Thursday, July 21, 2011

To Clone or not to Clone?


One heated ethical topic is if it's okay to make clones. They started out with cloning one sheep. It was a success. The problem was that groups of people felt as though it was scientists trying to play God, and they didn't like that too much. As of now, there have been no humans cloned.

What I would like to know is your opinion on five questions:

(1) Do you think it's ethical that we clone humans?
(2) What do you think would be the primary benefits and main drawbacks of cloning humans? That is, what could we use them for?
(3) If we do use human clones, do you think they would think the same as their actual human counterpart . . . such as, if Hitler or Osama bin Laden was cloned, would they try to take over the world and cause terror?
(4) Would the life of a human clone be less valuable than a human life? (Would it be murder to kill a clone?)
(5) Would you want to accept organs from clones if the organs kept you alive?

Thank you for your opinion!

Alex Powers

17 comments:

English student said...

There are two commonly discussed types of human cloning: therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning. Therapeutic cloning involves cloning cells from an adult for use in medicine and is an active area of research. Reproductive cloning would involve making cloned humans. Such reproductive cloning has not been performed and is illegal in many countries.
A third type of cloning called replacement cloning is a theoretical possibility, and would be a combination of therapeutic and reproductive cloning. Replacement cloning would entail the replacement of an extensively damaged, failed, or failing body through cloning followed by whole or partial brain transplant.
With animal cloning, such as cows, some people think its okay. It’s the same thing with human clones. I think the government would benefit more from using clones as workers because then they wouldn’t even have to pay them as much or pay them at all. If humans were cloned, the earth would be over crowded. The food would be scarce, the water, even they would take over all the jobs. Then us “humans” what will we do? The government would have fun then because they would leave all the clones and make the “real” humans disappear.
I don’t necessarily think that the clones would have the same mindset of their counterpart human. It’s like a new life born again. Osama didn’t try to take over the world, how could he? Every human has a mind of their own, the same thing with clones.
Absolutely it would be murder! Why? Because these clones were made from our DNA. Meaning they have everything we have, just they weren’t born the same way.
I don’t have any thoughts about accepting organs from clones, because this issue hasn’t arose yet, and even if it does we probably wouldn’t even be alive by that time.
In some religions, such as Catholicism and Islam, it is forbidden to clone any human because it takes away equality of all people. Although in Islam it is permissible only to the extent of helping infertility and embryo splitting.
Nothing happens without the will of God.


Lori

English student said...

i think cloning should be left alone. If you are going to have a clone for medical reason; what happens if you need a heart? You just took that being's life. What about the rest of the organs you do not need? You might as well go to a doctor and get a card showing your blood type, and possible doner types. Than carry it around on your person. That way if some one thinks their life is more valuable than yours, they get your organs. Just be quicker a the draw, and do not shoot what you might need. I think cloning is already taking place though; look how many times you meet someone and they tell you. I just saw someone who looks just like you. Will the person getting cloned be responsible; finically, morally, and ethically?what happens if they turn out to be another jeffery dahmer. Someone is going to need more clones.If that clone turns out to be a genius i might have to take my own life. I would not be able to stand arguing constantly fiquring out who is right. I think we are saddened enough with birth defects that take place naturally. You know that if the clone does not turn out suitable; they will make another one until they get it right. I would not want that on my conscious. Do you ?
kevin h

English student said...

After having to look up cloning and the process behind it I have been able to come up with an answer. I do think it is unethical to clone a fully developed human being, because it takes a lot of time and money. For example the cloning of the sheep was after hundreds of failed attempts. Human clones would not be useful as their quality of life is extremely low. If we were to clone humans they would not be the same as their human counterpart as the only thing binding them is DNA. As far as how valuable life of a human clone would be is very debatable. A human clone is born just like a human baby. However a human baby born normal has a longer life capacity, but a human clone baby is born with a compromised immune system to began with so they already have a shorter life capacity. With that being said I would not want to take an organ from a cloned human as the organ is more than likely compromised.
Amber Johnson-Garcia

English student said...

Cloning humans has many ups and downs. For me I do not think we should clone humans for everyday life, but I do see how it could be a great asset to medical issues. Now is it ethical, I don't feel it is because a person is born how and who they are and no one should be able to decide if that person doesn't meet their standards they get a do over.

