humans, especially now when we know only a little about cloning, could potentially be a disaster.” Of course it is imperative that we allow technology to catch up with our ambitions in order to prevent any catastrophes.
    Finally, for human cloning to benefit society, the government would have to be involved. Scientists have already proven that they are very eager to clone humans, perhaps after money or fame. (Jaenisch). However, one cannot forget that if problems were to arise based on ambition, human life would be in the balance, unlike some other sciences. Therefore, regulations would need to be placed on our discovery. Small steps have been taken to this end, but were generally based on ignorance. Recently the House of Representatives voted 265 to 162 in favor of banning cloning for medical research. (Jaenisch). While it may be viewed as prudent to favor safety over potential danger, this decision was generally uninformed, made by a group of congressmen who could not differentiate between reproductive and therapeutic cloning: each of which has different benefits and hazards. Furthermore, human cloning has become an international fight. Already, Britain’s laxer laws have allowed for more study. If regulations are not strictly enforced, human cloning could turn into a race for the finish line that could kill thousands upon thousands of ‘experiments’ along the way.
    While cloning may offer some benefits, it would have a negative effect on society as a whole. There are ethical and scientific factors to consider, as well as the issue of monitoring any investigations. In general, science is a great means of interpreting the world around us, but we must always make sure that we do not stumble onto anything prematurely. Usually uninformed experimenting may be a process purposely used to find unpredictable results. However, any ambiguity regarding the outcome of a human life is unacceptable and thus, our society is simply not prepared for human cloning.
    ~Dave Steinmetz

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  8. The Ethics of Human Cloning
    Moral Conflicts with Increasingly Invasive Science

    The history of cloning goes back almost sixty years. In 1952, Robert Briggs and Thomas King successful carried out the first ever cloning, and they became the first to successfully transplant living nuclei in multicellular organisms. The cloning was of Rana Pipien, a species of frog. The result was huge leap in this innovative field and generated widespread interest in this area of science. The first mammal that was cloned from an adult cell was Dolly the sheep, at the Roslin Institute in Scotland. The cloning of Dolly was very significant because it showed that cloning animals that are more complex was feasible. To many this was an opportunity, and to others, it was a nightmare. Soon, the area of human cloning would be explored. This was chilling to some because of the ethical implications of a human clone. This is because we still understand very little about any kind of cloning. “What we do know is that it works very inefficiently. Most die before birth, while some survive until birth and then die a few days of weeks after birth. Only a few percent make it to adulthood, and most of those that do are abnormal in some way.” (Jaenisch). Performing this on humans would very likely result in a great deal of unnecessary loss of life. However, cloning does have applications for saving and bettering lives. Cloning techniques can be used to grow individual organs and body parts to use for therapeutic and medicinal purposes. It is reasonable to say than that limited human cloning would be beneficial to society. The first reason is that cloning humans can help us understand more about human genes and the growth and development process than we previously have. Second, human cloning would greatly benefit our society by keeping providing an alternative open for couples that are not otherwise able to conceive a child. Third, and perhaps most importantly, human cloning has the potential to save lives with its therapeutic properties.
    To begin, human cloning will be beneficial to society because of the scientific contribution it will make and continue to promote, as well as distribute scientific knowledge. As with most scientific fields, the more you study and research cloning, the more you learn. Now, human cloning is illegal in a great deal of countries around the world, so any research regarding this topic is scarce, if it exists at all. The U.S. is among one of the countries that does not allow human cloning or funding for research into the subject. “There is currently no federal support for any work that involves human embryos.” (Wolf). Establishing a system, such as England’s, will help to spread scientific knowledge. Government oversight commissions would solicit research grants, evaluate those grants, and decides whether they are appropriate. Once this happens, a proposal would be submitted to a board for peer review, and the ethical concerns would be addressed. However, most importantly, since some ethical review already happens, is that researchers will be obligated to share the results of their work. This would be great because one of the greatest problems right now is the lack of information flow. “One of the problems with human reproductive cloning if it were to be done now, and you had adverse outcomes, it would be quite likely that we as the public would never know about them.” (Wolf). The government oversight would help change that as well as working to provide more research grants. In addition, opening the doors to allowing more research to be done in the first place will very likely lead to many more discoveries, when coupled with the establishment of information sharing will greatly increase scientist’s understanding of human cloning, and hopefully to the development of cloning without adverse effects. This progress is especially important to make in America, because the U.S. is lagging scientifically. “We are going to fall very seriously behind. So scientists who can’t do this kind of research will leave the country and do it somewhere else. And companies will leave too.” (Jaenisch). That is why it is important to have the federal government provide comprehensive oversight on human cloning research.
    To continue, human cloning provides an alternative to couples who wish to have a child, but choose not to, or cannot have one by another method. This has been a topic of heated discussion in the scientific community. The main argument against the practice of human cloning is that the cloned person will be born with adverse birth defects, and this is undesirable. “There is a huge risk for fetal demise. There’s also a significant risk that the neonate [the newborn child] will have a low survival rate.” (Wolf). However, some scientists point out that there is a way to avoid this. “If we understand what the cause of the birth defect is, you should be able to select embryos at the outset that are not going to have the birth defect and start the process with an embryo that you know is going to avoid this birth defect. Once that happens, the safety issues will probably go away” (Silver). In addition, the process is already improving. When in vitro fertilization was developed (IVF), it took 104 attempts to achieve success. However, the cloning of Dolly was accomplished in only 13 attempts. This shows the steady rate of improving understanding of the science. Therefore, what can be understood is that at this time is that the necessary means for conceiving a healthy cloned human are not available: when they are, they will provide a huge benefit for our society, especially in regards to infertile couples. As for now, “We simply don’t know enough about the human reproductive cloning process to consider offering this in the context of human infertility therapy.” (Wolf). Nevertheless, we must always keep in mind the potential that cloning holds for our future.
    Perhaps the most applicable benefit of human cloning to our society is therapeutic cloning. What is meant by therapeutic cloning is the cloned growth of individual cells and organs from an organism, as opposed to the entire organism itself. More specifically, this means, “To do therapeutic cloning one would also transfer a somatic nucleus into an enucleated oocyte to create a cloned embryo, but instead of implanting this embryo one would transfer it to a petri dish to develop into an embryonic stem cell.” (Jaensich). The possibilities emerging from this process are unlimited. One could generate nerve cells, heart muscle cells and pancreas cells to treat Parkinson’s, cardiac diseases, and more. The advantage of using cloned organs and tissue rather than a simple transplant is that the patient’s body will not reject the tissue as a foreign body because it will recognize the genes. A great example of this is a leukemia patient. If you have leukemia, you are very likely to die unless you receive a bone-marrow transplant. The issue with this is that if you take anyone’s off the street, your body will reject it because it is foreign. “What cloning will allow scientists to do in the future is to take a cell from your body and reprogram it-like rebooting a computer back to the embryonic state-and guide that cell to develop into a particular tissue or organ. So you could guide that embryonic cell into the bone marrow, and then you can put the bone marrow back into that person, who actually donated the cell in the first place, so you’re giving that person his or her own bone marrow.” (Silver). Overall, therapeutic cloning holds vast opportunities for replacing damaged or lost body parts, and repairing others.
    In Brief, human cloning would be beneficial to society. First off, human cloning will bring the global scientific community closer together, and increase the rate at which scientists can work together to develop answers the myriad questions that they deal with. Secondly, human cloning provides an alternative to infertile parents who want children. Although the proper way to do this is not quite understood yet, the possibility is very exciting, and would benefit our society. Third, human cloning for therapeutic purposes poses a potentially endless supply of different medical applications, increasing the survival of our species. With the growth of our knowledge of the cloning process, so too grows our knowledge and understanding of ourselves. Hopefully one day, we will unlock the treasure chest of good for our society that human cloning possesses for us.

    -Sam Likier

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  9. To Whom It May Concern:
    In recent years, cloning has become a very controversial issue that is hotly debated throughout the world. Ever since Dolly, the first mammal to be cloned, was born, many people have argued for and against this issue. I believe that cloning should not be used, but needs further experimentation and research before being performed on humans. For the time being, cloning has too many risks and drawbacks to be performed on humans. Also, certain ethical problems with cloning must be taken into account before cloning can be performed. Finally, I believe that reproductive cloning is a form that must have further research completed, but therapeutic cloning is much safer and should be utilized to help try to cure diseases such as Parkinson’s and other diseases of similar properties.
    Cloning has a variety of drawbacks and flaws that must be addressed before even considering cloning a human. There are many serious physical drawbacks that occur quite frequently in mammals other than humans such as rodents and sheep. Because these mammals have had physical problems when they were cloned, it can be assumed that humans would also suffer from similar physical ailments. These physical problems do not warrant the need for cloning. A quotation depicting the severity of these physical abnormalities is, “We are in the very early stages of understanding what happens with cloning in animal subjects. What we know is that it works very inefficiently. Most die before birth, while some survive until birth and then die a few days or weeks after birth. Only a few percent make it to adulthood, and most of those that do are abnormal in some way. They may grow abnormally large, suffer respiratory problems, or have heart and circulatory abnormalities. Humans are mammals, so we can predict a similar effect in human clones. There's no reason to think it would be any other way with humans.”(Jaenisch) Prof. Jaenisch exposed some extremely important physical flaws with cloning mammals in general. Many of these cloned mammals do not survive for very long even if they make it past birth. Since these defects will most likely occur in humans as well, then the world is not ready for the cloning of humans until further research is completed, and the problems with cloning mammals are resolved.
    To continue, there are many ethical problems with cloning. People must consider why they want to clone themselves or someone else. In the following quotation an ethical problem with cloning is revealed, “As long as that frequency of birth defects is high, and we can't control it, then it would be unethical to use this technology to try to bring about the birth of a child.” (Silver) Along with the physical side effects, it is unethical for the general public to be allowed to clone themselves is the fact that most of the general public does not fully understand what goes on in the cloning process. The quotation that shows the general public’s views on cloning is, “Most people who answered a survey in which 95 percent of them said they were against human cloning didn't understand what cloning was to scientists. The word means something very different to scientists than it does to the lay public. To a scientist, the only thing that a clone is is an organism that has the same genetic information as another organism.”(Silver) Dr. Silver also states that to the general public cloning meant a Xerox or an exact copy, including personality, of an organism. When the general public does not even get the principle of cloning, they can not be responsible enough to handle an actual cloning of a human. Until the general public understands that cloning is only a genetic copy of a person, like a twin, cloning in humans is unethical as well.
    Subsequently, there are two forms of cloning, and one can be implemented, while the other requires more research before it is used. Therapeutic cloning is the type that can and should be implemented. This type of cloning is also known as stem cells. These can be very useful in the healing of various serious diseases afflicting the modern man. An example of the benefits of the implication of therapeutic cloning is, “So for diabetic patients, say, you may be able to provide them with insulin-producing cells. With patients having cardiovascular problems, you may be able to treat their condition with stem cells or stem-cell progeny. The list simply goes on and on. Perhaps the most excitement lies in the possibility of treating neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's.”(Wolf) With these possibilities, therapeutic cloning is defiantly worth the risk. Also, there was no information found in the sources researched showing that therapeutic cloning was detrimental in any way. As mention in the earlier paragraphs, the form of cloning that has been shown to have negative effects on the clone is reproductive cloning, and should not be considered for use on humans at this given period in time.
    Given these facts, reproductive cloning is completely out of the question. It is physically dangerous to the mammals/humans being cloned, as well as a highly contested moral issue. However, not all types of cloning need to have further research conducted before their implication. Therapeutic cloning is extremely useful and should be used to help cure some of the diseases that are prevalent today. Overall, reproductive cloning should not be used, and therapeutic cloning should be used.

    -Will Dixon

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  10. "w" is will i dont know why it is doing this again...

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  11. Cloning is a controversial issue that exists all over the world. Cloning, though, can and will be put to brilliant purposes. Cloning should, without a doubt, be allowed. First of all, cloning is morally right. Many believe that there are many ethical problems with cloning, but in fact, these fears are not justified. Although cloning entire humans for the purpose of taking organs from the clone is completely immoral, there are many other uses for cloning that are perfectly ethical. Also, cloning can be greatly beneficial in the medical field. Cloning will be able to help with a vast number of medical problems. Finally, cloning is and will be exceedingly helpful in agriculture. There are many superb reasons why cloning should become an allowed and accepted idea.
    There are no major ethical problems with cloning, as long as cloning is not used in certain ways. It would not be right to take organs from a clone, killing the clone. The clone is another person and has the right to live. However, cloning an entire person is not necessary to obtain organs. Stem cells, which people have for their entire lives, can grow into any organ of the organism. Although adults have stem cells too, embryos are abundant in valuable stem cells and can be used for research. This research will end up supporting a wonderful cause. Research using stem cells will lead to advances in biotechnology that will eventually save people’s lives or help impaired people. Last but not least, cloning may eventually allow for sterile people to have children of their own. Sperm donors could cause a child to have serious genetic disorders and diseases. If someone cloned themselves to raise the clone as a child, there would be no unknown genetic issues. Although having a clone of oneself seems like a strange idea, sterile people should have the right to have healthy children too.
    Cloning could have profound advances in the medical field. Congress in the United States passed a bill, which President Bush signed, that banned reproductive cloning and cloning for medical research. Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch, a founder of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and a professor of biology at MIT, said, “It was a terrible decision. It was a decision based on ignorance, I think.” He also said that therapeutic cloning “has enormous potential”. (Lexi Krock, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/baby/clon_jaen.html) The United Kingdom, however, allows cloning. The United States will fall behind in medical research drastically if cloning is not allowed. (Lexi Krock, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/baby/clon_jaen.html) Cloning is an immense field, and banning cloning only stunts the progress of science in the United States. Jaenisch says that scientists and corporations will leave the country, not only depriving the United States of valuable biotechnology and people, but also hurting the economy. (Lexi Krock, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/baby/clon_jaen.html) More importantly, cloning can be used to grow individual organs of organisms. Using stem cells from an adult donor, scientists can grow any organ and give the organ back to the donor. This would obviously be extremely beneficial to many people. For example, somebody who needs a blood transfusion or a liver transplant can get new organs without any rejection from the body. The immune system rejects transplants because they are foreign. However, the body would not reject organs that are genetically identical to the host. People also do not have to take away organs from healthy, functioning people. Clearly this can solve many issues involving many different diseases, including cancer.
    Cloning is tremendously useful in agriculture too. Cloning allows plants with better genetics or genetically modified plants to be mass produced. These plants provide better crops. Although this reduces genetic variation, it also protects entire crops from things like insects and other problems. This reduces the need for harmful pesticides. (Dr. Roberto Ato-del-Avellanal, http://schools.sd68.bc.ca/ceds/library/cloning.htm) The population in the world is growing quickly and food needs to be grown efficiently to support the massive population. Moreover, cloning gives scientists the ability to create many copies of a plants with certain desired traits. For instance, seedless grapes and bananas are cloned. In the future, livestock with favorable characteristics may be cloned so that people who eat that food will like it better. This cloning technique may also be used to save endangered species, though reducing genetic variation. (Dr. Roberto Ato-del-Avellanal, http://schools.sd68.bc.ca/ceds/library/cloning.htm) Evidently, cloning supports agriculture in many significant ways.
    Cloning can be used for a wide variety of purposes and is definitely beneficial to science, society, agriculture, individuals, and much more. Cloning is morally correct in general. Additionally, cloning can greatly advance science, especially in the medical field. Cloning will end up saving many lives. Finally, cloning is a necessary part of modern agriculture and will continue to be advantageous to society. Cloning may end up saving the life of someone close to you. It is important and necessary for cloning to be allowed in the United States.

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  12. Read Sam's third and fourth sentence... I don't know if it was intentional or not.

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  13. why wouldnt it be intential..makes sense to me..maybe you are seeing something differently than i am..

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  14. Among many controversial issues surrounding the scientific community today is the debate over human cloning. Scientists are literally divided on this issue because both sides have good arguments for their cases. But in essence, human cloning is deleterious to society as it defeats the purpose of self-individuality and increases the gap between the wealthy and the poor. Cloning is also far less from perfect and has a low success rate. Why spend all that money only to end up with failure? The benefits of human cloning do not balance the detrimental effects to society.
    Throughout literature, authors such as Thoreau and Emerson have advocated the importance of self-individuality. It is a reoccurring theme in classics such as Walden and Self-Reliance. But human cloning would completely go against this essential part of every human because clones would be exact copies. Dr. Lee Silver, a molecular biologist at Princeton University states that in 1997, when Dolly was announced to the world, the word “clone” meant to people “Xeroxing” or making a copy of something or somebody. Xeroxes are exact copies, no changes or anything. So how can we make exact copies of ourselves when we are all trying to be unique and finding that inner-self identity? Silver also points out a situation where men can take advantage of human clones to do the stuff that they have no time for. It’s sort of like giving a blank check to a lazy person to not do anything, but still get everything accomplished with credit. And taking this to a more extreme sense, human cloning can also be harmful to world peace if it falls in the hands of a dictator. If Hitler had the power of human cloning during World War II and the holocaust, he could have produced an indestructible mass army and we might still be fighting to this day. Human cloning should not be advocated as it destroys everything that makes a human being an individual.
    In the science community, human cloning is faced with many objections. Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch, a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and a professor of biology at MIT, says “human cloning is totally flawed. It's bad science.” Cloning in itself is a risky procedure that has low success rates. It’s perfectly clear that if cloning works in every other mammal, than it will work in human beings. But at the moment, there is a pretty high frequency of birth defects in these other animals says Silver. So what’s the point of using cloning to produce healthy babies if it won’t even work? It would not only use up valuable federal resources, but also be completely unethical to bring a child with birth defects into this world. Dr. Don P. Wolf, a senior scientist at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center in Beaverton and director of the Andrology/Embryology Laboratory at Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland, also agrees with Jaenisch. He states that from what we know about reproductive cloning in other mammalian species, we would say that there is huge risk for fetal demise. Is this a risk that we are willing to take? In addition to this low success rate, there is also a significant chance that the newborn child will not survive because not much is known about age-onset conditions. Also, in the experiments conducted, Jaenisch says that only a few percent make it to adulthood, and most of those that do are abnormal in some way. They may grow abnormally large, suffer respiratory problems, or have heart and circulatory abnormalities. Human cloning may be valuable in the future, but it is not beneficial in the current economy and scientific community. There are just not enough resources to go around and not enough about the human reproductive cloning process is known.
    Lastly, there are many ethical issues surrounding human cloning because it is harmful to the normal proceedings of human society. It has the power to unbalance everything because artificial copies are made. Silver states that the ethical dilemma arises between the rights of individual parents who want to advantage their child and the good of society as a whole. Humans are selfish in nature and want to be the best. But in current situations, only a few are able to rise to true affluence. Most of America’s population lies in the middle to upper-lower class. But genetic engineering will unbalance everything and increase the already significant gap between different classes. It will allow a large group of Americans to jump ahead in terms of the advantage their children state life with says Silver. It will increase the gap between those who are affluent living in mansions and those who don’t. Human cloning will create a permanent division between these groups of people that would potentially destroy society. Normally, genes are like lotto tickets; you get what you get. There are children born with the potential to succeed in ghettos, mansions and the streets. Silver points out that this genetic diversity is beneficial because there’s a limit to how far people who are already in the upper socioeconomic class can go in relation to people in the lower socioeconomic class. But with genetic engineering, this process might stop because people with money will be able to give their children and descendents, more and more genetic advantages. The gap created in response would be irreversible.
    Although there are benefits to cloning, they just don’t balance out the harmful effects that human cloning will bring to our society. With cloning, we will make copies of ourselves for selfish reasons and pretty soon, our society will be powered by robots and not human strength. Cloning also raises several ethical issues because it breaches a concern over social class-gap. Lastly, the success rate of cloning is so low that scientist wonder if it’s even worth the trouble and money. Overall, human cloning is harmful to this world.

