The Cloning Dilemma :: Science Genetics Essays

The Cloning Dilemma Cloning is one of the most widely talked about topics in this world. It is one topic that evokes a great public response worldwide. The defenders of cloning believe that cloning and genetic engineering will be the answer to most of the diseases in the future. On the other hand, the people against cloning view it as ‘ playing God ’. Cloning is unethical because people will lose their identities if their clones come into this world. We are taking nature into our own hands by cloning animals or humans. Cloning is the process of creating a cell, tissue line or even a complete organism from a single cell. The concept of cloning was introduced in 1903, and plants were the first living organisms to be cloned. Other examples of clones are trees sending up runners, worms dividing into smaller worms, populations of genetically identical bacteria and cells dividing into tissue. The word clone actually comes from the Greek root for â€Å" twig † ( klon ). Human cloning is a prospect no longer left to the fantastic realm of science fiction novels; rather it is a modern possibility. In 1997, embryologists in Scotland cloned the first mammal, a sheep named Dolly. Shortly thereafter, scientists in the United States cloned a set of monkeys. There are many advantages and disadvantages of cloning and a lot of ethical issues related to it. The entire realm of biotechnology is fraught with dangers and problems that require careful study and democratic debate of key ethical issues. In an era where everything depends on technology and where life can be created and redesigned in a Petri dish and genetic codes can be edited like a digital text, the distinction between ‘ natural ’ and ‘ artificial ’ have become very complex. The defenders of biotechnology extol its potential to increase food production and quality and to cure diseases and prolong human life. Its critics, on the other hand, claim that genetic engineering of food would produce â€Å" Frankenfoods † (Best and Kellner 440) that would pollute