I feel the primary benefits to cloning a human may be in the medical world as to studying certain diseases or finding a cure for a disease or even in the amputation world they could gain a whole lot of advantages. Some of the drawbacks would be life expectancy is not as long as "normal humans," they have many problems just like the countless numbers of sheep who were made before the one success.

I will argue the fact that Hitler and Osama wanted to take over the world, because that was their plan and goes to show their mental state and we all know that it wouldn't be possible, because the rest of the world has their own mind but if the clones were cloned exactly would we have to deal with these individuals again?...I hope not!

The human clone would be just as valuable as a human because if people were to be cloned they would have the same importance as everyone else--a life is a life regardless if it was cloned or not. I would have no problem accepting organs from a clone because they would have to pass the same criteria as all the rest of the organs that are or are not currently available.

Buddy Carpenter

English student said...

Absolutely not. As far as I know there is only one God. There is no way that researchers should have the right to make a human being. What may start out as a good thing can turn into disaster real quick. Not all people are good, with cloning in the hands of humans we are only asking for huge problems.

My opinion, cloning should totally be banned.

Kim Jonson

________________________

Cloning is not a good idea!! why would people want to be cloned in the first place? waste of time!! I feel that researchers are just bored and need something else to do. Seriously i feel that if God didn't bless you with a twin its a reason for that!!

Bobbi Jones
________________________

Hell no. There is only one god and why would you want some one who looks, talks, and acts like you. That's freakin creepy don't you think. Cloning would have no purpose in life whatsoever. People think that we could use it as replacement organs but Im sorry it just like having an artificial organ.
Brandt Breymeyer
________________________

from an ethical stand point i don't see much wrong with cloning. but also i don't see much of a point to to cloning entire people. if you can clone like a liver or something the power to ya. but also from a biological stand point i seem to recall that cloned animals seem to have a radically reduced life span. that may or may not be true but it's whatever. i think a lot of the time people need to just chill. they seem to fear a giant cloned monster capable of terrorizing Tokyo to be born and bring on the Apocalypse. logically is that really going to happen? more than likely not.
so ethically i don't see anything wrong with human cloning it just seems kind of pointless

Tyler Meadows
________________________


No...we are already crowding this earth. God makes and breaks humans, or the miracle of natural childbirth if you don't follow that religion. How would people stop fraud if there's a bunch of John's running around with the same DNA?

Life runs its course. People are born, they live, and they die. Cloning may lead to advances in treatments for many diseases, but then you are growing a human being to test on them which is wrong. It should be banned, as well as on animals.

Nikki Eaten

------------------------



I do not agree with cloning at all. I think it's a horrible idea and I fully agree with Pam. God created us and only one of us(or in some cases, more because of twins, etc) and that's how it should stay. I'm not aware of the complications of cloning but i'm sure there are several that could physically harm a human being. And i would like to add that i think testing it on animals first is just as bad. yes i know they're animals, but they are still living creatures that God created.

Jennifer Grille

______________
i think human cloning should be illegal and if it was legal how do you clone a soul? I think only God can do that.I think Dr.s should be able to clone a foot or hand and organs for people who need them,but they must stop short of a complete human mainly because the twin girls in the picture frighten the hell out of me.Although if i was to be totally honest about it If i was like Bill Gates rich i might hire some Dr.s to make me up a couple hot 24 yr olds strictly for sexual purposes.

jerry reinstorf x

English student said...

I don't approve of people playing GOD, creating life from test tubes taking down data treating life like something U CAN BUY ON THE SHELF three of the same humans 4 the price $ of 1 on sale type of mind frame sounds like self destruction & distribution...

Tim Ware
________________________


I do not think that human cloning is acceptable in any circumstances. I do not see any benefit from it. I believe that is messing with God's creation. As far as animal cloning goes I am not as strongly against it, I guess I do not see any thing that wrong with it but really no point in it either. However human cloning should be banned under any circumstance, whether the person is wanting to be cloned or not!

Holly Harms
________________________


I don't think cloning is acceptable. Each person was made individually and with a specific gene makeup. We are messing with something much larger than just ourselves when we begin tampering with cloning. I just don't think that it should be legal. Just because we have the technology to do it, doesn't mean we should or that it's right.
I believe that God made us each specifically and through cloning this is ruined.
no matter the case, if death or otherwise I think banning cloning is fine.