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  15. To Whom It May Concern,
    Over the past few years, primarily within the scientific community, there have been numerous arguments pertaining to the idea of cloning. Many have isolated themselves from this concept for fear of what would happen to humanity if such a tool fell into the hands of scientists. Fear of laboratories ruthlessly manufacturing humans by the dozens, fueled by Hollywood blockbusters, has caused people to flee from the idea of this potentially useful process. People are frightened that with cloning, scientists will gain the ability to control human life. To a scientist, however, a clone is solely an organism that has the same genetic information as another. (Source 1) In my opinion, cloning is beneficial to humanity for it allows infertile couples to have children, it has the capacity to prevent birth defects, and it allows the creation of vital organs and tissues. There are plentiful benefits to cloning; however, they are overshadowed by the insignificant responses of those who claim it to be unethical. The process of cloning would be unethical only if it was used to fabricate human beings like parts of a car; however, that is not how the scientific community works. Cloning is a valid use of technology to improve the state of humanity.
    Firstly, cloning would be beneficial to humanity because it would provide couples who are infertile to have babies. According to Dr. Lee Silver, a molecular biologist at Princeton University and a full supporter of cloning, cloning allows a method for sterile people to have biological offspring. It makes it possible for scientists to take a skin cell and turn it into an egg or sperm. This in turn overcomes the worst cases of sterility and allows people to do what they have always wanted to do, which is to have children with their partners. There are also cases where a minority of people want to have children by themselves. For example, a thirty-five or forty-year-old woman with no partner may want have a child by herself. Instead of reverting to a sperm donor, who can transfer potentially harmful diseases to the child, she can chose to have a baby using her own genetic material for it is she who is going to raise the child ultimately. Silver is also severely convinced that human cloning, once it is perfected, will never have an impact on society for most people want to and have the ability to have children with their partners. (Source 1)
    Not only does cloning help those who are infertile, but it also allows a way to potentially reduce birth defects in children. Silver states that due to the success of mammalian cloning, the process is thus bound to work with human beings. He admits, however, that in every other animal that has been cloned there is a high frequency of birth defects. He thus goes on to say that as long as that frequency of birth defects is high, and they can not control it, then it would be unethical to use this technology to try to bring about the birth of a child. Understanding the ethics behind this controversial process, Silver points out a well thought out solution to the problem. He expresses that if scientists understand what the cause of the birth defect is, one should be able to select embryos at the outset that are not going to have the birth defect and start the process with an embryo that is going to avoid the birth defect. He additionally strengthens his argument by stating that in the normal course of reproduction by sexual intercourse approximately four percent of children are born with birth defects. A major cause of birth defects is that when sperm and eggs are being made, their genetic material is being divided in half and in that process the division sometimes does not work exactly, and occasionally eggs or sperm end up with one too many chromosomes. Cloning, however, bypasses the process of dividing the DNA in half. Therefore one would expect animals produced by cloning to have fewer chromosomal problems which would reduce the cause of birth defects. The other birth defect problem is caused when two parents unknowingly are carriers for a disease and thus pass it on to their children. But cloning would bypass that for if the adult does not have the disease then the child would not have it either. (Source 1)
    Additionally, cloning would allow scientists to take a cell from a person’s body, reprogram it, and guide it to develop into a particular tissue or organ. Silver provides an example of a person with leukemia who is in need of a bone-marrow transplant. If the bone-marrow is taken from a random person and transferred into the patient’s body, there will be a rejection. The patient’s body would recognize it as foreign and reject it. Cloning permits the scientist to take a cell from the patient’s body and guide that embryonic cell into bone marrow which could then be put back into the patient. Since the patient donated the cell in the first place, the scientist will be giving them their own bone marrow; therefore, there is no rejection. One needs to understand that this process of growing bone-marrow from an embryo solely creates a mass of tissue. Not a fetus, not a child, just a mass of tissue, with no conscious ability. It creates tissue that was taken from the patient and later given back to the person who produced the cell in the first place. Numerous types of tissues could be regenerated through the cloning process to allow people to survive disastrous diseases, by giving them their own cells back into their bodies. Thus this is an immensely powerful use of technology which could be used to overcome disease. (Source 1)
    Cloning is a valid use of technology for it is an attempt to fix problems presented by the human body. Similar to Dr. Lee Silver, who openly preached the importance of cloning, Dr. Don P. Wolf, who is not opposed in principle but is against cloning humans anytime soon, agrees that there are legitimate reasons in which to use cloning. Parallel to Silver, Wolf agrees that cloning is respectable when it comes to an infertile couple, or a couple that is carrying a recessive gene that they do not want to transmit to their offspring, or even parents who lost a young child. He flatly states that he is sympathetic to those kinds of interests and considers them to be legitimate times to use cloning. The only issue that he has pertaining to cloning is that of its timing I agree. (Source 2) Cloning will one day be beneficial to mankind; however, the concept has not yet been perfected and thus should not be used on humans immediately. Those who drastically disapprove the idea of cloning like Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch claim that scientists who advocate human cloning are irresponsible and are in search for money or fame. (Source 3) It is not fame or money that appeals to scientists but the opportunities to mend the defects in our genetic code that is presented to them in the form of cloning. People need to understand that this is a process designed to help mankind, not deteriorate it. I hope that the ideas presented above have provided a strong stance of my reasons supporting cloning. I thank you for your time.

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  16. Ever since the first successful clone was created, cloning is morally wrong and would create tremendous turmoil and conflict across the nation. Also, not many people are fully educated on the topic and would be likely to misuse or abuse the ability. Most importantly, human cloning is not scientifically possible at this point in time. Any ideas of human cloning need to be repressed, at least until a later date when we are better able to address the situation.
    One of the most important reasons to stop fantasies of human cloning are the moral issues involved. I find some serious problems with the fact that humans are tampering with the beginnings of life by experimenting in cloning. People are beginning to feel overly confident in the abilities of science, feeling that they can play god and do whatever they like with their scientific abilities. This “playing god” idea greatly scares me. I personally believe that the creation of new human life is something that should not be fooled with by scientists. Nature should be left (for the most part) to run its course, and people aught not to mess around with a system that has worked so well for so many millions of years. Creating exact replicas of people would eliminate natural selection and halt adaptations because the mutations required for evolution would no longer occur. Charles Darwin himself once said “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” The terrific success of humans has been spurred on by our ability to adapt quickly and to adapt things to suit ourselves. Stopping adaptation would be terrible for the human race as a whole. Even therapeutic cloning hits a few discordant notes with me. If people had unlimited access to replacement organs, the average life expectancy would skyrocket even faster than it has been with all of the medical advances of the last century and even the last decade or two. This, although it would benefit individuals, would not be good for the human race (in my eyes). At some point, people need to die. Life was not meant to continue for an indefinite term of years. In order to keep Earth’s population at any kind of reasonable figure, the older generation needs to die off at some point. However vile and evil this may sound, it is the truth of life. Overpopulation would be an imminent threat even if the life expectancy were not rising at a ludicrous rate, due mostly to the lowered infant mortality rate and higher percentage of children growing to adulthood, but with this new option, it would become a much more eminent threat. Many scientists are unwilling to talk about the ethical issues behind human cloning because the scientific part of the equation is so far from complete. Says Dr. Rudolph Jaenisch of MIT, “At the moment, the scientific basis of the argument, or lack thereof, overwhelms any other consideration, such as the ethical issues.”
    The greater part of today’s society is uneducated, even at the most basic level, about the possibilities and restrictions that come with human cloning. I myself cannot be called overly knowledgeable on the topic by any stretch of the imagination. In and of itself, “The word (cloning) means something very different to scientists than it means to the lay public” (Lee Silver, Princeton University). Many people, including but not limited to scientists, would be tempted to try radical things with a working technology of human cloning. These people would have the potential to wreak havoc, killing who knows how many cloned embryos, who, as they are living organisms, have the same rights as any other human or test subject, human or animal. Those in the public (not part of the scientific community) may also run into problems, especially the very rich and powerful. Those types of people may begin to ask for things that are not scientifically plausible or expect something different than what they are receiving, which could lead to bothersome lawsuits and legal implications. But these arguments lose their purpose in the face of the fact of the current technological ability of the scientific community.
    The main reason that I am against experimenting with human cloning is the fact that it is not scientifically plausible at this point in time. For now, at least, our technology would not allow for human cloning with any kind of legitimate success rate. Testing on animals to this point has shown many cloned animals to have defects at or soon after birth. And that is the relative few that actually live to birth. Many more animals die before they are even born. Dr. Don P. Wolf, who is a senior scientist at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center in Beaverton, outlines some of the risks involved. “We would say that there is huge risk for fetal demise. There's also significant risk that the neonate [the newborn child] will have a low survival rate. We don't know too much yet about age-onset conditions, but there's an obesity condition in cloned mice that seems to be age-onset. So the risk factors all pertain to the likelihood that you're going to produce an abnormal child.” This likelihood is extremely high at the current point in time, so high as to make attempting cloning in humans completely illogical. Research by other scientists has backed up this idea that cloning is still in such preliminary stages for other mammals, not even brushing humans, that the risk would be too high to permit cloning. Cloned children would have a high likelihood of having severe abnormalities both physically and mentally. Dr. Jaenisch: “At this very fragmentary stage of understanding, to propose to do human cloning when no science has been done whatsoever is preposterous. Is there any good research on human cloning being done? No. Are there any responsible scientists doing this? No. Are these cloning activists even competent scientists? No, they're not.” My own stance reflects that of Dr Jaenisch. Human cloning should be completely out of the question at this point in time.
    The hot topic of human cloning is fueling much debate, and I stand firmly on the side opposed to cloning humans. There are extreme ethical and moral issues in the way of continuing research. There is also the concern of misunderstanding and misuse of the technology. Most importantly, this technology is not even scientifically plausible, nullifying any arguments that would propose human cloning. Those who are deciding to continue with their research through private organizations should be watched closely and restraints should be considered concerning the methodology and use of the research.

    I had a hard time putting my arguments into words on this one...

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  17. Human Cloning
    Cloning is a relatively new science (part of genetic engineering) that people have been talking about for a long time. Although it is still developing, I believe cloning is a worthwhile concept to invest in. It will help infertile parents have children with a small chance of birth defect. Cloning will also have many health benefits, “reusing” organs and cells. Lastly, cloning is a field in science which we as people should learn more about, just for the sake of learning. It may have so many other benefits we don’t even know about. I seriously encourage people to support cloning!
    First of all, cloning will give sterile partners a chance to have biological offspring. Biological children have a bond with the parent that an adopted child will never have. Although some critics reprimand men for “wanting to cheat mortality by cloning themselves”, Lee Silver, a distinguished molecular biologist, counters. “Every child is ultimately unpredictable and uncontrollable [even if he/she is a clone].” (Holt) The new offspring will be his/her own person, and will be healthier too. The cloning process is a type of artificial selection. Parents can choose their child’s health future, saving them from genetic traits with the potential to harm them.
    Cloning can be very useful in other aspects of medicine too. Often in deadly diseases such as leukemia, the only way to be cured is through bone marrow transplants. Bone marrow needs an exact match to be accepted by the body, an almost 0% chance. By harvesting a genetically identical “twin”, dying patients will be able to get the transplants they need. Reusing body cells is a “very powerful use of the technology, which could overcome disease and suffering,” says Silver. (Holt) Dr. Don Wolf, a senior research scientist currently working with rhesus monkeys, urges the public to keep an “open mind.” “The theoretical benefits [of cloning] are absolutely fantastic!” he says passionately. (Tyson) Wouldn’t you jump at the chance to save more lives?
    Lastly, I believe the scientific world should gain more knowledge from the cloning experience in general. There are therapeutic and reproductive benefits which we already know about and could utilize, but there may be so many more which we don’t even know about yet. Britain is already allowing scientists to clone in their law. Rudolf Jaenisch, a professor at MIT, is extremely against human cloning. However, even he believes Britain will get ahead. The lack of cloning familiarity of US scientists will “impede research and its potential application to a great extent.” (Krock)
    As you can see, human cloning will have many benefits for the science and everyday world. Cloning will give infertile partners a chance to have healthy biological offspring. Therapeutic cloning has the potential to save millions of lives. Lastly, the practice of cloning will provide scientists with new knowledge, which could be very important. I believe cloning is a good idea, and that people should stay open to the prospect!

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  18. The Problems of Human Cloning
    Matt Boyd
    Dear Ms. Day,


    The topic of human cloning has become very popular in the recent years due to its immense complexity and its controversial results. Like most people, I don’t believe that cloning should be allowed. There are birth defects on animals that have been cloned, it is still in the developmental stage, and once it is mastered, it can be abused.

    One reason why I oppose cloning is the fact that it is very dangerous. “Well, there was a reproductive technology in which the doctors who developed this technology went through the first 103 women without a single success, and, finally, on the 104th time, they got a success” says Lee Silver. That is a success rate of one percent. That is terrible. That’s like taking a 100 point test and only getting one point on it. That’s just not acceptable. It does not meet the standards necessary for cloning to be used commonly. So far, cloning has been a serious fail by the scientists behind it. If cloning became consistently successful, it would be one thing for me but with numbers like these, it’s just good enough.

    Another why I don’t believe that cloning should be done is because it is still being worked on. It is not safe enough yet to be practiced. “Most die before birth, while some survive until birth and then die a few days or weeks after birth. Only a few percent make it to adulthood, and most of those that do are abnormal in some way. They may grow abnormally large, suffer respiratory problems, or have heart and circulatory abnormalities” says Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch. If these are the side effects of animal cloning, imagine what would happen to humans! They would unbelievably messed up. That is if they live a few days. It just isn’t worth it. It also isn’t fair to the clone to have to treated like this for the sake of science.

    Once people have the power to clone successfully and consistently, chances are they are going to abuse it. By making copies of yourself, you can take organs or other body parts from that cone and apply them to yourself. This can also help you if you are in need. “Well, I think the theoretical benefits are absolutely fantastic. Therapeutic cloning has the potential to revolutionize the practice of Western medicine. If you look at the lists of patients who are waiting for transplants of various organs, and then you think of the possibilities that you could treat them straight away through therapeutic cloning, you begin to get a sense of the potential of this technology”. I believe that this can be applied to help, but I can easily people abusing this and living for way too long.

    Cloning is just not ready for use yet. Animals that have been cloned have had serious birth defects, it is still in the developmental stage, and it can be abused for the wrong reasons. We aren’t ready for cloning and cloning isn’t ready for us.

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  19. In today’s society, technology is constantly improving and brining new, innovative ideas to the public. However, science is going way to far this time. Messing with the laws of nature is completely unnecessary and uncalled for. Human cloning may seem like a good idea, but actually cloning messes with the laws of nature, it is a way to neglect children, and is dangerous. The research for human cloning must stop.
    First of all, cloning is not a good idea because it messes with the laws of nature. Some scientists are saying that it is a good idea because infertile couples can make a child. This in it of itself sounds wrong. You should be scientifically “making” a child. Nature has been creating new life for millions and millions of years. Just because we have this new technology, why should we use it? Some scientists say that this is a bad idea. They say, “I have to put my foot down and say that human reproductive cloning to me is totally inappropriate at the present time,” (Wolf). If most scientists are disagreeing to this, research should stop. In fact, another scientist quotes that, “Are there any responsible scientists doing this? No. Are these cloning activists even competent scientists? No, they're not,” (Jaenisch). Not only are these people tinkering with nature’s natural course, but they are not even qualified to be doing it in the first place!
    Cloning research needs to stop because if it becomes successful, many children may be neglected. The biggest reason some scientists use to justify their research is that it will help infertile couples have children. Dr. Silver, who is for cloning, says, "There's no other reason to use cloning technology, except to allow infertile people to have babies. It doesn't serve any other purpose," (Silver). However, think about all the foster children in the world today. Instead of couples being selfish and wanting their own child, they should think about all the children in foreign countries and our own who are just looking for a home. If cloning humans becomes a simple way to have a child, there will be an enormous amount of foster children. I know some people say they want their own child and they want an exact match for possible bone-marrow transplants, but there are other people in the world with those exact matches. Besides, what if that clone didn’t want to give up his or her own organs?
    The most important reason cloning shouldn’t be researched any further is that it is dangerous. Every scientist agrees that there are more failures in this science than there are successes. Jaenisch calls human cloning, “Human cloning is totally flawed. It's bad science. That is, if there is any science in it at all. I don't think there is any science in it. Scientists have not had any experience with human cloning. For cloning activists to announce that they have the experience necessary to clone a human is wishful thinking on their part and any evidence they may cite as proof of their experience is, in truth, distorted evidence taken from animal cloning research.” He is right. Human cloning hasn’t been tested yet and when it was done on animals, it wasn’t a complete success. Even though they got a few successes, most clones either died very early in life or had severe birth defects. Do we really want scientists testing these things on humans? Even when asked about cloning’s safety, Dr. Silver, who is completely for cloning agreed that it is not safe (Silver). If the majority of professionals are against cloning are against cloning or agree it is unsafe, why should the public approve of the research?
    There is absolutely no possible way cloning research should stay in our labs. For one, it is morally wrong, it will eventually keep foster kids without homes, and it is completely unsafe and irresponsible. The time to act is now! We must put a stop to this research before it is too late. If it gets in the wrong hands, many people may suffer. Please support the cause make cloning research illegal.

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  20. Human Reproductive Cloning
    Doug King
    Dear Ms. Day,
    Cloning humans seems crazy. It seems like ideas from Star Wars and Multiplicity, right? Well, cloning is a lot closer than most people think. Cloning humans is actually just around the corner with the creation of Dolly, the first mammal cloned from the cell of an adult animal. The first thought that comes into most people’s minds when cloning is the topic is how dangerous it really is! Actually people are under educated about cloning and do not realize the true potential of it. Cloning can be used to multiply the number of important people like presidents. It can also be used to avoid defects in the human body. Cloning Human Beings is really useful in the human population or society.
    The first reason why cloning is beneficial to society is the fact that most of the world is under- educated on cloning. Surveys show that 95% of people that said that they were against cloning human beings didn’t understand what cloning was to scientists. This shows that most people really do not know the true potential of cloning. For example, if the ability to teleport came into the world, people would think it is a terrible tool and would not even come close to it. However, if scientists shown that it was perfectly safe, people would begin to use it. The same is with cloning; people think that cloning is a dangerous thing because of movies like Star Wars and Multiplicity. Critics believe that cloning is too far into the future, but critics also said that nanotechnology was too far into the future when it was actually just around the corner.
    Another reason for cloning being useful in the world is the use of it for cloning important people. For example, if Barack Obama turns out to be the next Abraham Lincoln and the people really like him, cloning him can extend his time in office and the United States would be just as strong as it was 30 years ago! “…human clones [are] walking the face of the Earth right now. We call them identical twins,” says Lee Silver. By cloning important people, like politicians, we can maximize the number of “good” politicians. Critics say that “cloning has potential” (Rudolf Jaenisch), when actually it is already in motion!
    The final reason why cloning is beneficial is the fact that cloning can be used to stop birth defects. The number one reason why cloning even came up as a science study is the fact that it can stop birth defects. “You should be able to select embryos at the outset that are not going to have the birth defect and start the process with an embryo that you know is going to avoid this birth defect,” says Lee Silver. One example is autism. Autism takes about one child in every 166,( . "Autism Statistics." eMedTV. 20 Mar. 2009. . 20 Mar. 2009 . ). It is also the leading growing disability in America, ("What is Autism: Facts and Stats." Autism Society of America. 20 Mar. 2009. . 20 Mar. 2009 .). Some say that cloning has no benefits at all, however cloning can be used to cure almost any disease.
    In conclusion, cloning really can be beneficial to society. It is under- educated and should be talked about to the public. It will probably change the idea of most people to learn about the good sides of cloning. Cloning also can be used to clone important people like Barack Obama. It can finally be used to stop birth defects like autism, which takes one in every 166 children. Use cloning to your advantage and not to your disadvantage!
    Sincerely,
    Doug King

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  21. Dear Ms. Day,
    Human cloning is a revolutionary and possibly life saving method. There are two types of human cloning: reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning. The benefits of therapeutic cloning are enormous. A cell from a human body can be abstracted and grown into any tissue or body part and ultimately, bypass disease. Cloning can also be beneficial to an infertile couple. New research has even shown that cloning can create a “younger” animal at birth. Human cloning is a resourceful tool that may “revolutionize the practice of western medicine” (Wolf, 2).
    Therapeutic cloning, if successful, has potential to be one of the most powerful tools invented. Therapeutic cloning can take a cell, “transfer a somatic nucleus into an enucleated oocyte” (Jaenisch, 3), and “generate cells, tissues, or organs that can be used in therapeutic context to replace or repair damage to tissue” (Wolf, 2). Therapeutic cloning eradicates the possibility of rejections because the cells created are made from their own cells. It also reduces the wait time for donated organs, tissues, and other transplants. Through regeneration, all kinds of tissues can be created to allow people to survive disease and possibly even eradicate it. “Therapeutic cloning has enormous potential” (Jaenisch, 3).
    Millions of infertile couples in the world are unable to experience the miracle of birth. Reproductive cloning is the closest possible alternative. Through reproductive cloning, the couple can live the experience of raising a child that is their own flesh and blood, literally. Some people are aware that they are a carrier of a recessive disease that may give their child a possibility of inheriting it. Cloning will evade this potential risk. Don Wolf, a senior scientist at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center states that, “There are legitimate interests on the part of the infertile couple, or the couple that’s carrying a recessive gene that they don’t want to transmit to their offspring, or even to parents who lose a young child or a situation like that.”
    There has been a lot of skepticism about premature cloned animals. The argument is that “during the normal process of aging, our cells’ chromosomes’ tips become shorter and shorter and when the tips of our chromosomes become too short, the cell dies and, in fact, the body containing those cells dies with it” (Silver, 3). Dolly, the first mammal ever cloned was born with slightly chromosomes with slightly shorter tips. Because of this, people believed that she was “prematurely aged” (Silver, 3). “Cloning rejuvenates the chromosomes of the cell that the chromosomes come from” (Silver, 3).
    As you can see, cloning is not a total immoral and unethical process. With the risks come astronomic benefits. Therapeutic cloning can regenerate cells for transplants and other bodily defects. It even has the potential to evade life-threatening diseases. Reproductive cloning can give an infertile couple, who may never experience bringing up a child, a child that they can call their own. Lastly, cloning can even extend the life of the clone and cell rejuvenation can provide health benefits as well. Clearly, cloning is process with lots of potential and can save lives, make people happy, and make us healthier and live longer.

