Answer to the cloning question
In our society today there are many topics that are very controversial and stir up heated arguments. When you think of these issues, things like abortion and the death penalty come to mind. The leaps and bounds made in the advancement of technology that must be discussed and decided upon, this will definitely add to the number of controversies. One major topic that has arisen lately is that of human cloning. The definition of cloning is the production of one or more individual plants or animals (whole or in part) that are genetically identical to an original plant or animal (Robinson Religious Tolerance). Genetic researchers tell us that now it is only a matter of time before this is possible. Ten years ago we would have thought that this was so far fetched that scientists could only dream of ever accomplishing this feat. Now it is almost a reality. The topic of cloning is a very touchy one because it deals with several other issues, including abortion. Because of this, the majority of Americans, and the rest of the world, do not see human cloning as a good thing. To understand the topic, you must first know exactly how something is cloned from another cell. The best example to show would be the one that made the now famous cl
Another alternative to cloning humans is to clone certain animals for human organ transplant, which is called xenotransplantation (Thrive Online 3/16/00). This method still involves a form of cloning, but not on humans. Today we use some pig organs, like livers, to save peoples lives. We could use cloning technology to create genetically altered pigs whose organs could be used for transplantation. The reason that the pigs' genes would need altered is that the human body's immune system violently tries to reject the pig organs almost immediately. Cloning pigs raises hope that the pigs could be genetically altered so that their organs or cells would be more readily acceptable to the human body. The company who cloned Dolly the sheep, PPL therapeutics, recently cloned five baby pigs named Millie, Christa, Alexis, Carrel, and Dotcom, from an adult sow (Thrive Online 3/16/00). The company believes that pigs could offer a steady enough supply of organs to end the chronic shortage of donor organs. The company said that testing of these organs on humans could be achieved in less than four years, and that the market for these organs could reach upwards of $6 billion. The other side of the coin are the ethical issues that cloning brings up. Some people believe that if we clone someone we will be "playing god" in our hospitals. Medicine has been doing just that for years now. We save premature babies and perform in-vitro fertilizations every day, and no one seems to mind that. Cloning is really not that far off from the reproductive technologies that we use today, though it is certainly not a natural process. The major downside is that these children might have some mental development problems when they are born, but no will know for certain until the experiments are performed.
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Approximate Word count = 2365
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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