Paige Kirby
________________________

I see no good idea to why people should be cloned. Everyone is their own person and there should never be another one person like another. The world is over populated already and if there was a couple people who looked just alike then that would cause numerous problems for the government.

Ben Legner
________________________

Cloning is another one of those things that scientist should leave alone just because we have the means and the resources doesn't mean we should do it. It turns humans into science projects. i think we should continue reproducing the old fashion way because whats the fun of making a baby that will consume the rest of your life if you cant get laid doing it

Dave Gagen
________________________

I think it should be illegal. Me personally I don't see the point in cloning. I mean, what medical or scientific use would there be for cloning?

Chris Waters

English student said...

I don't think that human cloning should be allowed only because i think that it would turn bad fast. I think it would turn into something like in the movie "the island". This is where they cloned humans and harvest their body parts when the original person need it. I think that animal cloning shound be allowed though. It has so many good things that you can do with it. With cloning the biggest domestic animals and plants you could help feed the world. You could do research and maybe one day find a cure for some diseases and clone it.

Carter Boyce

_________________

I definitely don't think that cloning should be legal. I know you have probably heard it before, but it kinda is like playing God. The only good thing i can see coming out of cloning, would be to clone human parts, but i don't even know if that would be considered cloning. But ya, doesn't seem like a good idea for me.

Kyle Evering
________________________

i don't see the point in cloning. there is no good or bad in the situation, like another blogger said i think people just got bored and decimated to see if we could do it

Randy bustle
________________________

Bonnie Stock said...
Personally, I see no point in cloning a person or an animal, even for medicinal purposes. There is the argument that new organs could be made and would match your unique DNA, but I think science has gone far enough already without creating body parts. I think we should be satisfied that we know how to transplant organs and shock people back to life. I don't think we need to go and use stem cells to create new organs... so I think it should be illegal in all circumstances.

Bonnie Stock
________________________

Cloning is a terrible idea. The world has way too many people as it is. Playing God is just not something that we as humans should mess with. Think about the increase in fraud. It's already common. If people are running around with the same DNA we are going to have big problems; the wrong person getting thrown in jail for murder because their DNA was found at the scene of the crime and so on. It's not something we should mess with.

Brittany Clapper

English student said...

(3) If we do use human clones, do you think they would think the same as their actual human counterpart . . . such as, if Hitler or Osama bin Laden was cloned, would they try to take over the world and cause terror?
If someone cloned me at age 28, my clone would be nothing like me. It may look like me, but act like me it wouldn’t. Cloning someone doesn’t make them mentally identical to their clone. We would live in different times, we would experience different events in life, we wouldn’t have the same social experience, the same people in our lives, and the list goes one.
As for cloning Hitler, we have to look at what was wrong with him. Did he have a genetic mental disorder, could it be passed on to its clone? And Bin Laden, would he grow up in the Taliban? The terrorists group would affect the clone, not the genetics in him.
Heather Denam

English student said...

With the way the human race keeps growing, I do not think we need to start cloning humans. We are reproducing ourselves, we shouldn't take science and use it to make what we can already make ourselves.

I do think there COULD be benefits to cloning. We could use them to try out new inventions, or to take risks that we ourselves wouldn't want to make. They could also work for us, and maybe even do a better job. There are drawbacks as well. Having clones work for us would only make us humans more lazy. Also, what if the clones decided to revolt and do things their way?

I don't think they would think the same way as their counterparts unless we told them to. We wouldn't be giving them that person's brain, therefore, they would have to form their own thoughts and actions.

Yes, I think a human life would always be more valuable than a clone. We were designed and brought into this world without chemicals and scientists trying to put us together. We are natural in the sense of where we came from and how we were born.

If the organs from a clone would keep me alive but cause any other changes, I'm not sure I would accept them. Human organs work the same and do the same job in each body. It's more of a guarantee that it would be a successful organ in a body that it's transferred to.
-Hannah Miller

English student said...

I do not believe it would be ethical to clone humans. I believe that man would make a great mistake by doing so. I agree with one other student in that cloning my cause a situation of over crowding and a further drain on our resource.

I don't see any benefits in cloning humans. I believe that would just make things worse for the real person, let alone confusing. I believe that if we did clone humans, that the clones would develop agendas of their own.

I believe the life of a clone should have the same value as people who were not cloned. It would be murder to kill a clone.