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  22. David Powers
    In previous years there have been many disputes of whether or not human cloning would be beneficial or not to society. In my opinion it is definitely worth looking into. I can understand why you might not favor it but there is much more information supporting it. One of these possible outcomes is the generation of human organs and tissues. With this form of cloning finding a donor for a transplant would be very easy. Also one of the best uses of cloning would be that it would allow non fertile parents to have a child. Not only that but it can even make animals healthier and avoid chromosomal birth defects. These are all very beneficial uses and they definitely out way the negatives of cloning.
    In present day cloning scientists have started becoming more familiar with cloning and how to use it. They have discovered that it is possible to clone a human tissue or even an organ. As said by Don Wolf, “The objective of therapeutic cloning is to generate cells, tissues, or organs that can be used in a therapeutic context to replace or repair damage to tissue.” As stated by the quote therapeutic cloning is a fantastic way to replace damaged cells in the body. Also “What cloning will allow scientists to do in the future is to take a cell from your body and reprogram it- like rebooting a computer back to the embryonic state- and guide that cell to develop into a particular tissue or organ.”(Lee Silver) So in the future the possibilities of cloning are almost limitless. It allows you take one of your own cells and use it to create a new organ or tissue from where the cell came from. This means you can be your own donor so you don’t have to find one.
    With this new technology infertile parents can now have the opportunity to have the child they always wanted. As said by Lee Silver, “Cloning provides a way for sterile people to have biological offspring.” This is very important and will the opportunity they had always wanted. With cloning in the future it may even be possible to avoid giving your child a recessive gene that you don’t want them to have.” This will be very important to, “the couple that’s carrying a recessive gene that they don’t want to transmit to their offspring.” So with a little more research this would be a great cause and even help to stop a child from having the same unfortunate disease as their parents. If we continue at this rate there is no telling what else we will be able to do to help infertile parents.
    One of the best parts of cloning is that it may actually be able to help humans live longer and healthier and even avoid some terrible birth defects. As said by Lee Silver, “In fact, cloning rejuvenates the chromosomes of the cell that the chromosomes came from.” So actually cloning can help make animals even healthier than the animal they were cloned from. This was not yet tested on humans but because it had appeared this way on another mammal it is highly possible that it can work on us too. Also this new technology can greatly help to avoid serious chromosomal problems in children at birth. “Cloning bypasses the process of dividing the DNA in half, so you would expect animals produced by cloning to have fewer chromosomal problems, and you’d reduce that cause of birth defect.” ( Lee Silver) Once scientists master this, humans being born will actually have a lower chance of developing a terrible chromosomal disease.
    Overall Cloning benefits the society much more than it hurts it. One of these great benefits is the generation of human organs or tissues. This generation can save millions of lives in itself. Also it can finally give infertile parents a chance to have the child they always wanted. One of the most important benefits though is that it can even make animals healthier and avoid chromosomal birth defects. So overall this will be great for society and help it greatly.

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  23. Throughout history, scientists have made many breakthroughs and discoveries in science and people have always welcomed it, until now. Many people think that cloning humans is a very bad thing, but human cloning can have many beneficial uses in society. For example, cloning can bypass certain birth defects and genetic disorders that could be very crippling to people. Also, couples that can’t have children without adopting or sperm donor can now have one. Lastly, human cloning can save lives and treat many diseases. Diseases such as leukemia can possibly be treated easily now. Inherited diseases or conditions can also be easily treated and/or avoided.
    Cloning human may reduce the number of genetic disorders in this country and around the world. Disorders such as Huntington’s, sickle cell anemia and many others that are very dangerous to people, will soon be a thing of the past. This is because genetic disorders happen when the mother and the father contribute to the child’s DNA and if the gene for that disorder is recessive the child will have a 25percent chance that he or she might get it. When you’re cloning someone you are taking DNA from one parent so that would likely reduce the chance that the offspring will have a genetic disorder because again if the gene for that disorder is recessive and if you take DNA from a person that doesn’t not have the gene for disorder then the child whose DNA comes from that person will have a 100percent chance of not getting the disorder. Also, DR. Silver said, “Cloning bypasses the process of dividing the DNA in half, so you would expect animals produced by cloning to have fewer chromosomal problems, and you'd reduce that cause of birth defect.” So this is how some birth defects such as autism or Down syndrome could be avoided or greatly reduced. So with some of the most devastating conditions gone human lives can be greatly improved. Another way that human cloning can help people is that it helps infertile couples have children.

    In the world many couples are infertile and therefore can’t have children, without adopting or getting a sperm donor. But with human cloning scientists can now have just a sample of a person and turn that sample into an embryo and the put it into a mother and soon the mother can have a baby. Also, single women who don’t want to get married but wanted a baby, but not through sperm donation which can carry diseases said by Dr. Silver, can also do the same thing. Since she’s is going to raise the baby by herself she might as well have the baby’s DNA the same as hers. So this would make everyone who had ever wanted children very happy. Cloning can also make people happy in other ways such that this technology can possibly save lives.
    Human cloning has the ability to save lives because Dr. Jaenisch said, that cloning can “Generate many different body cell types—nerve cells, heart muscle cells or pancreas cells that could be used to treat Parkinson's, cardiac diseases, or diabetes in the donor.” For example if you have leukemia, the only way get treatment is through a bone marrow transplant, but if the bone marrow is not the right type your body will reject it and you will possibly die. But with cloning you now can make a genetic copy of yourself and take its bone marrow and transfer it onto you and you would live. Dr. Wolf said, “If you look at the lists of patients who are waiting for transplants of various organs, and then you think of the possibilities that you could treat them straight away through therapeutic cloning, you begin to get a sense of the potential of this technology.” So people that who are in need of a kidney transplant can now have one very quickly and there wouldn’t be a waiting list and nobody would die because of it. Also, this technology even more developed into curing diseases such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.
    So you see human cloning can be a very beneficial tool in human lives. Cloning can bypass many genetic disorders and it can reduce birth defects. Infertile couples and single women can now have children by themselves without adopting or using sperm donations. Lastly, the technology can be used to save many lives in the world by treating diseases such as Parkinson’s and possibly Alzheimer’s. So you see human cloning can be very beneficial to human lives every single day.

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  24. Star Wars, Star Trek, and the future ages. These are things normally associated with the idea of cloning. However, the future is now! When Dolly, a cloned goat, was born in 1997 it sent shockwaves full of questions and moral dilemmas through the world. “What's next? Commentators asked. Could human beings now begin making carbon copies of themselves? If so, will those with the means use cloning to essentially cheat mortality?” (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/baby/cloning.html) and most importantly are humans really fit and ready to play God? The answer is no. Humans are not ready for cloning because there are way too many errors with cloning at the moment, also cloning breaks a large moral code, lastly cloning is not based upon “good science”.
    First, although dolly represents one of the very first successful cloning projects there are many animals that have birth defects as a result from cloning. As Dr. Lee Silver says,
    “It's perfectly clear that if cloning works in every other mammal in which it's been tried, it will work in human beings. But at the moment, there is a pretty high frequency of birth defects in these other animals. There are a large number of cloned calves that are born too big and have health problems.”
    These calves that have the defects cannot live normal cow lives! Do we want to be responsible for this? No. Dr. Lee Silver is correct; there are way too many technical problems with cloning for it to be performed on humans. This concern is only backed up by Dr. Don Wolf’s words, “if we extrapolate from what we know about reproductive cloning in other mammalian species, we would say that there is huge risk for fetal demise. There's also significant risk that the neonate [the newborn child] will have a low survival rate.” Having a low successful birthrate is not only un-acceptable for other animals as well as humans! Cloning cannot continue as long as there is still a very imminent threat of birth defects.

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  25. Although it seems like something that one would only hear about in works of fiction, the practice of cloning animals (and very soon humans) is slowly becoming a reality. With the creation of Dolly, the first cloned Sheep, came the controversy of animal cloning- is it ethical? Is it right to create a carbon copy of something else? Are we undoing the wonders that Mother Nature crafted? Dr. Lee Silver, a molecular biologist from Princeton University doesn’t seem to think so. According to him, cloning is a great deal of help to infertile couples, the bypassing of certain genetic disabilities, and in overcoming various diseases. And I fully agree with his standpoint- animal cloning is an ethical practice.
    The process of cloning can work wonders- infertile couples can now reproduce thanks to it. The Italian doctor, Severino Antinori is determined progress a method of human cloning which would give an opportunity to couples - who cannot use test tube fertilization because the male produces no sperm - to have a baby. Genetic material from the father is injected into the egg. From there, the egg would be placed in the woman’s womb to grow into a baby. This is not to be confused with a practice already being done, in which scientists are able to pick and choose the best genes to put into the egg from various sperm cells of the father; in this case, the father cannot produce sperm and it is necessary to use identical genetic information. The baby will probably be identical to the father, but as Silver said, it will be a completely different person. A human is shaped as much by is peers and his environment as he is by his genetics.
    Furthermore, the usage of cloning can help get rid of genetic diseases. “A major cause of birth defects is that when the sperm and eggs are being made, their genetic material is being divided in half, and in that process, sometimes the division doesn't work exactly right, and sometimes eggs or sperm end up with one too many chromosomes, and that causes birth defects,” says Dr. Silver. The process of cloning would make the 4% rate of genetic defects among babies a 2% rate, because cloning cuts the genetic variability in half since only one parent is giving up the genes. In addition, for diseases such as sickle-cell or cystic fibrosis, in which parents can be carriers without having the disease itself, the threat of giving the disease to your child can be bypassed with cloning. If the adult is merely a carrier as opposed to a possessor, the child will be as well.
    Last but not least, cloning can help overcome some non-genetic diseases as well. Silver speaks of leukemia. The patient needs a bone marrow transplant, and it can’t be just anyone. If the bone marrow is too foreign, then the patient’s body will reject it. “What cloning will allow scientists to do in the future is to take a cell from your body and reprogram it—like rebooting a computer back to the embryonic state—and guide that cell to develop into a particular tissue or organ,” says Silver. In essence, you are giving someone something that was rightfully his or hers; you are merely taking his or her own cells that he donated in the first place and using it to rebuild his or her bone marrow. This also applies to diseases such as Parkinson’s. And what’s more is that scientists, for the most part, agree that this is a perfectly practical and useful application of this technology.
    Ultimately, it comes down to the argument of nature versus technology. Many will argue that we are playing God when we choose exactly what our offspring will look like. Dr. Don Wolf has reservations about the science since it is dangerous to the embryos- well, science has to start somewhere, and I am sure that eventually such a danger can be eliminated if we give more attention to the research. The first step, according to another scientist (Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch), is to determine whether or not is safe in animals- only then can we begin to convince the skeptical scientists who oppose it that it is indeed a useful practice. I, however, believe that the practical uses of cloning far outweigh anything else. The gift of life can be given to couples who have lost hope, genetic diseases that seemed inevitable can now be prevented, and many a diseased person can be given help. Cloning is a relatively new technology, and I believe that it will meet nothing but success in the future.

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  26. Human cloning is a very controversial issue. In fact, many scientists are debating over it including Dr. Lee Silver, Dr. Don Wolf, and Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch. These three scientists presented their personal point of opinions on cloning in an article entitled “On Human Cloning: Three Views.” This article offered the pros and cons on human cloning. After reading this article it was concluded that human cloning should be used since it provides so many beneficial purposes to the scientific community. Some uses for cloning include reproductive cloning, therapeutic cloning, and cloning can help people avoid diseases.
    Reproductive cloning will allow couples who have not had success with infertility treatments to have children. This use of human cloning has been widely supported by all three doctors. Reproductive cloning would allow the birth of a child who would be genetically equivalent only in genes to somebody else, meaning that the child will be their own person and have their own ideas. Therefore, there is no moral issue in cloning humans because scientists are only copying genes and not the personality or soul of a person. In fact, “there are millions of human clones walking the face of the Earth right now,” (Dr. Lee Silver). These human clones are called identical twins, who have no problem with their own individuality. Consequently, human cloning can be thought of as having a later born identical twin. Dr. Don Wolf stated, “So the risk factors all pertain to the likelihood that you’re going to produce an abnormal child.” However, this is not true according to Dr. Lee Silver. In reality, no one would know that the child was a clone unless they were told so. In addition, if there was a problem with human cloning it would be easy enough to solve. As long as the cause of the conflict is understood, then one should be able to select embryos at the outset that are not going to have the abnormality. Thus, abnormalities in cloning should not pose a problem. To sum it all up, reproductive cloning would be very beneficial to couples who have been unsuccessful with infertility treatments.
    Besides reproductive cloning, there is also therapeutic cloning. This type of human cloning deals less with babies and more with growing embryonic stem cells into vital organs, blood, and tissue. With these organs, blood, and tissues doctors then use them for transplants, transfusions, and othere replacement interventions. This is very useful and efficient because as Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch stated, “They wouldn’t be rejected because they would be immunologically identical to the donor.” When a person is given replacement interventions, such as bone marrow, from another person, their system usually rejects it. This is a result of the replacement not having the same genetic material as the sick person. Therefore, the body recognizes it as foreign and rejects it. However, if the replacement had the same genetic material then there would be no rejection. The cloned organs, blood, and tissue will have the same genetic material as the sick person; consequently, the person would avoid having the replacement intervention rejected because doctors are essentially giving the patient their own blood, and organs. Therapeutic cloning is very useful because all kinds of tissue could be regenerated through the cloning process, which would allow people to survive some terrible diseases.
    Human cloning also allows people to avoid diseases. Some parents are unknowingly carriers for a debilitating disease, such as Huntington’s Chorea and cystic fibroses. If they have children by usual means, then 25 percent of their children will have the disease as well. It is possible to use cloning to avoid this predicament. If the adult does not have the disease but is a carrier, then the cloned child will not have the disease but it will carry it. Moreover, cloning can also decrease the number of birth defects as stated by Dr. Lee Silver, “Cloning bypasses the process of dividing the DNA in half, so you would expect animals produced by cloning to have fewer chromosomal problems, and you’d reduce that cause of birth defect.” Usually genetic material is divided in half to make a baby. This sometimes results in birth defects. However, by cloning it would be possible to avoid this dilemma because cloning only copies one set of chromosomes instead of dividing the DNA in half. Therefore, there would be less birth defects in cloned children, which makes it very valuable and sensible.
    Human cloning would be worthwhile for everyone. It can help people conceive babies, survive diseases, and altogether avoid diseases. Thus, human cloning should be used because it provides so many important uses.

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  27. Human cloning is a very controversial issue. In fact, many scientists are debating over it including Dr. Lee Silver, Dr. Don Wolf, and Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch. These three scientists presented their personal point of opinions on cloning in an article entitled “On Human Cloning: Three Views.” This article offered the pros and cons on human cloning. After reading this article it was concluded that human cloning should be used since it provides so many beneficial purposes to the scientific community. Some uses for cloning include reproductive cloning, therapeutic cloning, and cloning can help people avoid diseases.
    Reproductive cloning will allow couples who have not had success with infertility treatments to have children. This use of human cloning has been widely supported by all three doctors. Reproductive cloning would allow the birth of a child who would be genetically equivalent only in genes to somebody else, meaning that the child will be their own person and have their own ideas. Therefore, there is no moral issue in cloning humans because scientists are only copying genes and not the personality or soul of a person. In fact, “there are millions of human clones walking the face of the Earth right now,” (Dr. Lee Silver). These human clones are called identical twins, who have no problem with their own individuality. Consequently, human cloning can be thought of as having a later born identical twin. Dr. Don Wolf stated, “So the risk factors all pertain to the likelihood that you’re going to produce an abnormal child.” However, this is not true according to Dr. Lee Silver. In reality, no one would know that the child was a clone unless they were told so. In addition, if there was a problem with human cloning it would be easy enough to solve. As long as the cause of the conflict is understood, then one should be able to select embryos at the outset that are not going to have the abnormality. Thus, abnormalities in cloning should not pose a problem. To sum it all up, reproductive cloning would be very beneficial to couples who have been unsuccessful with infertility treatments.
    Besides reproductive cloning, there is also therapeutic cloning. This type of human cloning deals less with babies and more with growing embryonic stem cells into vital organs, blood, and tissue. With these organs, blood, and tissues doctors then use them for transplants, transfusions, and othere replacement interventions. This is very useful and efficient because as Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch stated, “They wouldn’t be rejected because they would be immunologically identical to the donor.” When a person is given replacement interventions, such as bone marrow, from another person, their system usually rejects it. This is a result of the replacement not having the same genetic material as the sick person. Therefore, the body recognizes it as foreign and rejects it. However, if the replacement had the same genetic material then there would be no rejection. The cloned organs, blood, and tissue will have the same genetic material as the sick person; consequently, the person would avoid having the replacement intervention rejected because doctors are essentially giving the patient their own blood, and organs. Therapeutic cloning is very useful because all kinds of tissue could be regenerated through the cloning process, which would allow people to survive some terrible diseases.
    Human cloning also allows people to avoid diseases. Some parents are unknowingly carriers for a debilitating disease, such as Huntington’s Chorea and cystic fibroses. If they have children by usual means, then 25 percent of their children will have the disease as well. It is possible to use cloning to avoid this predicament. If the adult does not have the disease but is a carrier, then the cloned child will not have the disease but it will carry it. Moreover, cloning can also decrease the number of birth defects as stated by Dr. Lee Silver, “Cloning bypasses the process of dividing the DNA in half, so you would expect animals produced by cloning to have fewer chromosomal problems, and you’d reduce that cause of birth defect.” Usually genetic material is divided in half to make a baby. This sometimes results in birth defects. However, by cloning it would be possible to avoid this dilemma because cloning only copies one set of chromosomes instead of dividing the DNA in half. Therefore, there would be less birth defects in cloned children, which makes it very valuable and sensible.
    Human cloning would be worthwhile for everyone. It can help people conceive babies, survive diseases, and altogether avoid diseases. Thus, human cloning should be used because it provides so many important uses.

