Cloning is becoming something more probable in our future with all these new advancements in medical research. But should we really use it as a way to increase the lifespan of human beings? Are you alright with this? Well, there’s some pros and cons you should probably learn more about before you take your stance.
Pro: Cloning for Reproduction
There are several pros within reproductive cloning, mostly related to helping families obtain children. And if you take a biology course, you’ll learn that it helps parents without eggs or sperm create children who are related through genes. It also allows couples of the same-sex to have children, and would not have to use sperm or eggs from a donor. Men would merely need a surrogate mother to hold the clone. Even parents who have unfortunately have their child pass can have their child returned through a clone. Reproductive cloning also helps the animal world, in that it can clone endangered species.
Pro: Replacing Organs
You probably know that cloning is a way to replace organs that fail. There is a shortage of organs being donated, and therefore with cloning, the wait can be reduced and more people can be saved. Furthermore, if you clone your organs, there is less likelihood that it will be rejected, and your body will better process the newly placed organ.
Pro: Research on Genetics
Cloning has the potential to be very useful in researching genetics. By cloning, genetic researchers could better understand the gene composition as well as how genetic constituents plays a role within human traits. Furthermore, there is a higher chance to be able to tweak genetic components in cloned humans and could help fight against genetic diseases.
Pro: Getting Desired Traits in Organisms
Cloning can allow for desired traits in organisms. Organisms can be made specially to meet the specific requirements of whichever research is being conducted. With plants as well as animals, genetic alteration can provide researchers the ability to replicate organisms. Scientists would no longer have to harm creatures if they were cloned just for researching.
Pro: Injury Recovery
Cloning can help with recovery processes. By using someone’s own cells, it can help them recover much quicker and easier, as well as with a lot fewer problems.
Con: Cloning for Reproduction
Just like there are many pros to reproductive cloning, there are also some negative aspects related to the practice. For one, cloning children might develop the belief that children can be created specifically to the parent’s wishes. It could also take away from the uniqueness of human beings as well as go against the individuality as well as freedom of human beings. Clones would probably be viewed as subhuman. Children who were cloned would be living in the footsteps of the donor and feel as though they have expectations to fulfill. You probably would not want to be the clone of the child your parents lost. Furthermore, animal cloning has not actually been so successful. Almost all of animal cloning has failed because of genetic defects and is therefore considered unsafe. From a religious perspective, it is believed that cloning goes against God, since clones are created by mankind, and it is also believed that clones would have no soul.
Con: More malpractice
Although cloning internal organs can extend the human lifespan, it may also lead to a great deal of malpractice. Just like cloning can reproduce desired traits, it can also reproduce undesired traits and can lead to many malpractices.
Con: No diversity
Cloning as you probably know creates identical genes. With this, there would a serious lack of diversity within humankind. And according to scientists, not having diversity can reduce our abilities to adapt. We would end up all appearing to be extremely similar.
Con: Quicker aging
The concept of cloning includes harvesting donor cells, and then raising them to the embryonic stage in a petri dish, and then placing them in a surrogate to grow. But there is the chance that the age of the donor could be imprinted on the developing embryo, which could cause premature aging complications or even lead to premature death.
Con: Security
Everyone sheds millions of cells all the time, as their skin cells she off. If you merely read a library book, those cells that fell off could be taken in order to clone you. How would you feel about this? If cloning were to come into effect, you should sure as hell hope that there will be laws to protect your rights.
After hearing the pros and cons of cloning, you might not have even made a clear decision on how you feel about it. It’s a difficult subject. But regardless of what you believe, it is important to note that research has proven that a clone would never be completely identical, just like twins are not completely the same.