I do however feel that if we could create body parts to replace failing or failed ones that we should do that. As long as we don't have to clone a complete human in order to do this.

Khattab

English student said...

I think that cloning is a very cool idea in the first place, and that is would be completely ok to clone humans, as long as they have their consent. If someone wanted to get cloned, for who knows what reasons, I think that it would be ethical as long as the clone doesn't turn into a slave of some kind, like cloning yourself to have a butler or maid. This clone would have all the benefits that the person who the clone came from does.

A clone would primarily be used for experimentation, in my opinion. If we used the clones for the wrong reasons, to make more money etc, then that would be wrong and we should clone in the first place.

I think that only good people should be cloned, I know it is difficult to judge what a 'good person' actually is, but it should be someone who would benefit society. Imagine if Ben Franklin or Albert Einstein were cloned, how much the two people could have accomplished working, well, with themselves.

I think that accepting organs from clones would be a whole different story, that is, completely different. Allowing a clone to live and be a person would be one thing, but if you just created them then killed them for organs, that would be unethical and should not be done in any way, shape, or form.

Jake Bock

English student said...

I really don't have an answer if its ethical to clone humans.
What do you think would be the primary benefits and main drawbacks of cloning humans? If u think about it its no reason to clone humans unless you want someone to look like the same person but that would mean they would act the same thew.

If we do use human clones, do you think they would think the same as their actual human counterpart . . . such as, if Hitler or Osama bin Laden was cloned, would they try to take over the world and cause terror? NO, not at all they would think the same as there counterpart. Just because they look the same doesn't mean there brain is the same.


Robert McClinton

English student said...

No I don’t think that it’s ethical to clone a human being. The world is already over populated as it is and things will just get out of hand like “Terminator” or “Jurassic Park”. The benefits of cloning would be that people would have an identical twin. The drawbacks of cloning would be that nobody would recognize the difference between the clones and the humans. Other cloning drawbacks would include should clones be treated as humans and receive basic civil rights. I think if you cloned people such as Hitler and Laden that they WOULD try to terrorize the world but, there is also a 50% chance that they wouldn’t too. It’s not that the life of a clone would be less valuable but are people really going to consider giving them civil rights? It would be the slave trade and the concentration camp days all over again? Because clones would argue that they are also people too. They could also argue that they are their own race and own entity. So cloning humans would just create more problems and more mouths to feed. I personally would accept organs from a clone if they kept me alive. But some people would see cloned organs as different entity and not accept them. Something similar to racism.

Pikachu

English student said...

First off, people shouldn’t be trying to play God and try to create another living creature. Cloning is wrong on so many levels. There is no benefit to them and I’m sure it costs so much money to research it. That is money that could be used to help bring countries out of poverty and get our world out of war. There is no point in cloning people and it’s just wrong. People aren’t God. They can’t just create a new human. Several comments above imply that they will be treated like they are less than normal humans. I strongly believe that this is true. A person would not be treated equally if they were a clone. Heartless people in this world find people different than them, in any way, inferior to them. People can’t help being black, white, Asian or any other race, but people can choose not to clone humans to make such ‘racism’ not exist.
Ayah

English student said...

I do not think that it is ethical to clone humans. I think that there is no primary benefit in cloning humans, we are put here to serve a purpose and leave. The main drawback of cloning to me is that there could never be another me and I don't want there to be. There is a reason everyone is unique in their own way. I think that if the human is clone they might share the same attributes as their donor. I'm not sure of my feelings as far as murder. I mean if it has life rather a clone or not i's murder if it is killed. I would not want to accept organs from a clone.
Makeisha Riley

English student said...

Cloning isn't a subject I've ever been informed on, so what i know about it is based solely on cartoons and television. I do disagree with it based ont he fact that we don't know what consequences could occur after a few years or generations of cloning. Not to mention the fact that the world is already beginning to overpopulate so why would you make another human knowing that we already have enough of them? and if they are claiming its just scientifical and they want to learn more, then maybe they should put their minds to something more useful like a cure for cancer or the common cold.

SJAG <3

English student said...

I do not think Cloning Humans is ethical and I don’t think it’s right at all. People think when the clone a person they come back as that person, me I think different. Only that person that god made, Can be that person. If a person was cloned I don’t think they would have intentions of that person they were cloned from. Human cloned lives will not have the same value of regular human being. No I will not accept any cloned organs.

Akemia Slaughter