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  28. People have been afraid of human cloning since long before it was a legitimate possibility. This is because many people’s view of cloning has been shaped by the evil not-quite people often written about in campy science-fiction novels. However, the reality of cloning is very far from the common perception. The truth is that cloning could allow infertile couples with no other recourse to have children. It could allow people with horrible inheritable diseases to prevent their children from inheriting them. Also, it could help people to create organs for themselves that their immune systems would not reject. Cloning is not something to be frightened of, but rather it is the wave of the future which could render everything that is currently known about medicine obsolete.
    There are many people in the world that, for whatever reason, cannot naturally conceive or carry to term a child. This is incredibly unfortunate, because if someone wants to have a child, they should be able to. In vitro fertilization has solved the problem of infertility for many couples, but there are still those, such as homosexual couples without a surrogate mother, who still cannot reproduce. Cloning has the potential to fix this problem. As Dr. Lee Silver says, cloning could “allow the birth of a child who would be genetically equivalent only in genes to somebody else who already existed” (Silver). This child would not have the same personality as the parent, but rather would just have the same genetic makeup. Dr. Silver also goes on to say that “the environment acts upon and modifies the genetic endowment, and there's a third component, our own consciousness, which allows us to go against both our genes and our environment,” meaning that just because two people have the same genes does not mean that they will have the same personalities (Silver). There is no reason to limit someone’s ability to bring a child into the world. Cloning would make this possible for many people for whom a genetically related child would otherwise be impossible.
    Many Ashkenazi Jews contain the recessive gene for a disease known as Tay - Sachs disease. This is a horrible and fatal genetic disease, and if two people with this recessive gene have a child, that child has a 25% likelihood of having Tay – Sachs disease (NIH). There are also other genetic diseases, such as sickle-cell anemia, which are passed on in a similar way. Cloning could allow parents to pick out these genetic disorders, and make sure that they and their child do not have to suffer the pain that comes with these diseases. As Dr. Don Wolf, who is against human cloning, says, “the couple that's carrying a recessive gene that they don't want to transmit to their offspring… I can be sympathetic to those kinds of interests and consider them legitimate” (Wolf). Dr. Wolf believes that cloning is morally supportable if it is done for humanitarian purposes, and this use of cloning would certainly go under the category of ‘humanitarian.’
    The most compelling argument for human cloning is the idea that, eventually, humans could be their own organ donors. As Dr. Wolf says, “If you look at the lists of patients who are waiting for transplants of various organs, and then you think of the possibilities that you could treat them straight away through therapeutic cloning, you begin to get a sense of the potential of this technology” (Wolf). Therapeutic cloning would allow people waiting for organs to get the organs quickly, and not face the significant risk that the organ will be rejected. This technology could help to cure any number of diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular issues, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s (Wolf). Morally and ethically, the ability to cure these diseases cannot be ignored because the method is ‘unnatural.’ It is the obligation of the scientific community to pursue any avenue which could alleviate people’s suffering, and that is what therapeutic cloning could do.
    There are those who say that human cloning is ‘bad science.’ These people say that cloning works inefficiently, and that some cloned animals grow to be abnormally large or short-lived (Jaenisch). This may be true at the moment. Cloning might be an imprecise science for now (Jaenisch). However, this technology will continue to develop, and one day it will be unleashed as a powerful tool that can ease suffering and pain, both actual and potential. When this day comes, how can cloning be ignored? The Hippocratic Oath, which all new doctors must take, states “I will come for the benefit of the sick” (PBS). Once the process of cloning is perfected, and is an accepted treatment option, it will be covered by this statement in the Hippocratic Oath, and it will be the responsibility of all caregivers to use this new technology to the best of their abilities to help society as a whole.

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  29. Is Human Cloning Beneficial To Society
    The idea of human cloning has been thought of as a possibility since Dolly was created. Dolly was the first animal cloned from a single adult animal cell. Since Dolly’s creation, many other organisms have been cloned, except humans. Human cloning has created a great deal of controversy within the scientific community. It has been established that it will be possible to clone humans, but scientists fear of the impact to society human cloning might create. Human cloning would have a positive effect on society because it would give anyone the ability to have a biological child, organs to people who suffer from a deficient organ, and people the ability to stop the transmission of genetic diseases to their children.
    One of the reasons why human cloning would benefit humanity is that human cloning will give couples or single parents the ability to have a biological child. Some argue that this is an inefficient process. However, when vitro fertilization was first tested, it had less than a 1% success rate. “Doctors who developed this technology went through the first 103 women without a single success, and, finally, on the 104th time, they got a success” (Silver). However, Ian Wilmut [who orchestrated the birth of Dolly] put cloned embryos into 13 surrogate mothers, and one got pregnant and had offspring. “The success rate of cloning was much greater in the very first experiment than the original success rate of IVF” (Silver). Others believe that human cloning will cause premature aging. This is because “the tips of her [Dolly] chromosomes were a little bit shorter than one would expect for animals her age” (Silver). However, Dolly’s chromosomes were in the normal range. Based on this evidence, human cloning will be an effective process to allow any person to have biological offspring.
    Another reason why human cloning would benefit humanity is that human cloning could be used to prevent the transmission of genetic diseases from parents to their children. “I think there are legitimate interests on the part of the infertile couple, or the couple that's carrying a recessive gene that they don't want to transmit to their offspring, or even to parents who lose a young child or a situation like that” (Wolf). This is possible because of how cloning works. “Cloning bypasses the process of dividing the DNA in half, so you would expect animals produced by cloning to have fewer chromosomal problems, and you'd reduce that cause of birth defect” (Silver). “The other birth defect problem is caused when two parents unknowingly are carriers for a disease like sickle-cell anemia or cystic fibrosis, and then 25 percent of their children are going to have that awful disease. With cloning you bypass that” (Silver).
    Human cloning can benefit society in how cloning can be used for therapeutic purposes too. “The objective of therapeutic cloning is to generate cells, tissues, or organs that can be used in a therapeutic context to replace or repair damage to tissue” (Wolf). “To do therapeutic cloning one would also transfer a somatic nucleus into an enucleated oocyte to create a cloned embryo, but instead of implanting this embryo one would transfer it to a petri dish to develop into an embryonic stem cell. This embryonic stem cell could be used for therapeutic purposes, for example, as a source for generating many different body cell types—nerve cells, heart muscle cells or pancreas cells that could be used to treat Parkinson's, cardiac diseases, or diabetes in the donor” (Jaenisch).
    In conclusion, human cloning would have a positive effect on humanity. This can be seen in how human cloning would give anyone the ability to have a biological child, organs to people who suffer from a deficient organ, and people the ability to stop the transmission of genetic diseases to their children. Like any type of science, human cloning can be abused. However, with government regulation, human cloning can become one of the most imperative sciences in our society.

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  30. Jennifer Dalecki
    Advanced SRP Period 6
    March 18, 2009

    Dear Ms. Day,
    In recent years, science has made many developments regarding cloning research, or the process of reproducing an offspring that is genetically equivalent to an organism that already exists. In 1997, scientists saw their first successfully cloned mammals. This new development sent an emotional and intellectual shock throughout the entirety of the world. Many individuals were horrified, fearing that in the near future, individuals would be creating multiple carbon copies of themselves and their loved ones. This practice, to many individuals seemed as though it was morally and ethically repugnant. While some were criticizing the morality and ethics of cloning, other people were greatly excited by the prospect of cloning and the enormous benefits that human cloning might bring to society. It is important to examine both sides of this issue, weigh the drawbacks and the benefits, before choosing a specific stance on the controversial issue of human cloning. With society’s mixed feelings in regards to human cloning, the development of a mixed opinion is inevitable. I am neither explicitly for nor against human cloning, rather do I feel that human cloning is acceptable with further research and studies. Human cloning is worthwhile because it can allow individuals who could otherwise not have children, to have a child, it can enhance the health of a future generation, and lastly cloning can be used to help treat current health issues.

    To begin, human cloning can be used to give individuals who want children, but cannot have children, a child. Cloning uses genetic information. This genetic information provides children with physical characteristics and even predispositions to certain behaviors. Though clones have identical genetic information as their parents, they have different behavioral habits much like identical twins. Typically, if a couple cannot have a child, they must undergo excessive fertility treatments that are not always successful. With human cloning, infertile couples can have a biological offspring. Cloning technology will eventually overcome even the worst cases of sterility by transforming a skin cell in a sperm cell, which would “allow people to do what they always wanted to do, which is to have children with their partner” (Silver). Cloning also holds the benefit of allowing the few cases in which people do not have a designated partner and want to have a child on their own. This would permit a woman to skip the process of sperm donation, which could bring in all sorts of diseases and hazardous health risks. Cloning currently comes hand in hand with various health risks for the fetus. Many studies using other mammals have found that the offspring are born too large, too small, or with other severe health problems. Other research has found the practice to be somewhat inefficient. With that, it may not be the time to begin cloning humans, but with further research new, safer methods will be uncovered and it is “certainly something to revisit later in time” (Wolf).
    Although human cloning is currently prone to fostering offspring with various birth defects, in the future cloning can help enhance the health of the fetus. In the normal course of reproduction, approximately four percent of children are born with birth defects; the underlying cause of these defects being when the sperm and the eggs are being made, their genetic material is divided in half. During the course of this division, complications occur and the offspring ends up with an extra chromosome, which may cause birth defects. Cloning can help prevent a fetus from inheriting a recessive gene that they don’t want to transmit to their offspring. Cloning allows one to sidestep the process of dividing the DNA in half, which could would produce offspring with fewer chromosomal issues and, therefore, reduce the cause of birth defect. Another birth defect is caused when parents are unaware of being carriers of genetic disorders, like sickle anemia or cystic fibrosis. When two parents are carriers of a genetic disease, “then 25 percent of their children are going to have that disease” (Silver). Cloning can help reduce this figure by allowing doctors to pick and choose healthy cells, which would result in fewer children being born with these life-altering illnesses. Cloning can undoubtedly help reduce potential birth defects.

    Lastly, the benefits of cloning go beyond reproduction. Therapeutic cloning does not involve babies and offspring, but rather involves growing embryonic stem cells into vital organs, tissue, and blood. This process would allow scientists to take a cell from your body, reprogram it, and develop that cell into a specific organ. Then, you could guide the cell back into the body of the donor, so you are essentially giving the donor his or her own organ. This would be very beneficial because oftentimes in transplants, the new organ does not properly adapt to a body due to the replacement organ not having the same genetic material as the person receiving the organ. With therapeutic cloning, “[An organ] wouldn’t be rejected because they would be immunologically identical to the donor” (Jaenisch). Using such technology, patients with Parkinson’s disease would be getting his or her own neurons, diabetic patients could be provided with insulin-producing cells, patients with cardiovascular issues could be treated with stem cells, and the list goes on and on. All in all, therapeutic cloning and the regeneration of genetically similar organs, tissues, and blood, “has the potential to revolutionize the practice of Western medicine” (Wolf).

    In conclusion, cloning is especially beneficial. Cloning technology can eventually help infertile couples have healthy children, enhance the health of a fetus, and grow organs, tissues, and blood, which bodies will readily accept. With a little more research to work out any kinks, cloning will become exceptionally worthwhile.
    Thank you,
    Jennifer Dalecki

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  31. Joanie Kim
    03/20/09
    Cloning
    Period Six

    Human Cloning

    The controversy concerning the cloning of human beings has become a tremendously debated issue among the scientific community and throughout the rest of the world. Much research with cloning mammalian animals has proved to yield a low survival rate among the baby clones showing that the same results would occur in mammalian human baby clones. Cloned animals have also shown to have birth defects that either appear immediately at birth or develop later in their lives. However, contrasting to the negative aspects of cloning phenotypes, therapeutic cloning could produce human stem cells that are greatly needed by ailing people, treating and curing them of various diseases. Because of the probable harmful and unethical results of cloning phenotypes, human cloning should be done solely to the extent of generating organs and such parts of the body for stem cells to be a therapeutic benefit to mankind.
    Cloning is a very inefficient science. Most mammalian animal clones have died even before birth. Some clones do survive until they are born, but they then die after a few days, and some lucky ones, weeks later. Only a very slim and few percent of cloned animals make it to the stage of adulthood. Humans are mammals also, so it can be predicted that similar effects would occur in human clones. (Jaenisch) Dr. Rudolph Jaenisch, a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and a professor of biology at MIT, has even gone to the extent of saying, “To try to clone humans, especially now when we know only a little about cloning, could potentially be a disaster.” If people were to clone humans as offspring, many families would suffer through so much heartache and suffering. To even impregnate a woman would take much time and effort, and then afterwards, there would be such a large possibility for the fetus to die in the womb. If the baby were to be born, so that the families would really begin to love the baby, it would most likely just die. The families of the cloned babies would experience suffering to a far too great extent. To clone humans as phenotypes would truly be a disaster.
    Additionally to the low survival rate, the negative and disastrous effect of birth defects is present among mammalian clones. Even though so few clones survive, amid them, many have defects that either are present at birth or develop later in their lives. Most clones that do make it to survival are abnormal in some way. They may grow abnormally large, suffer respiratory problems, or have heart and circulatory abnormalities. (Jaenisch) There are a large number of cloned calves that are born too big and have health problems. Also, there is an obesity condition in cloned mice that seems to be age-onset. (Wolf) As long as the frequency of birth and developing defects is high, and scientists can’t control it, it would be unethical to use the cloning technology to try to bring about the birth of a human child. The cloned children, apart from being abnormal as just being clones rather than real people, would suffer from health problems. They would either be physically in pain or suffer from taunting of malicious peers. The lives of clones would be too painful and too filled with suffering. Rather than a gift, it would be a sin for scientists to create people that would most likely suffer.
    However, unlike the negative effects of cloning, the technology could be useful and extremely beneficial to the human population, if used only to produce body parts and not full phenotypes. There are people in the world who are suffering from diseases of all kinds, and many of them would either stop suffering or even live if they were to receive some type of body part that they do not have or do not have working properly. The lists of people who are waiting for organ transplants are endless. These people are waiting for a body part that is similar to the ones that they have or had, so that their bodies won’t reject them. If therapeutic cloning were to use stem cells to create the body parts that the transplant patients need, they patients wouldn’t have to wait. The cloning would allow for scientists to take a cell from one’s body and reprogram it and guide it to develop into a particular tissue or organ. Because that organ or tissue is from the person who would receive it, his or her body would not reject it. This method could be used for patients having cardiovascular problems, for people with leukemia, who are waiting for bone marrow transplants, people with diabetes who need insulin-producing cells, and people with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s, who need corrected neurons. (Silver) Also, scientists could also use the cloned tissues to study the various diseases for more information about how to cure them. So much of the world would not have to suffer or die if therapeutic cloning becomes successful and prevalent.
    Cloning people only to the extent of cloning organs and tissues should be done, helping numerous amounts of suffering patients who are in pain or would die. Cloning full phenotypes of humans should not be done for it would cause too much disaster and pain. The cloning of mammalian animals has proved to yield a low survival rate among the baby clones showing that the same results would occur in mammalian human baby clones. Cloned animals have also shown to have birth defects that either appear immediately at birth or develop later in their lives. However, therapeutic cloning could produce human stem cells that are greatly needed by ailing people, treating and curing them of various diseases. Human cloning to the extent of using stem cells for tissues and organs would be the solution to many suffering and ailing people throughout the world.

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  32. Dear Ms. Day,
    There is a worldwide debate over cloning and whether or not we should do more research on the subject. Some scientists think of it as flawed and lacking proper research to be considered a viable form of reproduction, while others argue that it can further our research on disease and will eventually assist infertile women to have children without the need of a donor. The positive outcomes can outweigh the negative effects of cloning. For one, it can help single or infertile women have children with out the need for a sperm cell. This means there is less risk for genetic defect in the meiotic process and less risk of disease from the male counterpart. Cloning can also help treat a disease that someone may have. If a patient has an illness that is destroying certain cells, scientists can recreate those cells, using therapeutic cloning, and inject them into the patient. Finally, cloning will not create identical copies of people who already exist. Contrary to common belief, clones are genetically identical to their parent, yes, but the setting in which they are raised will make them a different person with different ideas and thoughts. Cloning can be very beneficial for people with harmful diseases, helping infertile women have children, and creating a socially diverse population.
    There are many middle-aged women who are single, but would like to have a child at the same time. One of their options is to use a male donor. This is a viable option, but most of the natural birth defects are caused by a mistake in the meiotic division (Silver, Lee). This means that there is a small chance that there could be an issue with the creation of the egg cell, or there could be an issue with the creation of the sperm cell. Although these risks are small, they can be avoided by cloning. If scientists take a normal cell, they can create a clone of the person who relinquished this cell. They can do so without sexually dividing the cell, so this reduces the risk of natural birth defects. Another positive effect of cloning is that the risk of a carrier giving their child a disease is eliminated. If two carriers for a certain disease have a child, there is a one in four chance that this baby will have the disease (Silver, Lee). However, if a clone was made of a cell, then the clone would have the carrier gene as well, not the actually disease. This would be effective at disease prevention. Also, the male donor for a natural creation might have diseases. The mother would risk infecting her future child, whom she would raise by herself, with a disease that could be harmful (Silver, Lee). If this step could be bypassed by just creating a clone, the mother would not have to worry about diseases that a strange male donor may have. There are many dangerous steps to producing a child naturally, and most of this could be relatively avoided by cloning.
    Reproductive cloning is not only used in humans, but in animals as well. If we can successfully produce genetically identical mammals, we could use them for testing vaccines and drugs. They "level the genetic playing field” as well as reduce the number of animals needed, which would be very helpful (Wolf, Don). This means that we could use reproductive cloning to aid research on common diseases, but we could also use therapeutic cloning to treat common diseases. Scientists can provide diabetic patients with insulin-producing cells to help make insulin, and they can help treat neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease (Wolf, Don). This works by placing a cloned embryo in a petri dish, where it would grow into stem cells. These can then be used to replace dead cells and help cure multiple diseases (Jaenisch, Rudolf). For instance, if someone has Leukemia, and his or her cells are dying inside the bone, a cell can be removed from this person’s body, and marrow cells can be produced. Then, the newly produced, healthy bone marrow cells can be injected inside the bone, and this would help cure Leukemia (Silver, Lee). If you take the cells from the patient, a match would be ensured, and the body would not reject the newly formed marrow. It’s like identical twins. They are an exact match for each other, so they would be able to donate marrow to each other. That is essentially what therapeutic cloning is. The scientists basically grow a twin of the patient in a petri dish and harness the marrow. The only difference is that “…it is not a fetus, just a mass of tissue” (Silver, Lee). Both therapeutic and reproductive cloning can aid research and help cure potentially fatal diseases.
    When the most people think of the word clone, they think of an exact copy of another person with the same appearance, ideas, and thoughts. Well, a clone is just someone with the same genetic information as another person, so they will look relatively similar, but genetic information is only a basis for someone’s life (Silver, Lee). They will be different people than their parent, and they will be raised in a different social atmosphere. As Silver said, “It would be like a later born twin, except the social relationship would be different, because the child would probably be born to a person who would want to treat it as a child, rather than a twin” (Silver, Lee). This means that they will be raised in a different environment and will be treated as an individual child. Instead of identical people running around the planet with the same exact thoughts and the same personalities, there would be people with similar personalities and different thoughts. That means a socially diverse population, rather than a homogenous species, would be in existence. Really, there would be no difference than now. These people with identical genetic information would be at different points in their lives at the same time, so they have different current events affecting their mentality at different points in their lives. It is for these reasons that the population would remain as diverse as it is now.
    Human cloning would be extremely beneficial to humans. Both therapeutic and reproductive cloning would help research and cure diseases. The cloning would provide someone with an automatic match of the cells or organ they are looking for. Cloning is also beneficial for single mothers. They would be able to produce children with the same genetic information as themselves, which means there is a reduced risk of defects caused by the meiotic process as well as no risk of a disease from the male donor. Finally, cloning would create a population as diverse as it is now. A main worry with cloning is that everyone would conform into one large homogenous mass that would not be able to think for themselves, but the thoughts and ideas that people have are influenced by their upbringing more than their genes. I truly hope that you would decide to endorse human cloning with your three billion dollar donation to the scientific community.
    Sincerely,
    Peter Amadeo

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  33. Gregory Loscalzo

    Human Cloning


    Dear State Representative,

    As technology and scientific advances, the scientific community is constantly faced with a question of ethics: is this scientific enterprise ethical; in other words, will it benefit society, or be a detriment? Today, that scientific enterprise about which we must make a decision is human cloning. Dolly the cloned sheep ushered in this debate in 1997, and as scientific progress continues, this question must soon be answered: will human cloning be something beneficial to society? However, given an evaluation of the facts, the answer ought to become clear. Human cloning will benefit society because it will have positive social effects and positive effects in terms of health and because the risks associated with human cloning are negligible.

