Human cloning ban
Cloning is best defined as the making of genetically identical copies of a single cell or entire organism (Human Cloning 36). Until recently, scientists believed that animals could only be cloned by the process of combining a cell in the embryonic stage with an egg and fertilizing it to become an embryo, the earliest stage of a living organism. In 1997, scientists from the Roslin Institute in Scotland announced the first successful cloned animal from an adult cell. With recent advancements in technology and this new cloning procedure, the cloning of humans has become a realistic possibility. Human cloning encompasses more than just the creation of an entire human; the ban has halted important research at the cellular level on human embryonic cells and should be revised to allow research to continue in the treatment and possible cures of many illnesses and diseases. Cloning has a longer history than most people realize. The concept of cloning is over sixty years old. In 1932, Hans Spemann, a German scientist, was the first person to propose transferring the nucleus from a cell of an adult animal into an egg to replicate that animal. It was not until 1952 that the first attempt was made to clon
With the possibility of cloning humans now theoretically possible, worldwide debate has begun over the possible advantages and disadvantages of such a feat, as well as the moral and ethical concerns. When the starved cell is fused with an egg cell and given sufficient nutrients, it behaves the same as an embryo cell (Cloning 156). In 1985, the first transgenic animal, an animal whose DNA is altered to contain some human genetic material, was created to produce a human growth hormone in its milk (Cloning 154). These misconceptions of human cloning prompted President Clinton to issue a five-year moratorium on government funded human cloning research, and he encouraged private industry to do the same. An unfertilized egg was taken from a second sheep and its nucleus removed. Most of the debate is the question of whether the medical benefits of cloning research will outweigh the possible risks to human identity and morality. Another form of transgenic research affected was the development of medicines and vaccines produced directly in the milk supply of animals for the treatment of premature babies (Cloning 156). Perhaps the best argument comes from Dr. This attempt failed, but the technique became known as "nuclear transfer" (Cloning 154). While cloning a human can be considered by many to be unethical and immoral, human cloning research can be beneficial in the fields of hereditary diseases and transgenic research and should be allowed to continue. Dolly was created from a mammary gland cell from an adult sheep using this new technique. Robert Briggs and Thomas King attempted to clone frogs by transferring the nucleus of a frog embryo cell, a cell in the early stages of development, into an egg cell. Still others see humanity with no individuality with everyone looking and thinking the same. Ian Wilmut and his colleagues at the Roslin Institute, in February 1997, announced the successful cloning of a ewe, Dolly.
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Acceptance Essays