    First of all, human cloning will have positive social effects, overall. Human cloning can give couples who would otherwise struggle with infertility the chance at having the child they so desire. Lee Silver sums this up nicely: “This [human cloning] means that we will be able to overcome the worst cases of sterility and then allow people to do what they always wanted to do, which is to have children with their partner” (Silver). Also, in terms of the social effects, concerns have been raised about the possibility of egomaniacs attempting to cheat death by cloning themselves; to this, the only appropriate response is this: “perhaps; what of it?” Again, Silver has a concise description of the process of such an egomaniacal man duplicating himself: “First, he's going to have to find a surrogate mother to gestate the embryo and fetus. Then this child is going to be born. It's going to be a little boy, who grows up into a big boy, who doesn't listen to his father” (Silver). The point to take away from this is that death will not have been cheated, but rather only genetics preserved; in no way would this harm society. Furthermore, scientific progress is what spurs the world onward; cultural advancements and all types of innovations occur concurrently with and often because of scientific enterprises. Even partial critics, such as Don Wolf, who says that “human reproductive cloning to me is totally inappropriate at the present time,” admits that the simple matter of ensuring that the proper oversight of these advancing technologies would turn the tides for him in favor of human cloning (Wolf). The same Wolf cites that research involving the cloning of animals (including his own involving rhesus monkeys) has served as a spectacular means of acquiring novel insights into such questions as whether nature or nurture plays a larger role in psychological development (Wolf), and there is no reason why this should not hold true with human cloning, which would mean, among other things, that human cloning could itself help to decipher deeply woven mysteries of the human consciousness. Such increased understanding is undoubtedly beneficial to society.

    Second of all, the potential for health benefits of human cloning is vast. Cloning can help in terms of reproduction by removing the risk of dangerous genetic diseases of which parents are carriers being passed to their children (Silver). Additionally, the cloning of individual human tissues for purposes of restorative medical procedures, such as bone marrow transplants and repairing parts of the body including crucial brain tissue that has been destroyed by a degenerative disease or otherwise, would eliminate the current difficulty with these procedures: the recipient of the tissue rejecting the genetically unfamiliar material (Silver). For example, “If you have leukemia, you will die unless you can find a bone-marrow transplant” (Silver). (As a survivor of acute lymphoblastic leukemia myself, and therefore the recipient of a bone marrow transplant, I know exactly what Silver means.) These and other advancements could revolutionize modern medicine. Don Wolf explains the potential benefits of the use of so-called therapeutic cloning: “If you look at the lists of patients who are waiting for transplants of various organs, and then you think of the possibilities that you could treat them straight away through therapeutic cloning, you begin to get a sense of the potential of this technology” (Wolf).

    Lastly, the risks to human cloning are negligible; were this not the case, human cloning would not be beneficial to society. Although it is true that cloning technology in mammalian animals has faced disappointingly large rates of mortality, as only out of the thirteen sheep acting as surrogate mothers into whom cloned embryos were placed got pregnant and had offspring during the experiment that led to the conception of Dolly, “there was a reproductive technology in which the doctors who developed this technology went through the first 103 women without a single success, and, finally, on the 104th time, they got a success. That technology was in vitro fertilization…the success rate of cloning was much greater in the very first experiment than the original success rate of IVF, and the success rate of cloning has become much, much, much better as the technology has become optimized” (Silver). In vitro fertilization today is a widely practiced reproductive procedure used to great benefit for conceiving couples and/or individuals. Concerns have also been raised about anomalous embryos with birth defects resulting from the cloning process. Rudolf Jaenisch explains, “So far, we have no method for screening out abnormal embryos. There is no way to predict whether a given clone will develop into a normal or abnormal animal. Likewise, there is no way at present to predict whether a human clone will turn out to be a normal or abnormal individual” (Jaenisch). The trouble with this stance is that it assumes that because no system for determining whether a cloned embryo has encountered unforeseen problems yet exists, none ever will; but, cloning technology is still relatively in its infancy, so it is probable, perhaps even inevitable, that such a system will be established as research continues. Thus, that risk to human cloning is negligible.

    In conclusion, the risks to human cloning are negligible, so the potential benefits, both social and medicinal, mean that human cloning would be beneficial to society. This is one of many varied enterprises in the field of biological research that has enormous potential for gain. Other examples include, but are not limited to, genetic engineering. These newly-emerging aspects of biotechnology can and should be used to benefit society at large.


    Sincerely,
    Gregory Loscalzo

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  34. Dear State Representative,

    The idea of human cloning is very controversial among the public. However, there is a discrepancy between the scientific and the public understanding of cloning. To the scientific community, a clone is simply an organism that has the same genetic material as another organism, such as identical twins or seedless grapes. The concept of cloning can be applied to humans and with time be valuable to mankind. For instance, reproductive cloning can potentially be used to help infertile couples have children and can prevent the transmission of genetic disabilities to the child. Therapeutic cloning offers tissue transplantation for those suffering from diseases. Once human cloning is scientifically perfected, it will be very beneficial to society.

    The idea of reproductive human cloning can greatly benefit infertile couples. Many people suffer from infertility, meaning that they cannot reproduce with a partner. This can be devastating for those who desperately want children who are biologically theirs. Fortunately, reproductive cloning offers a solution to such infertile people. In this cloning process, “instead of having…genetic material come from two people, …genetic material come[s] from one person” (Silver). A child born by cloning would have the same genetic material as a parent, which provides him or her with the “potential to grow to a certain height, a predisposition to certain diseases, and even predispositions to certain behaviors” (Silver). However, the environment and the consciousness of the child would defy the genes, allowing the child to become an individual. Thus, infertile couples can have their own biological and unique child through human cloning.

    In the future, reproductive human cloning could also prevent genetic disabilities in children. In reproduction by sexual intercourse, it is possible for a child to be born with birth defects. This is often caused by the formation of the sperm and the eggs, in which their genetic material divides. Occasionally, there is a problem in this division and the sperm or eggs are left with too many chromosomes, causing birth defects. Fortunately, reproductive cloning “bypasses the process of dividing the DNA in half,” which causes the child “to have fewer chromosomal problems” (Silver), reducing the cause of birth defects. Also, some couples carry “a recessive gene that they do not want to transmit to their offspring” (Wolf). Reproductive human cloning prevents the transmission of genetic disabilities, allowing for a healthier child.

    Many scientists agree that therapeutic cloning would greatly benefit those in need of tissue transplantation. There are a great number of people suffering from unpleasant diseases, such as leukemia, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s. Currently, these ailments are difficult or even impossible to treat. However, therapeutic cloning offers a solution for suffering patients. This cloning process involves embryonic stem cells, which “could be used for therapeutic purposes,” such as “a source for generating many different body cell types—nerve cells, heart muscle cells or pancreas cells that could be used to treat Parkinson's, cardiac diseases, or diabetes in the donor” (Jaenisch). Therefore, therapeutic cloning can regenerate needed tissue and potentially save people from fatal diseases. This cloning also surpasses current tissue transplants because it prevents foreign tissue rejection. For instance, a person with leukemia will die without a bone-marrow transplant. However, even if a transplant is available, the “body will recognize that bone marrow as foreign and will reject it” (Silver). Therapeutic cloning instead provides patients with tissue generated from their “own embryonic stem cells, which means [they] would not have any rejection sequelae associated with the use of foreign tissue” (Wolf). Once therapeutic cloning is further developed, it can be used to effectively treat disease.

    While human cloning is still in the early stages of development, it can benefit society in the future. Reproductive cloning provides a solution for infertile couples longing for a child. It also prevents the transmission of genetic disabilities to offspring. Finally, one of the most promising prospects of human cloning lies in therapeutic cloning, which offers tissue transplantation to diseased patients. We must therefore support the development of human cloning in order to foster mankind.

    Sincerely,
    Laura van Dyck

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  35. Dear President Barack Obama,

    In the modern world, the practicality of emerging technologies is constantly being evaluated. In fact, there is a large debate in the scientific community today over whether or not human cloning would be beneficial to society. However, human cloning should not be introduced for several reasons. First of all, it would cause emotional disturbances to the families and friends of the cloned humans. In addition, there is a potential social dilemma associated with this technology, especially if genetic cloning is abused. Furthermore, human cloning would be extremely dangerous in human populations due to potential birth defects and other risks. Therefore, human cloning would be harmful to society due to its potential emotional, social, and biological problems.

    First of all, human cloning would not be beneficial to society due to the emotional problems that it could potentially cause. People always strive to establish their own identity because individuality is a quality that every human desires. However, the use of human cloning would completely ruin this concept of individuality. In addition, the introduction of clones into families would be extremely awkward and completely change the family environment. For example, sitting at the dinner table with an artificial copy of your genetic code would definitely be a very disturbing experience. Supporters of human cloning often claim that identical twins are essentially clones that are existent in our world today. However, this actually shows the negative emotional impact that cloning would have because twins often feel that they do not have a sense of individuality. Human cloning would cause psychological problems that are similar to those of identical twins by ruining family relationships and scarring the emotions of America’s youth. Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch, a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and a professor of biology at MIT, is strongly opposed to the use of genetic cloning in humans. According to Dr. Jaenisch, “The ethical concerns are in the future,” because human cloning could cause various psychological problems in the future of America’s youth. (Jaenisch, Article #3) Therefore, our great country must ensure the protection of our children’s future by opposing the use of genetic cloning in humans.

    In addition, human cloning would be extremely harmful to society due to the potential social controversies that it could cause. According to Dr. Lee Silver, a molecular biologist at Princeton University, tampering with people’s genetic codes could potentially lead to major divisions within the human species. Due to the costliness of today’s technologies, human cloning would only be available to the upper socioeconomic class. As a result, wealthier individuals would reap the benefits of genetic manipulations, whereas people from lower socioeconomic classes would be at a complete disadvantage. According to Dr. Silver, “if this went on long enough, it could reach the point where people in the upper genetic class could no longer breed with people who were not genetically engineered, which would lead to a division of our species into two or more separate species.” (Silver, Article #1) Clearly, in order to prevent this division from occurring, the United States must oppose human cloning in order to ensure our well-being in the future. Also, genetic cloning in human populations would be harmful to our society because it could potentially be abused. During World War II, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler attempted to discover a way to make every human into a member of the Aryan race. Due to the lack of genetic technology during that time period, he was unsuccessful. However, with the technology that humans have recently discovered, corrupt world leaders could potentially abuse human cloning as a means of building an army or empire. Therefore, genetic cloning should not be used in humans in order to prevent the technology from being abused.

    Furthermore, human cloning would be very harmful to society due to the biological dangers associated with it. Dr. Don P. Wolf, the director of the Andrology and Embryology Laboratory at the Oregon Health and Sciences University, is strongly opposed to the use of genetic cloning in humans. According to Dr. Wolf, “If we extrapolate from what we know about reproductive cloning in other mammalian species, we would say that there is huge risk for fetal demise. There's also significant risk that the neonate [the newborn child] will have a low survival rate.” (Wolf, Article #2) Clearly, the use of genetic cloning in humans would be extremely dangerous in today’s society. Due to the high risk for birth problems in the cloning of other mammals, there is no evidence to make scientists believe that cloning would be safe for humans at this time. According to Dr. Silver of Princeton University, “As long as that frequency of birth defects is high, and we can't control it, then it would be unethical to use this technology to try to bring about the birth of a child.” (Silver, Pg.1) Therefore, the modern world is not prepared for human cloning due to the enormous biological problems that it would cause.

    As one can see, genetic cloning in humans would not be beneficial to society. First, it would cause several emotional complications within American families. Also, human cloning would be harmful towards society due to the potential social controversies that it could cause. Lastly, genetic cloning in humans would lead to birth defects and other biological problems. Therefore, the modern world is certainly not prepared for the harm that human cloning would cause. I hope that you consider my humble request to oppose human cloning. Thank you.

    Sincerely,
    Edward Lloyd Hochman

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  36. Dear Society,
    Recently, I have been informed that some think human cloning would be beneficial to society. However, many others and I think otherwise. What benefits would actually come out of cloning a human? Of course, it may be an interesting scientific experiment, but it would not be beneficial to society. Also, at this point in time, scientists are simply not ready to take on such a great task of cloning a human being, a being who would be capable of experiencing the same joys and pains in life as each one of us. Even trials on animals have not yet been perfected! Who knows what kind of abnormalities may develop in such a clone or how it may harm the mother carrying it? Finally, this kind of research is so different; it is at the “fringes of the scientific community” (Don Wolf, “On Human Cloning”). Scientists will most likely be “working behind closed doors” (Don Wolf, “On Human Cloning”), where mistakes, failures, and dangers are kept out of public view. Irresponsibility and dishonesty will never lead to beneficial results. Human cloning may be hazardous to society in the present time, never mind the benefits.
    It is an interesting idea, to clone a human. If a human were actually successfully cloned, perhaps society would be excited—or fearful—and, of course, the media would love the action. However, what purpose would human cloning serve after the initial breakthrough? Partners would prefer to produce children with genes and traits of both parents, instead of raising a clone who had been created in the laboratory. Infertile couples may believe cloning is the solution, the only way for them to have children. Or, couples with recessive genes for a harmful disease may want to resort to cloning in order to protect their child, whom has a 25 percent chance of getting the disease. Although, I would suggest these couples to think again, for clones have a “huge risk for fetal demise” (Don Wolf, “On Human Cloning”). Not only that, but “there is no way to predict whether a given clone will develop into a normal or abnormal animal” (Rudolf Jaenisch, “On Human Cloning”). Obviously, human cloning would not be beneficial, at this point, to society at all. Even Lee Silver of Princeton, who is a strong supporter of human cloning, stated that “[He is] quite confident that human cloning will never have an impact on society” (Lee Silver, “On Human Cloning”).
    Today, only the “very early stages of understanding what happens with cloning in animal subjects” (Rudolf Jaenisch, “On Human Cloning”) are being explored. Silver argued that “It's perfectly clear that if cloning works in every other mammal in which it's been tried, it will work in human beings” (Lee Silver, “On Human Cloning”). But, the problem is that cloning is not working in other mammals. Few cloned animals are able to mature to adulthood. And of those which do, many suffer health issues, such as growing abnormally large, suffering respiratory problems, or having heart and circulatory abnormalities. Cloning, even on animals, is not at all near perfection. To clone a human would only lead to the same results scientists have discovered in our mammalian relatives. The process of reprogramming genes to serve the purpose of creating an embryo is an extremely complicated process during which faults are very likely to occur. Since no method has yet been developed for screening out abnormal embryos, “there is no way at present to predict whether a human clone will turn out to be a normal or abnormal individual” (Rudolf Jaenisch, “On Human Cloning”). The problem at the present is huge. Even the slightest mistake in the reprogramming process can lead to a clone which dies before birth or lives to suffer abnormalities at some time during its life. It would be extremely dangerous and irresponsible to conduct such and experiment on human cloning at the present. Researchers know so little of the huge, novel science of cloning. Right now, one should be busying oneself in learning exactly how cloning works and should be done. The success rate of cloning animals should first rise to more than “only a few percent” (Rudolf Jaenisch, “On Human Cloning”) before this risky and unknown technology be tried on a human being.
    According to Jaenisch, the people who are supporting human cloning today are irresponsible. “I don't know if they are after money or if they are after fame,” said Rudolf Jaenisch (Rudolf Jaenisch, “On Human Cloning”). Irresponsible scientists are often dishonest or “sloppy” in their work, and they lower the already small chance for successful and beneficial human cloning. In science, honesty and the motivation to work for the better of society are crucial traits for a good scientist. Therefore, one who seeks only personal gain of money or fame would have little chance of benefiting society. Especially with this new research, currently on the very edges of the scientific community, working “behind closed doors” may be deceiving. These scientists would produce only confusion and inaccurate understandings of the subject in society, instead of benefit.
    Please consider these facts carefully, society, before you come to any conclusions concerning whether human cloning would actually be beneficial. This procedure does not produce anything which will be useful in the long run. That is, if it is even successful, for at this moment in time, human cloning is way beyond our reach. Our focus should be on trying to understand the whole of this enormous process, such as specific reasons why mortality rates are so high and why the abnormalities occur. Only after this is done can we even begin to ponder upon the idea of cloning a human being. And, as needed in any scientific measure, trustworthy and knowledgeable scientists are absolutely necessary for the success of this project. After all, how many scientists who have benefited society are described as “selfish?” For a truly beneficial and low-risk idea, consider therapeutic cloning. This process clones only cells, tissues, and organs—not complete humans. With further research into this field, society will be able to discover cures for numerous diseases and will be able to produce perfectly matched transplants for patients. So, society, I sincerely hope you have developed a new understanding of why human cloning is not at all beneficial in the present time, especially when compared to other processes such as therapeutic cloning.

    Your Thoughtful Member,
    Jenny Liu

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  37. Dear State Official
    Imagine a world without children born with birth defects. Where infertile families can live their lives and have children like normal people, where human psychology is completely understood and parents carrying diseases can have entirely normal children. Such a world may seem impossible today, but in the future, human cloning can make it reality. Ever since the successful cloning of the first mammal ever, Dolly the sheep, in 1997, human cloning has become a more and more realistic future. Cloning will be extremely beneficial to human society for three major reasons. The first reason is that cloning has many reproductive applications, such as preventing birth defects in newborn children. Secondly, cloning also has many medical advantages. Finally the future, cloning will be a realistic approach to fix different problems. Cloning will most certainly be beneficial to society in the future.
    All over the world, men and women suffer from infertility—the inability to have a child by sexual reproduction. Cloning, however, can help these individuals to live their dream of having children without any negative repercussions. The child will be just like any other child. Experts in the field, such as Dr. Lee Silver agree on this point. “So there's no way you'll ever know a child is a human clone, rather than just a kid who happens to be like the parent by chance.” (Silver) Secondly, cloning can help families who are carries of a disease such as Cystic Fibrosis, which can affect a newborn child. With cloning, this disease is not carried on to a newborn, giving the parents and the child the chance to live a normal life. Once again, more experts agree on this subject as well. “Because if the adult doesn't have sickle-cell anemia or some disease like that, the child won't have that disease either.” (Silver). Finally, cloning reduces the chance of genetic error within a child, a problem that affects 4% of newborn children. “Cloning bypasses the process of dividing the DNA in half, so you would expect animals produced by cloning to have fewer chromosomal problems, and you'd reduce that cause of birth defect.” (Silver) Cloning can help infertile individuals live a normal life without problems, it can help stop the act of carrying over diseases to a child via sexual reproduction, and it reduces the general chance of birth defects in a newborn child. Cloning can also seriously help society in medicine as well.
    In the testing phases of any drug, the drug is first applied to animals such as mice, and then more and more complex animals. Rarely are drugs tested on humans until the final stage—unless, that is, one uses cloning. With cloning, developing medical procedures and drugs for helping the sick could be made extremely more efficient and easier with the use of cloning. New medicines can be tested on these clones, as well as testing for surgical procedures. In the long run, this would help save the lives of a plethora of sick people. Secondly, cloning will allow for subjects for new, groundbreaking tests in psychology and social interaction. For example, many new insights can be gained on the nature vs. nurture debate by using clones of the same and different individuals for testing. Leading experts in the field agree that cloning would benefit different psychological experiments. “Anytime you want to separate the effects of nature versus the effects of nurture, it's ideal to have genetically identical animals. You can also argue that, if you do have genetically identical animals, you've leveled the genetic playing field…” (Wolf) Thirdly, new testing can be done on extremely important diseases that are only apparent in humans. For example, new testing can be preformed for HIV testing to try and stop the disease that has infected millions of millions of people. These are more reasons on how medical cloning can benefit society. While it may not be effective now, it will be in the future.
    Cloning is not efficient right now. The scientific community has reached a consensus on this fact. “We are in the very early stages of understanding what happens with cloning in animal subjects.” (Jaenisch) Obviously, human cloning is not feasible right now. Animals that have been cloned have a high rate of mortality and genetic defects. However, this is no reason not to advocate cloning in the future. When asked whether or not cloning is beneficial to society, the best answer for one to give is that it is because science is ever progressing. Humans went from the first thirty second flight to the moon in about 63 years, and today have a station in orbit around the Earth. This is just an example of how fast science progresses, and a sign that human cloning will become feasible in the near future. Once cloning in mammals is understood, even advocates against cloning, such as Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch, agree that human cloning will be understood. “Humans are mammals, so we can predict a similar effect in human clones. There's no reason to think it would be any other way with humans.” (Jaenisch) Human cloning is most certainly feasible in the future and beneficial to society.
    Human cloning will most certainly be beneficial to society. Such a breakthrough in science will provide many advantages. First, cloning can help families who cannot reproduce on their own or have a disease that they can carry on to their child. These families can use cloning in the future to have a normal child and live a normal life. Next, cloning can allow for serious gains in the field of science and psychology. New experiments requiring human twins can be more easily carried out, for example. Finally, cloning may not be perfect today, but past examples have shown us that human science progresses exponentially fast and will figure out feasible cloning in the near future. I urge you to secure more funds for cloning research to make the dream of a better society a reality.
    Thank you,
    Arian Jadbabaie

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  38. THE DEBATE AGAINST HUMAN CLONING
    Emily Feng
    As knowledge in the field of biotechnology increases, the ambitions of science have increased as well. Problems with genetic problems have sparked a plethora of research over several decades into solving terrible disease such as Alzheimer’s and leukemia. Such circular approaches such as treating the symptoms may be entirely avoided if one uses the advances made in human cloning. However, the illusory benefits of human cloning are a sad excuse for the blood, sweat, and tears that have been poured into this area of research. If I may be so direct, what purpose does human cloning really serve in society? The benefits listed by scientists in favor of human cloning are not only minimal, they attempt to cover the serious genetic mutations passed onto its victims. Of all the applications given touting human cloning as beneficial, a majority given can be solved with other methods or existing technologies. Moreover, the genetic diseases that scientists claim human cloning may one day solve are more directly addressed with the more interesting (and more controversial) area of genetic engineering. I fear that by pursuing human cloning, the scientific community will create a new set of problems entirely for itself in the Don Quixote quest for nonsensical aims.
    Human cloning has taken huge amounts of money and effort to have progressed so far, yet the benefits promised, and which still have not been successfully reached, are fleeting. Dr. Lee Silver, the ardent and sole supporter of human cloning among the three scientists, advertises cloning as being able to “bypass” the problem of such genetic diseases such as sickle cell anemia. According to him, “Cloning bypasses the process of dividing the DNA in half, so you would expect animals produced by cloning to have fewer chromosomal problems, and you'd reduce that cause of birth defect.” There are holes in this argument however. Cloning avoids the step of reproduction in which most genetic mutations are created, yet does not prevent the child from inheriting the disease if both parents already contain the mutation. Human cloning therefore is entirely useless to these couples. From personal experience, I would also find it impossible to believe that a couple would be able agree on having a child that exactly resembled their spouse. Isn’t one enough? Moreover, with the existing technology in human cloning at the moment, humans created through cloning would exhibit a host of genetic mutations that scientists so desperately tried to avoid through cloning. Says Dr. Don Wolf, “there is huge risk for fetal demise.” Research done so far with cloning on more complex animals such as mammals have yielded calves “born too big and have health problems.” It is unethical to knowingly pass this risk onto an unborn child. Proponents of human cloning may argue that human cloning will be able to progress to the point where a human may be cloned successfully. However, I question whether human cloning is the best way to approach this problem. Genetic engineering would be able to specifically target genes, while cloning is a crude process in comparison. Even Lee Silver, the advocate for human cloning, admits that “Genetic engineering is so much bigger than cloning, and people don't realize it.”
    Another danger posed by human cloning are logistics involved. There is an enormous room for error or illegal experimentation on something as weighty as human life. As Dr. Don Wolf said, “One of the sidebars here is that those individuals who are interested in human reproductive cloning are basically on the fringes of the scientific community, and they're going to be working behind closed doors. So there's no oversight as well, and that's a cause for concern.” With such a controversial area of research and strict regulations, it is entirely possible that scientists may conduct experiments on cloning with little to no supervision. A possible solution has been proposed as modeling Britain’s federal grant system for funding federal cloning. However, Britain’s government has the ability to review and choose which projects are allowed to go through. I find it a bit frightening that government may have complete control over research in human cloning and creating human life. Of course it is also entirely possible that such illegal experiments have been done know and have been hidden from the public; “One of the problems with human reproductive cloning if it were to be done now, and you had adverse outcomes, it would be quite likely that we as the public would never know about them.”
    All in all, human cloning does not pose an ethical problem; rather it poses a logistical and practical problem. First of all, are the benefits of human cloning more than the adverse health consequences it carries? The answer is no. Human cloning (not therapeutic cloning) offers little to society besides reproductive cloning, from which there are better technologies existing or a more deserving approach out there. Human cloning will not be able to solve the few problems it set out to do, and instead creates a new set of problems that the future generation of scientists will have to solve. Human cloning should not be pursued any further.

    ReplyDelete
  39. THE DEBATE AGAINST HUMAN CLONING
    Emily Feng
    As knowledge in the field of biotechnology increases, the ambitions of science have increased as well. Problems with genetic problems have sparked a plethora of research over several decades into solving terrible disease such as Alzheimer’s and leukemia. Such circular approaches such as treating the symptoms may be entirely avoided if one uses the advances made in human cloning. However, the illusory benefits of human cloning are a sad excuse for the blood, sweat, and tears that have been poured into this area of research. If I may be so direct, what purpose does human cloning really serve in society? The benefits listed by scientists in favor of human cloning are not only minimal, they attempt to cover the serious genetic mutations passed onto its victims. Of all the applications given touting human cloning as beneficial, a majority given can be solved with other methods or existing technologies. Moreover, the genetic diseases that scientists claim human cloning may one day solve are more directly addressed with the more interesting (and more controversial) area of genetic engineering. I fear that by pursuing human cloning, the scientific community will create a new set of problems entirely for itself in the Don Quixote quest for nonsensical aims.
    Human cloning has taken huge amounts of money and effort to have progressed so far, yet the benefits promised, and which still have not been successfully reached, are fleeting. Dr. Lee Silver, the ardent and sole supporter of human cloning among the three scientists, advertises cloning as being able to “bypass” the problem of such genetic diseases such as sickle cell anemia. According to him, “Cloning bypasses the process of dividing the DNA in half, so you would expect animals produced by cloning to have fewer chromosomal problems, and you'd reduce that cause of birth defect.” There are holes in this argument however. Cloning avoids the step of reproduction in which most genetic mutations are created, yet does not prevent the child from inheriting the disease if both parents already contain the mutation. Human cloning therefore is entirely useless to these couples. From personal experience, I would also find it impossible to believe that a couple would be able agree on having a child that exactly resembled their spouse. Isn’t one enough? Moreover, with the existing technology in human cloning at the moment, humans created through cloning would exhibit a host of genetic mutations that scientists so desperately tried to avoid through cloning. Says Dr. Don Wolf, “there is huge risk for fetal demise.” Research done so far with cloning on more complex animals such as mammals have yielded calves “born too big and have health problems.” It is unethical to knowingly pass this risk onto an unborn child. Proponents of human cloning may argue that human cloning will be able to progress to the point where a human may be cloned successfully. However, I question whether human cloning is the best way to approach this problem. Genetic engineering would be able to specifically target genes, while cloning is a crude process in comparison. Even Lee Silver, the advocate for human cloning, admits that “Genetic engineering is so much bigger than cloning, and people don't realize it.”
    Another danger posed by human cloning are logistics involved. There is an enormous room for error or illegal experimentation on something as weighty as human life. As Dr. Don Wolf said, “One of the sidebars here is that those individuals who are interested in human reproductive cloning are basically on the fringes of the scientific community, and they're going to be working behind closed doors. So there's no oversight as well, and that's a cause for concern.” With such a controversial area of research and strict regulations, it is entirely possible that scientists may conduct experiments on cloning with little to no supervision. A possible solution has been proposed as modeling Britain’s federal grant system for funding federal cloning. However, Britain’s government has the ability to review and choose which projects are allowed to go through. I find it a bit frightening that government may have complete control over research in human cloning and creating human life. Of course it is also entirely possible that such illegal experiments have been done know and have been hidden from the public; “One of the problems with human reproductive cloning if it were to be done now, and you had adverse outcomes, it would be quite likely that we as the public would never know about them.”
    All in all, human cloning does not pose an ethical problem; rather it poses a logistical and practical problem. First of all, are the benefits of human cloning more than the adverse health consequences it carries? The answer is no. Human cloning (not therapeutic cloning) offers little to society besides reproductive cloning, from which there are better technologies existing or a more deserving approach out there. Human cloning will not be able to solve the few problems it set out to do, and instead creates a new set of problems that the future generation of scientists will have to solve. Human cloning should not be pursued any further.

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  40. Dear State Representative,
    There is much debate as to the issue of human cloning among the scientific community. Ever since Dolly, the first cloned mammal, was ‘born’ in 1997, the ethics of cloning have become a relevant issue (Silver). Human cloning is beneficial because it can be used to help infertile couples reproduce, it can be used therapeutically, and it will never have a huge effect on society.
    One beneficial aspect of human cloning is reproduction. According to Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch, a serious argument for human cloning is to allow “a childless couple—a couple that cannot have a child through normal means” to have a child. A number of factors can cause one or more partners in couple to be infertile and unable to have a child. Human cloning allows infertile couples to have children.
    Although some worry about the adverse effects of human cloning, it will never be used enough to have a bad impact on society. Dr. Lee Silver is “quite confident that human cloning will never have an impact on society, because most people want to have children with their partners”. Cloning will be able to help the few number of couples who want to have babies through this method. But, it won’t be used by enough couples to have an adverse effect.
    Cloning can also be used therapeutically: “the objective of therapeutic cloning is to generate cells, tissues, or organs that can be used in a therapeutic context to replace or repair damage to tissue,” says Dr. Don Wolf. Therapeutic cloning can be used to help people who have damaged tissue by creating new tissue for them to use.
    In conclusion, human cloning is good because it can be used to help infertile couples, while still not having a bad effect on society, and can also be used for therapeutic means. Thus, I strongly urge you to support human cloning.

    Sincerely,
    Thomas J. Mattessich

    ReplyDelete
  41. Cloning
    Dear Ms. Day,
    What would you say if you were told that in the near future, children could be born resistant to many diseases, and many of their traits could be predetermined, and it was possible to make a child smarter, simply by the use of technology? I would think that is a pretty good thing. Well, soon, all that could be true with the relatively new technologies: reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning. Therapeutic cloning also helps people, but in a different way therapeutic cloning allows for cells to be taken out of the body, turned into a different organ or tissue, and then be able to be placed back into the body. But, reproductive cloning, like what was done on Dolly, the first reproductively cloned mammal, on humans is a highly controversial topic. But, I believe that it will be alright for humans to be tested on reproductive cloning one day, once enough research has been done and it seems stable, and therapeutic cloning is already being used now. I believe that this should happen because it can help prevent diseases and help the clones, cloning does not make exact copies of another person which is a serious concern, and it can help sterile people reproduce, but it still carries a small risk.
    Primarily, I believe that cloning people can greatly help society because it can help stop diseases that can happen during a natural birth, and it can make the clones possibly better than those of a natural birth. It can help prevent certain diseases because, through a natural birth, the possibility of having a birth defect is 4%. Most of those birth defects occur when the genes from the father and the genes from the mother are split to make the DNA of the baby. Sometimes, they don't split exactly in half, so there are sometimes a couple of missing or extra chromosomes. That will cause a birth defect. But, in cloning, the cells that are used come from only one person, and all of their cells have the same genes. So, there is no splitting, and, therefor, is a much less likely chance of a birth defect occurring.(Silver) Also according to Lee Silver, reproductive cloning can help improve the cognitive ability in humans. And, I personally believe that this is possible because I have learned a lot about cognitive ability because that is what my research project was about. Cognitive ability has to do with a person's creative ability as well as their academic ability. Both of those traits are inducted to a person in two ways: through genetics, and the education and environment they grow up in. So, I can see that they plan to improve a person's cognitive ability through the genetic side, but it is potentially problematic because a person's education and environment can change their own cognitive ability. There is just one problem to making clones that have a higher cognitive ability. If it is going to be possible to do that, only the upper class are going to have the money to get that kind of procedure done. That is not a good thing because then, we humans will become divided. Those of the upper class will have the higher cognitive ability while the lower class will stay with the same cognitive ability. This could potentially make us humans turn into a different species, splitting between the two classes, and the will be a species of human with a higher cognitive ability and a species with a lower cognitive ability. (Don Wolf) In the long run, that will dismantle what we are as a society: we are all people.

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  42. Another reason why I think that we should use cloning is because the whole controversy of cloning is making an identical person is not true. All a clone is is a person that has the exact same DNA as another person. Normally, it will not even be from a young person, It will be from an adult that wants to have a child without a spouse, so their DNA is used to make a child. And, if a clone were to be made as a human, that person would probably not even know that they were a clone, because after being raised, they would not be the exact same person as the person whose genes they share. According to both Wolf and Silver, some of what a person is going to be like relies on genes. But, a person's environment and they way that they were raised also plays a huge role on the way that they come out to be a person. The only way that there could be clones as many people think of clones as like the exact same person is if they were cloned and got nourished, raised, and had the same environment throughout both of their lives. To sum up what cloning will do if it were actually put into progress would be two people sharing the same strand of DNA. The chances of them growing up the same way, enough to make them identical people is so small that it would probably not even happen. So, if in action, all that cloning does is make two different people with the same DNA, what harm could it possibly do?
    Finally, I come to how it can help many people reproduce and why I believe it should go through much more testing before it goes public and it becomes widespread to clone humans. Right now, in America alone, there are over 150,000 single adults, over 100,000 of them want to have kids. (Enrichment Journal) Now there is a way for those 100,000 people to have the kids that they want. Also, it is not just for people who don't have any spouses, those who have spouses but that are just sterile cannot have any kids. But, the now reproductive cloning will allow all of those people to have the kids that they want with or without spouses without going through the awful consequences of sperm and egg donors. (Wolf) There are many risks to reproductive cloning which is why I believe scientists should have many confirmed successes on animals and a lot of research on the study before they start reproductively cloning humans. There were many failures on the animal testing, in which only less than one percent of reproductive clonings worked. Also many of the clonings that did work, there were defects in the animal that was cloned. For instance, there were thoughts that the cloned animal would age faster, but that was dis-proven. But, many of the calves that were reproductively cloned were overweight and would probably die at an early age. (Silver, Wolf, Jaenisch) Once there have been many confirmed successes on animals, I believe that the scientists should step it up to the next level and start testing on humans.
    Reproductively and Therapeutically cloning animals and cells is a fascinating subject. I believe scientists have the potential to soon clone humans and give them traits that will help them in their life. But for now, I believe that it is too risky and there should be more tests done to see how reliable the method is. Once it is proven reliable, I think that we should start cloning humans, and that would be a great benefit to our society.
    Sincerely,
    Evan Fox

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  43. Cloning: Good or Bad?

    Cloning is a process that scientists have been debating for years. Is cloning a good or bad idea? A clone is an organism that has the same genetic information as another organism. A banana is an example of a clone because it has the same genetic material as any other banana and it is produced through cloning (Silver). Millions of clones walk the earth today which we call, identical twins. Identical twins have the same genetic information as their partner; however they have no problem with their individuality (Silver). Some scientists argue that cloning could be the pathway for infertile parents to have children (Silver); however a lot of people say that egomaniac men will want to cheat mortality by cloning themselves (Silver). The cloning process has been unsuccessful. In a vitro fertilization cloning test, it took one hundred and four times to get a successful baby clone, a success rate of less than one percent. Cloning tests have been done on animals and other organism. The cloning process has given the new born animals birth defects that scientists are now trying to limit. A limit to these birth defects could lead to a successful cloning process (Silver). So, is cloning a good or bad idea? I believe that cloning is a bad idea. I believe this because the cloning process it is not as successful process and it could possibly lead to disaster. Truly, scientists should stop the cloning process.
    Scientists denounce cloning because it is an unsuccessful process that could ultimately lead to disaster. Most animals that have been cloned have die before birth, while some survive until birth and then die in a few days or weeks (Jaenisch). In 1978, the first cloned baby, Louise Brown, took one hundred and four tries until he was successfully born (Silver). This is a success rate of less than one perfect (Silver). The risk factors of cloning a child all pertain to the likelihood that someone will produce an abnormal child (Wolf). They may grow abnormally large, suffer respiratory problems, or have heart and circulatory abnormalities (Wolf). This would lead to severally difficult lives for the cloned children. Scientists are trying hard to limit the abnormalities in cloned species. If scientists somehow limited the birth defects of the cloned species, it could eventually lead to disaster. These disasters could lead to worldwide tragedies. For instance, perhaps a villain or evil criminal got hold of a cloning mechanism or perhaps a scientist decided to use cloning machines for evil. A scientist could easy clone a notorious figure in history. Imagine a scientist cloning a thousand copies of Sadam Hussein or Hitler. This scientist could cause worldwide disaster as is “evil clones” could destroy society and bring about worldwide chaos. Truly, cloning is an unsuccessful process could eventually lead to worldwide disaster if cloning machines fell into the wrong hands. Scientists should ban the cloning process until it is further studying is done with cloning.
    The cloning process is surely a bad idea in the scientific field. Cloning is definitely an unsuccessful process. This possess could ultimately lead to worldwide chaos and disaster if it fell into the wrong hands or if countries started competing with each other to be the first country to clone successfully. In conclusion, scientists should stop the cloning process due to the dangerous aspects of the process.


    Peter Satonick

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  44. Thomas Meehan
    Human Cloning

    After reading about human cloning I have come to the conclusion that it has huge potential, however I do not believe the world is ready for reproductive cloning. For both scientific and ethical reasons human reproduction by cloning is not ready to be used at this point. However, I think therapeutic cloning has enormous potential and should be researched right away. Allow me to explain further.

    Human reproductive cloning can have huge benefits for certain members of society. I have to admit that I, like most people today was afraid of what exactly a clone was and how it would behave. Then I saw what Dr. Lee Silver said,” There are already millions of clones walking the earth today,- twins.” I realized that clones are no different than identical twins, they have the same DNA but they have different personalities and are ultimately different people. In fact, from an ethical standpoint the only difference between them and a normal child is that all their DNA comes from a single person instead of two. Nobody would be able to tell if the child was a clone or was simply a regular child. The cloning technology could largely benefit people who are infertile by allowing them to have “children” through cloning themselves. Human reproductive cloning also provides other possible advantages, such as a lower risk for chromosome defects that lead to diseases such as Down Syndrome. According to Dr. Silver “Cloning bypasses the process of dividing DNA in half so you could expect animals produced by cloning to have fewer chromosomal issues.” Cloning could also help reduce the risk of passing on hereditary diseases.

    However human reproductive cloning is not without its faults. Even Dr. Silver, a strong advocate of cloning agrees that cloning is not ready to be used on humans now and more research needs to be conducted. As of now there is too much risk for fetal demise. Even if the fetus were to survive there’s still a large risk that the newborn will have a low-survival rate. According to Dr. Wolf, even if the subject were to make it to adult-hood “there's an obesity condition in cloned mice that seems to be age-onset. So the risk factors all pertain to the likelihood that you're going to produce an abnormal child. This likelihood is too high to be acceptable at this point in time. We simply don't know enough about the human reproductive cloning process to consider offering this in the context of human infertility therapy.” There’s also an interesting issue that comes with infertile couples wanting to use cloning technology. If that individual is infertile due to a genetic disorder his or her clone may be infertile meaning they could only reproduce by cloning as well. It’s possible that this cycle could go indefinitely and pose a huge ethics concern.

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  45. There is good news for cloning however. Therapeutic cloning, a process in which a subject’s own cells are used to create stem cells. These stem cells can then be used to replace lost or damaged tissue in the subject’s body. In theory if you had a fatal heart condition you could eventually grow your own new heart, bypassing traditional methods such as finding a donor or using an artificial heart. The best part is that these new tissues behave normally and won’t be rejected by the subject’s body since it is genetically identical. All three Scientists, including the skeptical Dr. Jeanisch believes therapeutic cloning is very promising. In fact Jeanisch says, “Therapeutic cloning has enormous potential”, and Dr. Wolf went so far as to say “Therapeutic cloning has the potential to revolutionize the practice of Western medicine.” Those are powerful words indeed. Unfortunately as of now The House of Representatives has banned all medical practices of cloning, including therapeutic. According to Jeanisch “It was a terrible decision…to throw these two things out in the same motion is very unfortunate.”

    As you can see human cloning can have both huge potential as well as huge risks. Reproductive cloning, while promising and not as unethical as many believe, is too risky and potentially dangerous to be used at the moment. More tests need to be conducted as well as the procedures improved before it can be safely used in humans. It is not impossible that reproductive cloning can be practiced in the near future however. Therapeutic cloning on the other hand has been proven safe and extremely beneficial for many people. The laws restricting use of therapeutic cloning should certainly be lifted if the U.S. wishes to prosper in the 21st century. We simply have so much to gain and too little to loose to sit idle when other countries are soaring past us by being open minded to new treatments.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Jacob Laser
    3/4/10
    The hot button topic of cloning
    There are a lot of misconceptions about
    cloning. It is a process that occurs in nature in identical twins. Unfortunately cloning for reproductive purposes is not effective. Also cloning produces many moral dilemmas that no one wants to be forced to answer, but cloning isn’t all bad stem cell cloning can be used to make major medical advances. Reproductive cloning is not a moral or viable option for infertile couples, but therapeutic cloning has the potential to save millions of lives.
    There is evidence that cloning is not an effective way to make a baby. Cloning is not effective in producing healthy animal offspring and therefore will not produce healthy humans. Rudolf Jaenisch, founding member of the whit head institute for biomedical research said “What we know is that it works inefficiently. Most die before birth, while some survive until birth and die a few days or weeks later.” The whole point of reproduction between a man and a woman is to make a genetically diverse population. If we eliminate the male from the equation there will be many more people walking around with the same DNA, and inbreeding will effect the population. Jaenisch also said “there is no way to predict whether a given clone will develop into a normal or abnormal animal”. If a person is infertile because of a genetic condition they will invariably pass it on to their clone. The clone will be infertile and will only be able to reproduce by cloning this cycle would continue to repeat itself until there would be a huge family tree of genetically identical individuals.
    Cloning will cause damage to society. “Those working on cloning are on the fringes of the scientific community, and they’re going to be working behind closed doors” Don Wolf senior scientist at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center in Behavior. This means that no one is regulating these researchers. No one has checked their credentials and they probably don’t know what they are doing. It is morally irresponsible to bring a human baby into the world under these conditions. Even if in the future there is regulation of these studies those with less money will never be able to afford cloning. The upper class will increase and the lower will stay the same. This change in opportunity to clone may cause irregular evolution of the species and possibly a split into two totally new species.
    Although reproductive cloning will never be good for the population, therapeutic cloning will eliminate many health problems. According to Jaensmich stem cells are a great source for tissue of all kinds. A stem cell can transform into pretty much any other cell. So, if a person needed for example a heart. They could get their own heart or at least a carbon copy. The reason having their own heart is far superior to having one from a donor is because the body will attack any foreign cells. If the cells are from the same person the immune system will never know the difference. This form of cloning will make risky organ donations obsolete. Some religious activists are skeptical of stem cells because they think they all come from aborted fetuses, but in actuality stem cells can be harvested form the umbilical chord and used later if the baby grows up and gets sick. Brittan and the rest of Europe are already doing research in these fields. If the conservatives continue to block stem cells, the rest of the world will leave us behind.
    In conclusion, cloning can not and should not be used as a fertility treatment. It’s not sound science. It causes defects. Also the social repercussions could be devastating. Despite this, therapeutic uses for cloning will stop many diseases and make life better for Americans. It has the potential to eliminate organ donors and decrease the event of organ rejection. Every one should support therapeutic cloning, but they should not allow people to practice it as a means of reproduction.

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  47. In 1997, Dolly, the sheep that shook the world, was born. This sheep, the first mammal successfully cloned, set off a huge debate on the morality and various effects of cloning. Though scientists disagree, I believe that the process of cloning is not beneficiary to humans. For one thing, human cloning is far too premature a science to be unleashed on humanity just yet. Also, there are enormous risks associated with human cloning. Finally, cloning could be used to achieve unethical ends, if put into the wrong hands.
    Human cloning is much too far ahead of our time for now. Scientists have not had any experience with human cloning to date (Jaenisch). Jaenish calls human cloning a bad science that is totally flawed. Perhaps in the future, the benefits of cloning may triumoh, but for now, the success rates of cloning are so low (less than 1 percent [Silver]), and the science so new, that the human race simply cannot afford it.
    As human cloning is a new science, there are enormous risks associated with it. There is a huge risk for infantile death, and even if the cloned child survives, it has a chance of being abnormal (Wolf). Cloning also carries the risk of age-onset conditions, not only in humans, but also in other mammals such as mice (Wolf). Also, as more humans are cloned successfully, differences may emerge, and humans may even evolve into two separate species. Thus, even if cloning does pogress enough to eliminate some risks, the problems it may cause still outweigh the benefits.
    A final reason to doubt human cloning is that it may eventually be used as an unethical means. I now present a worst case scenario. Silver says that an egomaniac may try to use cloning to cheat mortality. Well, what if that same egomaniac wanted even more? Picture an army of clones. Although they do not have the same soul as the egomaniac (clones are more like identical twins [silver]), this could lead to potentially disastrous results for humanity and all the world. If cloning ever becomes commonplace, many smaller scenarios such as this might happen every day. It would lead to the destruction of our race.
    In conclusion,human cloning is an extremely bad idea for the human race. It is an extremely premature science for our age. There are enormous risks involved in the process. Finally, cloning would open the doors for immorality. However, you may notice that I only make my case against reproductive cloning. As for therapeutic cloning, I believe the benefits outweigh the risks; but that's another story. Reproductive cloning must not be allowed to flourish just yet.

    -Aaron O'Neill

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  48. The year 1997 was important in the field of science. This was the year Dolly, the first mammal cloned from the cell of an adult animal, was born. This made people question the ethics of scientists and wonder if scientists were going to start making carbon copies of themselves. But the meaning of human cloning is unknown to most people. Human cloning could allow people who are not able to reproduce, to have children. Human cloning will help people who are sick, to become healthy. I strongly believe human cloning would be something beneficial to society.
    Many people believe that a result of human cloning will be humans making carbon copies of themselves. This idea frightens people; they think that when people are replicated then the human soul will be replicated as well. That is the reason most people are against the cloning process. To scientists the word cloning means an organism has the same genetic information as another organism. Bananas are used as an example of cloning, and seedless grapes. Both fruits have the same genetic information and are considered clones; however, people aren’t frightened by bananas or seedless grapes, so why should they be afraid of human cloning. Identical twins are clones, they have the same genetic makeup but they are different people and have their own individuality. If people understood what cloning really was, they would be more likely to support human cloning.
    Human cloning could allow people who are not able to reproduce, to have children. If a woman or her partner is sterile, they can still have biological offspring. Scientists believe that eventually cell cloning will be able to turn a skim cell into an egg or turn a skin cell into a sperm cell. This would allow all people to have biological children with their partner, without any donors. When reproduction occurs, the DNA from each parent is divided in half, but sometimes the chromosomes have problems that cause birth defects. Cloning averts that process, which results in the animals having less chromosomal issues. Blood diseases such as sickle-cell, are passed from a parent to their child, but cloning can bypass that disease and many others. Human cloning can be beneficial to adults that need help reproducing, and parents that don’t want to pass genetic diseases to their children.
    Cloning can also help sick people become healthy. Scientists can clone cells that are needed in a transplant or if a burn patient needs new skin cells, cloning can be used to create new ones. Although, blood donations and bone marrow donations can be made, the blood type isn’t always right and the body will reject it. The same thing would happen with bone marrow, if someone had leukemia, they would need a transplant; but to make sure the bone marrow was a match it would be easiest to have an identical twin. This is where cloning would come into play; you could take a cell from the person in need, reprogram it and guide it into bone marrow and then put the bone marrow back into the person who donated it. This could help the person without using someone else’s cells. Cell cloning could help ill people, become healthy again without having to use other people.
    I strongly believe human cloning would be something beneficial to society. The meaning of human cloning is unknown to most people, and if people were informed of what it would really do, they might be less frightened. Human cloning could allow people who are not able to reproduce, to have children. Human cloning will help people who are sick, to become healthy. Cloning will beneficial the society in many ways, although it is believed to be immoral, research should continue, eventually it will help many people.

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  49. Marshall Kamai
    Sci. Res. Per. 4

    I believe that human cloning, although not totally perfected, should be allowed and would do more good than harm. Cloning is a very odd topic to talk about with other people but it is also interesting to hear other people’s views on the topic. Three main reasons on why it is good are: allow a mother to have a child, bypass diseases and save lives, and bring back people who have died.

    Couples that are infertile but want to have children have trouble because adoption is a long and hard process to go through. Adoption has a waiting period and is a hassle to couples but cloning would make it easier. With cloning, you can buy the embryo and have the baby knowing that there will not be any birth defects or diseases. Also the child, because growing up in a different setting, would act and be different from its twin.

    Cloning can also be used for as a solution for diseases or problems in the body. Like if a person has the money, they could buy a clone and grow the clone to take organs or blood if they need it. Also, as described in the article, if a person has leukemia they will need a bone marrow transplant. The best solution is to clone yourself and use your own bone marrow. Also birth diseases are an important issue but if we have a whole group of clones, we can test pills or medicine to see if it stops diseases. If you want to get radical about it you could clone thousands of yourself to create an army to take over the world.

    Another odd idea with cloning is bring back the dead. Its for those people who have issues and wished their son or daughter who died from a disease was still alive. Someone, most likely a mom, will want their child back so they will have some of their first child’s DNA and clone it. A more practical use is for animals that are close to extinction or have been extinct. We could bring back a dying race of frogs or like most recently, scientists have brought back to life an Ibex, which is a time of mountain goat that has been extinct for 10 years now.

    In the words of doctor Lee Silver, “Most people don’t know what cloning is to scientists. To a scientist, a clone is an organism that has the same genetic information as another organism. So we eat clones all the time. We eat Bananas. Bananas are produced by cloning…” And I agree that human cloning will have more ups than downs.

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  50. Dear Ms. Day,

    In 1997, a scientific breakthrough occurred with the first cloning experiment with Dolly the sheep. After this event the methodical ways of cloning have expanded and the limits have exceeded for scientists to clone even humans and provide organs instead of going through the painful process of the organ waiting list. Both sides of the issue have developed well-thought points to support their sides, but I continue to side with cloning having earth-shattering effects on the outcome of the human species. Human cloning will spread the limits and they would allow for fertilization in infertile couples and the source of error is very small.
    The times that the country is living in now are very advanced and the possibilities and the gains that one would gain from human cloning would be immense. Human cloning is making it possible for scientists and genetic researchers able to reproduce bone marrow and organs to make it easier available and genetically correct for patients. For example, a patient that has terminal leukemia is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant otherwise he will die in 24 hours. So, in the present times without cloning the patient would be put on the waiting list and the doctors would hope for a donor. But, with cloning available scientists will be able to take “a cell from your body and reprogram it—like rebooting a computer back to the embryonic state—and guide that cell to develop into a particular tissue or organ. So…you're giving that person his or her own bone marrow.” (Dr. Lee Silver) Cloning can also provide many different organs like the liver, heart, and one day possible the brain. With this, the organ donor list will be gone and there will be a place in every hospital for different organs that are “compatible” with all bodies waiting for transplants. Human cloning is a new process but its possibilities are endless and it is also a very successful process where few errors occur.

    During human cloning there are very few errors made. Many scientists that work in this field know that “the success rate of cloning has become much, much, much better as the technology has become optimized” (Dr. Lee Silver) Human cloning is used and there are minimal risks that are being made. Cloning is a very precise and accurate process and these results cannot be attained without federal government acceptance. So, to agree with all federal and state laws scientists and labs must work under very strict safety laws and this is another way that human cloning is producing minimal risks and there is a slim to no chance of death. Many believe that if cloning has been working in the rest of the mammalian kingdom, then why can’t it work for humans. In all reality, our body structure and environment is very similar to other organisms that have been cloned with great success. So, why are these cloning processes being harassed?

    Human cloning will also make it possible to let infertile couple have a baby of their own and not go through the painful process of sexual intercourse. Dr. Lee Silvery says, “In the normal course of reproduction by sexual intercourse about four percent of children are born with birth defects.” With human cloning only one of the couple must provide DNA and the nucleic acids that are needed for an accurate clone. Although one may think that there will just be two of the same people just different ages living on the planet, this is not true. The baby is born like any other and the people will just believe that the son or daughter looks like the DNA giving parent. Unless the parents reveal the information to a well-trusted friend or relative the human cloning process will be completely unknown to everybody who witnesses one. Cloning also avoids creating many birth defects. "Cloning bypasses the process of dividing the DNA in half, so you would expect animals produced by cloning to have fewer chromosomal problems." (Dr. Lee Silver)

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  51. So, overall the process of human cloning is definitely the route for infertile couple who want to avoid the processes that are more painful and more expensive.

    In conclusion, the human cloning process is one of the best scientific breakthroughs of the entire century. With these new additions to the scientific technology there are an immense amount of opportunities for scientists to explore. The momentous effects of cloning include organs being reproduced and being promptly available, fertilization in infertile couples, and the source of error is minimal and there are rarely and complications with such as precise process. Despite arguments about human cloning being demeaning to the human race and being ethically wrong one must consider the huge effects that are possible if scientists are allowed to pursue this field.


    Sincerely,

    Satish Bhat

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  52. Tanay Lathia

    Back in 1997, a sheep named Dolly was cloned. Naturally, people began the controversial debate of cloning humans; what had been merely science fiction had become a reality. Scientists have raged back and forth over this small yet passion-evoking topic. I have concluded, based on the pros and cons of cloning humans, that it is wise to clone humans. There are many benefits to this process. One such benefit is allowing parents with diseases to have children, without passing them on. Single parents and infertile parents could have kids and finally a revolutionary medicine technique call therapeutic cloning is being developed.
    Many parents are carriers for disease. If cloning of humans was done, these parents could have children without the risk of having their child contract the disease. Not only that, but according to Dr. Lee Silver, “Cloning bypasses the process of dividing the DNA in half, so you would expect animals produced by cloning to have fewer chromosomal problems, and you'd reduce that cause of birth defect.” This statement can provide hope to many as a lot of scientists are arguing against cloning humans because they fear that it will cause an abnormal amount of birth defects. Another huge benefit of cloning, according to Dr. Lee Silver is the opportunity of infertile parents to have kids. In addition, single parents now have another way of having a child, the other being in vitro. Finally, the part of cloning that skeptics Wolf and Jaenisch is therapeutic cloning. In a nut-shell, therapeutic cloning is growing specific body parts or organs to help with transplants and operations of that nature. Dr. Don Wolf says "Therapeutic cloning has the potential to revolutionize the practice of Western medicine." Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch is also full of praise for therapeutic cloning saying that, “These [stem] cells could be used for extremely important research on these diseases.” Human cloning gets a lot of bad hype due to the common misconceptions about them. For example, twins are basically human clones, but nobody makes a big deal of them. Also, one man cannot become immortal through cloning, because the child will be completely different than the person copied due to the different environment in which they were raised.
    In conclusion, I strongly believe that human cloning should become commonplace. Most of the naysayers do not know most of the facts about cloning and are basing their opinions on myths. They do not know, however, the many benefits to cloning, these include the possibility of many people to have children, who were previously unable to. Also, therapeutic cloning can have even more benefits that the former, because it can help live patients.

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  53. Dear Ms. Day,
    The idea of human cloning has become a hot topic for debate ever since Dolly, the first cloned mammal, was born in 1997. Many people fear if human cloning were to continue that our future would look much like a sci-fi film. “However to a scientist, the only thing that a clone is is an organism that has the same genetic information as another organism.” (1) Using cloning can result in avoiding genetic diseases. This breakthrough in science will allow infertile parents to have a biological child of their own. In addition therapeutic cloning will allow the regeneration of cells, tissues, and organs. Although cloning holds some very hopeful promises, there are many dangerous effects that need to be researched before it is allowed. The future of cloning should be embraced with open arms, because one day it will drastically improve the world.

    There are so many people who have genetic diseases that can be bypassed from cloning. In the normal course of reproduction about four percent of children are born with birth defects. (1) This is a large number of people who have to live with terrible diseases like cystic fibrosis and sickle-cell anemia. With cloning it will be possible to avoid these difficulties. Genetic diseases occur when the sperm and eggs are created through a division process called meiosis. The genetic information (DNA) is split in half so when the egg and sperm combine DNA the fetus has the correct number of chromosomes. However sometimes the division doesn’t work properly and this can result in having too few or too many chromosomes. Even having one extra chromosome can cause detrimental results. For example when there is a trisomy on the twenty first chromosome Down syndrome occurs. However cloning bypasses the process of dividing the DNA in half so it is expected that there are fewer chromosomal problems. (1) Another cause is when two parents do not know they are carriers for a certain disease. If both parents pass on the recessive disease then 25 percent of their children will have it. With cloning there is only one parent and if they are a carrier for a certain disease, the child will never have it either. However cloning may cause other birth defects so it is important that it is researched further in order to be safe for humans.

    For some people having children is a very difficult challenge. In today’s world there are many options for a couple who want to have biological children. But when all else fails human cloning is a promising choice for those who suffer from infertility. “Human cloning allows the birth of a child who would be genetically equivalent only in genes to somebody else who already existed.” (1) The baby’s genetic material would only come from one person instead of two. However, the parent and their cloned child couldn’t be exactly the same. Each would be an individual. For example identical twins are genetically the same but they have a distinct personality, likes and dislikes, and talents. Dr. Lee Silver, a molecular biologist, says, “The environment acts upon and modifies the genetic endearment, and there’s a third of component, our own consciousness, which allows us to go against both our genes and our environment.” Although in the future human cloning will be an option for parents, it is not ethical at the present time. At the moment there is a pretty high frequency of birth defects in large mammals in which cloning has been tried. (1) Once cloning has been proven safe and effective it will be an option for those who want biological children who otherwise could not have.

    --Melissa Viezel

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  54. Dear Ms. Day,
    The idea of human cloning has become a hot topic for debate ever since Dolly, the first cloned mammal, was born in 1997. Many people fear if human cloning were to continue that our future would look much like a sci-fi film. “However to a scientist, the only thing that a clone is is an organism that has the same genetic information as another organism.” (1) Using cloning can result in avoiding genetic diseases. This breakthrough in science will allow infertile parents to have a biological child of their own. In addition therapeutic cloning will allow the regeneration of cells, tissues, and organs. Although cloning holds some very hopeful promises, there are many dangerous effects that need to be researched before it is allowed. The future of cloning should be embraced with open arms, because one day it will drastically improve the world.

    There are so many people who have genetic diseases that can be bypassed from cloning. In the normal course of reproduction about four percent of children are born with birth defects. (1) This is a large number of people who have to live with terrible diseases like cystic fibrosis and sickle-cell anemia. With cloning it will be possible to avoid these difficulties. Genetic diseases occur when the sperm and eggs are created through a division process called meiosis. The genetic information (DNA) is split in half so when the egg and sperm combine DNA the fetus has the correct number of chromosomes. However sometimes the division doesn’t work properly and this can result in having too few or too many chromosomes. Even having one extra chromosome can cause detrimental results. For example when there is a trisomy on the twenty first chromosome Down syndrome occurs. However cloning bypasses the process of dividing the DNA in half so it is expected that there are fewer chromosomal problems. (1) Another cause is when two parents do not know they are carriers for a certain disease. If both parents pass on the recessive disease then 25 percent of their children will have it. With cloning there is only one parent and if they are a carrier for a certain disease, the child will never have it either. However cloning may cause other birth defects so it is important that it is researched further in order to be safe for humans.

    For some people having children is a very difficult challenge. In today’s world there are many options for a couple who want to have biological children. But when all else fails human cloning is a promising choice for those who suffer from infertility. “Human cloning allows the birth of a child who would be genetically equivalent only in genes to somebody else who already existed.” (1) The baby’s genetic material would only come from one person instead of two. However, the parent and their cloned child couldn’t be exactly the same. Each would be an individual. For example identical twins are genetically the same but they have a distinct personality, likes and dislikes, and talents. Dr. Lee Silver, a molecular biologist, says, “The environment acts upon and modifies the genetic endearment, and there’s a third of component, our own consciousness, which allows us to go against both our genes and our environment.” Although in the future human cloning will be an option for parents, it is not ethical at the present time. At the moment there is a pretty high frequency of birth defects in large mammals in which cloning has been tried. (1) Once cloning has been proven safe and effective it will be an option for those who want biological children who otherwise could not have.

    --Melissa Viezel

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  55. Another reason to support cloning is that it can regenerate cells, tissues, and organs. What cloning will allow scientists to do in the future is to take a cell from your body and reprogram it-like rebooting a computer back into the embryonic state-and guide that cell to develop into a particular tissue or organ. (1). Therapeutic cloning replaces or repairs damaged tissue. (2) According to scientists Don Wolf, “Therapeutic cloning has the potential to revolutionize the practice of Western medicine.” This is because so many people have diseases which can be cured by regenerating cells. For example if a patient has leukemia and needs a bone-marrow transplant the best marrow will be genetically identically so it cannot be rejected by the body. Many people will benefit from this type of cloning. Wolf says, “For diabetic patients, you may be able to provide them with insulin-producing cells. Perhaps the most excitement lies in the possibility of treating neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.” Furthermore therapeutic cloning is safe because “cloned cells behave totally normally” according to Rudolf Jaenisch, a professor of biology at MIT. The possibilities for therapeutic cloning are endless and one of the most accepted and ethical forms of cloning according to numerous scientists.

    In tomorrow’s world human cloning has so much potential. It can bypass genetic diseases. Cloning can provide biological children for sterile parents. In addition, therapeutic cloning will revolutionize the practice of medicine and help cure many ailments. People should not be afraid of cloning but realize its ability to improve our world.

    Sincerely,
    Melissa Viezel

    Sources:
    (1) Lee Silver
    (2) Don Wolf
    (3) Rudolf Jaenisch

    ReplyDelete
  56. Zhang Liu

    The idea of human cloning is a relatively new term in science, although we as a society have always dreamt of being able to clone humans in science fiction movies and books. As scientists continue to explore and discover more, we learn the risks and benefits and gather more information on whether human cloning would be beneficial to society. Throughout this process, we learn more about other animals and the complicated workings of genetics; we discover a new form of safe childbirth and find a new way to cure human ailments and save human lives. Human cloning, if properly handled with care and caution, could become the staple of modern medicine and contribute endlessly to the well-being of society.
    Most people who answered a survey in which 95 percent of them said they were against human cloning didn’t understand what cloning was to scientists (Silver). As scientists conduct more tests and plan more experiments to further the depth of knowledge on human cloning, the lives of other animals and mysteries of genetics reveal themselves. For example, when Ian Wilmut orchestrated the birth of Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from the cell of an adult animal, people believed that Dolly would be prematurely aged. We knew that during the normal process of aging, cells’ chromosomes become shorter and shorter, eventually becoming so short the cell dies, and the body containing the cells also die. Using this information, we hypothesized that if the cell used to clone the sheep was already from an aged cell with shorter chromosomes, the newly cloned animal would come into existence at a higher level in the aging process (Silver). Yet Dolly proved us wrong and was not prematurely aged. In fact, her growth and size were average for her age while her chromosome tips were slightly shorter than expected, but within the range of normality. This lead into new research, which shows that contrary to popular belief, the cloning process rejuvenates cells, causing them to be younger (Silver). Already, the research in cloning has harvested bounties of valuable data, enlightening scientists and laying the groundwork for future research on other fields of study such as genetics.
    Currently, when couples have problems passing on their genetics, or their genetics have problems, they opt for alternatives to having children such as in vitro fertilization, surrogate mothers, or adoption. Cloning only required one out of thirteen tries to be first successful in sheep, compared to in vitro fertilization’s discovery took 104 tries (Silver). Not only could human cloning also be more successful than in vitro fertilization, it could prevent genetic disabilities from being passed on. Reproduction by sexual intercourse has resulted in 4% of babies being born with defects often caused by non-disjunction in cell division. Cloning would effectively eliminate this problem by dividing the DNA in half, so cloned offspring would be expected to have fewer chromosomal problems and therefore reduce the rate of birth defects (Silver). Birth defects are also caused when two parents are unknowingly carriers for diseases such as sickle-cell anemia or cystic fibrosis. If the adult used to clone the child does not have the disease, even if he or she is a carrier, then the child will not have the disease either (Silver). Although cloning in other animals have resulted in high percentages of defects, human cloning could be the solution to all forms of child defects and genetically transferred diseases, providing parents-to-be a safe and successful way to have children.

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  57. Zhang Liu continued

    Another form of human cloning, therapeutic cloning, according to Don Wolf, a senior scientist at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center, “has the potential to revolutionize the practice of Western medicine. Like reproductive cloning, therapeutic cloning uses the same technology, but instead of producing a child, it generates cells, tissues, or organs that can be used in ways to replace or repair damage to the human body. For patients waiting hopelessly on lists for organ transplants, therapeutic cloning would allow them to be treated immediately, removing the need to wait and waste time on a list. Diabetic patients could be treated with insulin-producing cells; Alzheimer’s patients could be treated with brain cells; patients with cardiovascular problems could be treated with stem cells (Wolf). Most importantly, therapeutic cloning would avoid any possibility of rejection when the new cells are placed into the body. The body activates a reject sequence when foreign tissues are introduced to the body, but therapeutic cloning uses someone’s own cells to clone more cells, so rejection would not be a factor (Wolf). As a new advancement in medicine, therapeutic has the potential to end the current treatments that are invasive and have low success rates, treat all kinds of ailments and save millions of lives.
    When it comes to what matters most: the value of human life and future of human society, human cloning has show us a new and better way of making babies when we are unable to ourselves and improve the quality of life of countless patients with therapeutic cloning treatment while allowing scientists to learn about genetics, the driving force behind human cloning. If we are responsible and use human cloning for health purposes only and prevent catastrophic mistakes by being actively cautious and careful, human cloning will flourish, allowing the human race to prosper with less pain and disease.

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  58. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  59. Zhang Liu continued

    Another form of human cloning, therapeutic cloning, according to Don Wolf, a senior scientist at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center, “has the potential to revolutionize the practice of Western medicine. Like reproductive cloning, therapeutic cloning uses the same technology, but instead of producing a child, it generates cells, tissues, or organs that can be used in ways to replace or repair damage to the human body. For patients waiting hopelessly on lists for organ transplants, therapeutic cloning would allow them to be treated immediately, removing the need to wait and waste time on a list. Diabetic patients could be treated with insulin-producing cells; Alzheimer’s patients could be treated with brain cells; patients with cardiovascular problems could be treated with stem cells (Wolf). Most importantly, therapeutic cloning would avoid any possibility of rejection when the new cells are placed into the body. The body activates a reject sequence when foreign tissues are introduced to the body, but therapeutic cloning uses someone’s own cells to clone more cells, so rejection would not be a factor (Wolf). As a new advancement in medicine, therapeutic has the potential to end the current treatments that are invasive and have low success rates, treat all kinds of ailments and save millions of lives.
    When it comes to what matters most: the value of human life and future of human society, human cloning has show us a new and better way of making babies when we are unable to ourselves and improve the quality of life of countless patients with therapeutic cloning treatment while allowing scientists to learn about genetics, the driving force behind human cloning. If we are responsible and use human cloning for health purposes only and prevent catastrophic mistakes by being actively cautious and careful, human cloning will flourish, allowing the human race to prosper with less pain and disease.

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  60. In 1997, history was made when scientists cloned the first mammal, a sheep named dolly. This revolutionized the fields of science, striking up news everywhere. However, as new and inconceivable as this was, was it morally right? Was it ethical? Would it really leave advantages and benefits for us as humans? Would it really lead to anything, without harming human lives? People have been supporting this controversial topic from both sides, with people saying that it can help cure many diseases and help with reproduction, while others say that doing that cloning will have disastrous effects on the human race. While the other side has good points, I believe that cloning is not a good idea, while being morally and ethically wrong. With today’s technology, cloning will hurt us may than it would help us. There are better ways to do what cloning without risking effects on our future.
    While yes, cloning does help couples reproduce, it poses a lot of problems. How cloning works, is that it takes the genes of one parents, instead of two parents to create the child. This results in the child sharing the same genetic information as the parent, and according to Dr. Lee Silver, a molecular biologist at Princeton University, clones are basically “Later born identical twins.” This will deprive the children of individuality, having to be exactly like the one they were cloned after. Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and a professor of biology at MIT says that there are also many risks when it comes to the safety of the child. First of all, cloning is very unstable as of now. With in-vitro fertilization, it took them 104 tries to finally get one baby. With that being said, how many tries would it take to get a cloned baby to grow up and be born without birth defects. They have low survival rates, and no one knows what will happen to the children when they grow up. Some effects of animal clones are premature aging, size defects, like one being abnormally large, respiratory problems, or heart and circulatory abnormalities. Now, although the animals tested were not humans, they are mammals, and one can predict that there will be a similar effect with humans. Why give birth to a child just to have it suffer throughout its life? And although I am not against giving everyone a chance to raise children, it wouldn’t be good to be giving 60 year old single women children. When the child is say twenty or so, his mother will be 80 years old, and who knows if she will be able to provide for him or help him, let alone still be alive. It would be better to adopt an older more underprivileged child and help give him or her a future, rather than cloning yourself. With so many children on the streets, homeless and without parents, and with so many children in orphanages, wouldn’t it be better to adopt a child and end horrible things like this?

    Andrew Chen
    Part 1

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  61. Now many argue that with cloning, one will be able to give desired traits to their children, and let them be stronger, faster, smarter, and even more immune to different diseases. According to Silver, this poses an ethical dilemma because, “… it will allow this large group of Americans and people in other Western societies to jump ahead in terms of advantages with their children start life with. It will increase the gap between those who have money—countries with money, people with money—and those who don’t. It will cause a permanent division potentially between two groups of people.” The two groups that he is referring to are the children that have been genetically modified and have a lot of advantages, and the children who were born normally, with just the genes that their parents gave them. Silver goes on to say that eventually through genetically engineering through generations and generations, that, “It could reach the point where people in the upper genetic class could no longer breed with people who were not genetically engineered, which would lead to a division of our species into two or more separate species.” It won’t be fair at all, people with money will be able to give their children advantages in life, not at all like Mother Nature intended.
    In conclusion, in theory, cloning would be great, being able to cure diseases and help with many other things, but as of now, with today’s technology and science, it probably isn’t a very good idea. I’m not saying the cloning won’t be a part of our future, in fact I’m pretty sure one day it will, but for today, right now, cloning will just have catastrophic results. By all means, scientists should keep researching cloning, but humans should not be cloned until it is proven to be 100% safe.

    Andrew Chen
    Part 2

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  62. Dear Ms. Day,

    A clone is a cell, cell product, or organism that is genetically identical to the unit or individual from which it was derived1. My position is that cloning would be beneficial to society. Having cloning technology would provide us the capability of reducing birth defects. It would also increase the success rate of in vitro fertilization allowing woman who can’t have babies the ability to have one. Also, cloning technology can teach us how to reprogram cells without creating a person to help people recover from chronic and debilitating diseases. For all these reasons, I believe that cloning would be beneficial to the society that we live in today

    By using cloning technology, we can lower the risk of diseases in children due to birth defects. Since, “cloning bypasses the process of dividing DNA in half,”(Silver) you would be more likely have fewer chromosomal problems. Many birth defects result from two parents who unknowingly are carriers of a gene pass on that gene to their children. Such diseases like sickle-cell anemia and cystic fibrosis result in this way. When two parents are carriers there is a 25 percent chance that their children are going to inherit the pair of genes. Since cloning only requires one set of DNA or genes there is no possibility that the birth defect will result. Cloning not only helps parents avoid the guilt and the burden of caring for such a child but also eliminates the potential pain and suffering experienced by the child born with the birth defect.

    Not only will cloning technology help lower the rate of birth defects; but, cloning will help women who can’t have babies because cloning has the potential of having a much greater success rate than in vitro fertilization. These infertile couples will now be able to have babies because of cloning without it being a long drawn out process. It will also help single women who want to have a baby without any of the risks of the sperm donor having a disease or claiming parental rights. Since the woman wants to raise the child on her own then why not have it by herself. With cloning anyone wanting a child could have a baby. Some argue that the baby would be exactly like the cell donor but all children have some resemblance to their parents yet just like any non-cloned child, they would have a different personality because they would grow up in a different environment.

    Cloning technology is not only used to create babies, but it can be used to teach us how to reprogram cells without creating a person. Such technology helps scientists to “guide that [embryonic] cell to develop into a particular tissue or organ. So you could guide that embryonic cell into bone marrow, and then you can put the bone marrow back into that person, who actually donated the cell in the first place, so you’re giving that person his or her own bone marrow,” (Silver). How wonderful would it be to be able to readily cure such devastating diseases. Also you could generate various organs using cloning technology so that you can treat patients who are waiting for transplants right away. Also with diabetic patients, you could generate insulin-producing cells to replace the cells that are not working. What makes this technology so beneficial is that if you transplant any of these cells into your body, they will not be rejected because they came from your body.

    I believe cloning would be beneficial to the society because if such technology existed there would be fewer children with birth defects, more couples and individuals who wanted children could have children, and we could cure major chronic and life threatening diseases. Cloning would not only help lessen the pain and suffering of families, children, and individuals, but would also help lessen the burden of healthcare because people would remain healthier. As of result of all these things, I support the development of cloning technology and feel that cloning would be beneficial to our society.

    Sincerely,
    Jordan Henck

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  63. Bibliography:
    1. Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 05 Mar. 2010. .
    2. "NOVA Online | 18 Ways to Make a Baby | On Human Cloning." PBS. Web. 05 Mar. 2010. .
    -Jordan

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  64. In recent years, there has been much controversy about human cloning. However, this controversy is unnecessary because human cloning is an extremely bad idea; it is useless, there are other fields of research that are more important than human cloning today, and the potential for disaster is great.
    The biggest reason why we should oppose human cloning is because of how little it would affect society. According to Dr. Lee Silver, a molecular biologist at Princeton University and author of several books, “I’m quite confident that human cloning will never have an impact on society, because most people want to have children with their partners.” There is no other reason, again according to Silver, to use cloning technology, “except to allow infertile people to have babies. It doesn’t serve any other purpose.” If this is the case, why should we spend so much time and money on technology that will hardly affect us? It would be a much better idea to spend any of the time and/or money that would be used researching this on therapeutic cloning, which could help us immediately. “The theoretical benefits [of therapeutic cloning] are absolutely fantastic,” says Dr. Don P Wolf, senior scientist at the Oregon regional Primate Research Center. “If you look at the lists of patients who are waiting for transplants of various organs, and then you think of the possibilities that you could treat them straight away through therapeutic cloning, you begin to get a sense of the potential of this technology,” said Wolf. Even a more prominent reason why human cloning should not be legalized is because of how dangerous it is. Rudolf Jaenisch is a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He believes that “human cloning is totally flawed, most subjects die before birth, while some survive until birth and then die a few days or weeks after birth.” Furthermore, both Wolf and Jaenisch agree that human cloning has not been tested enough to be proven to be safe and useful.
    Human cloning, according to many scientists and non-scientists, has much potential. But at this point in time, it would not be wise to encourage further testing and research on it. Instead, it is a much better idea to invest in more useful technology that could help mankind immediately. Additionally, human cloning is simply too dangerous to begin testing on human subjects.

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  65. “ZOOM!” A massive republic transport drops off battalions of clone troopers. In Coruscant, Palpatine issues Order 66. All clone troopers immediately hunt down the Jedi Order with robotic speed. The clone army created for the good of the Republic was easily “turned to the dark side” with one command from the leader. Although this may be a scene in Star Wars Episode Three: Revenge of the Sith, using human clones as living weapons is not a concept that is that far away in the future. In 1997, the first artificial clone of a sheep was revealed. Speculation of developing human cloning rose quickly and a debate of ethics began to unfold. Human cloning would be extremely unbeneficial to human society. Human cloning will denounce and disrupt the natural process of conception, and has no major benefits right now for society unlike therapeutic cloning. It is imperative to understand that human cloning at the moment is unbeneficial to our species.
    First of all, human cloning could act as a replacement of natural conception. According to scientists interviewed by NOVA, one use for human cloning would be to let an unfertile mother reproduce without a husband, or a couple with a sterile husband to reproduce without the husbands gametes. However this should not be done with couples that are completely healthy, Cloning at the moment has not proven to be safe enough for human embryos to be reproduced in such a way without having some sort of birth defects in most cases. Also, natural conception encourages genetic and biological diversity, something which is strived for in all species. The usage for human reproductive cloning is limited and almost useless. Even scientist Don Wolf said to NOVA, “Human reproductive cloning to me is totally inappropriate at the present time.” Cloning at this point in time is definitely not perfect. According to Rudolf Jaenisch, “Cloned mice and sheep become fat in old age. We don’t know why exactly this would happen but the best hypothesis would be that it is because the activity of some metabolic genes is not correctly regulated fro some reason. We are beginning to grasp how big the problem is.”
    According to scientist Lee Silver, he told NOVA about how Dolly was first conceived. (Dolly is the first cloned animal revealed.) “Ian Wilmut put cloned embryos into 13 surrogate mothers, and one got pregnant and had offspring.” One out of thirteen mothers got pregnant and had offspring. That is less than a 10% success rate. It is clear that human cloning although thought to be a potential replacement for natural conception does not yet have sufficient technology to do this effectively.

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  66. Furthermore, at this moment human cloning has almost no benefits to human society. The only benefit is that you can have a baby without a father or sperm donor. Advancement in this research would be foolish. Although cloning on animals has suggested that cloning works, evidence has shown that human cloning is ineffective. Scientist Don Wolf said to NOVA that “the risk is much too high for the embryo or the fetus for this technology to be applied at this time in the human.” However, all three scientists interviewed by NOVA promoted something called therapeutic cloning. Therapeutic cloning would allow scientists to reproduce certain cells. This has immense potential to cure disease, unlike human reproduction cloning. Don Wolf told NOVA, “I think the theoretical benefits are absolutely fantastic. Therapeutic cloning has the potential to revolutionize the practice of Western medicine.” How is therapeutic cloning actually going to be used? Don Wolf explained to NOVA, “In theory, you would be in a position to create embryonic stem cells for each individual. So you and I would have our own embryonic stem cell, which means you would not have any rejection sequelae associated with the use of foreign tissue.” As you can see, human cloning has nothing compared to the possible benefits of therapeutic cloning.
    In conclusion, human cloning would not benefit society. It would make a small effort in replacing natural conception and has no real benefits compared to the possibilities of therapeutic cloning. There is no doubt that human cloning should be banned and therapeutic cloning should be legalized. Human cloning is a side track in what should be our main goal: successful therapeutic cloning.

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