Zainab Bu Ali
Advantages of Cloning outweigh its disadvantages
Introduction
Could you imagine that scientists have to produce copies of living organisms? Every day,
we hear about a new scientific revolution. An example for this evolution is cloning, which means
producing cells, organs and tissues identical to the originals. There were several tries for the
scientists to reproduce organisms. Some of them lived while others were deformed and died
immediately after birth. For example, scientists have cloned ibex, but this cloned animal died
after birth (Choi, 2010). Although, cloning has some cons such as producing distorted animals
that contain heart problems or inability of the immune system to work properly, I argue that it
has several advantages such as production of new organs for transplantation in humans, ability to
produce drugs and retaining the rare species from going extinct. The purpose of this paper is to
seek answers to the following research questions:
1) Does cloning have more advantages than disadvantages?
2) What is the public opinion regarding this issue?
Literature Review
Cloning is obtaining an exact copy of the original cell, tissue or organism by planting a
normal cell in an egg emptied from the chromosome, any of genetic inheritance (De Stasio,
2003). As a result of that, the cell can be multiplied by cell division usual, which is that each cell
divides into two cells. After that, when they begin to develop as an embryo, scientists planted it
in the womb of an adult female. As a result of that, they produce fetus or a baby cloned from the
transplanted cell holder. In these recent years, scientists attempted to clone a human, but all of
these experiences failed. In fact, there are a large number of countries that banned cloning of
humans such as Spain, Italy and Turkey.
There are two disadvantages of cloning. One of them is that the cloned animals could
have some diseases and deformities in the heart and lungs. Indeed, scientists have found that
clones are often overweight or distorted (Abraham, 2001). The reason is that the cells that we
take from the original object may be much older. Therefore, the cloned object will be in the same
age with the old original object. Although cloning may produce diseased and distorted animals, it
can help scientists to find the treatment to some diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Additionally, cloning can give scientists a clear idea about the cancer process, and this may help
them to find a treatment for this disease (Pennisi, 1997). The second disadvantage of cloning is
that human cloning is contrary to religion. In fact, many people who are religious are against
cloning because they believe that only God - not scientists- can create humans. Although cloning
has some moral and religious problems, there are some exceptions. In fact, in Islam, some
religious people indicated that there is no problem if we used it to save humans' lives by cloning
specific parts of the human body.
One major advantage of cloning is producing the organs that are essential for
transplantation in humans. For example, Some patients need an organ transplant, but they
cannot find a donor, and as a result of that, they die. In fact, from cloning, we can produce
animals that can serve as a donor for patients. A consequence of that is: these animals will be
helpful to eliminate the problem of the small number of donors. For example, scientists now are
trying to produce cloned pig kidneys for transplantation in humans (CNN, 2002).
Another advantage of cloning is that it increases the number of the genetically engineered
animals to produce drugs. For example, cloned cows milk contains protein that could be used to
produce drugs. As a result of that, cloning animals could reduce the cost for the treatments that
are used to save a human's life (Barrett, 2010).
The third advantage of cloning is that it retains the rare breeds whether it is animals or
plants. In fact, cloning is useful in maintaining rare plants, which may be threatened with
extinction caused by the industrial pollution. Additionally, it could save the animals that do not
reproduce well in changing environmental conditions (Pollack, 2002). For example, a Brazilian
company collected some samples of deer, dogs and other animals to maintain the genetic
information of the endangered animals. As a result of that, scientists can use it to clone these
species.
Methods
The data for the study were collected online in Spring2015 as part of a course project.
The data collection involved conducting a survey in order to find out public opinion related to
the following issue: cloning has several advantages that outweigh its disadvantages. The
participants were 24 persons total: 13 of them were Muslim, 4 of them were non-believers, and 7
of them were Christian. Different occupations were represented as well such as, students (eight
participants), teachers (nine participants), health care supporters (three participants), and
professionals (two participants), an engineer and a scientist. Detailed information about the
participants is provided in Table1 below.
Table1. Participant information.
Religion
Occupation
Muslim
Student
Muslim
Healthcare Support
Muslim
Education
Muslim
Student
Muslim
Student
Muslim
Student
Muslim
Healthcare Support
Muslim
Student
Christian
Healthcare Support
Christian
Education
Muslim
Professional
Unaffiliated
Education
Education
Christian
Christian
Education
Christian
Education
Unaffiliated
Professional
Unaffiliated
Education
Muslim
Student
Muslim
Student
Muslim
Engineer
Muslim
Student
Unaffiliated
Education
Christian
Education
Christian
Scientist
The survey was conducted online. In fact, the research contacted the participants by
sending emails to her teachers and massage in social media, explained the purpose of the
research, and asked to fill out the survey. The researcher knows seven participants as they were
her family; she did not know personally the other participants. These participants were chosen
because the topic related to the religion and knowledge required different religions/occupations
to be represented. Indeed, the religion is the most important category because a large number of
religious people are against cloning. They believe that only God - not scientists- can create
humans. In addition, occupations are important because we want to see how the participants
understand the subject. The site Surveymonkey were chosen because it is easily accessible and
comfortable in utilization.
The responses showing whether the participants agree or disagree with the statement
presented in the survey were analyzed quantitatively. The survey results were summarized in the
form of a bar chart (Figure1). The responses related to the question about the reasons for the
participants’ opinion were analyzed qualitatively.
Analysis
The first question in the survey was asking whether the participants agree or disagree
with the following statement: cloning has several advantages such as production of new organs
for transplantation in humans, ability to produce drugs and retaining the rare species from going
extinct. The responses are summarized in the bar chart below (Figure1).
14
The Number Of Participants
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Strongly agree
agree
Do not know
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Figure1 shows the number of participants who strongly agree, agree, do not know,
disagree or strongly disagree with the statements. According to the graph, the majority of
participants agreed with the statement, while the minority of them strongly disagreed. One
fifth of the participants did not know. Thus, a considerably higher number of the participants
agreed to compare with those who disagreed. However, the number of the participants who
strongly agreed were equal to those who strongly disagreed. Let us now compare the opinion of
Muslim versus unaffiliated participants. The results indicate that a significantly higher number of
Muslim participants disagreed to compare with unaffiliated participants who mostly agree. Some
possible explanation can be suggested. First, Muslim participants disagreed because they
believe that only God-not scientist- can create human, while the unaffiliated participants do not
look in the religious way.
Conclusion
To summarize, the study investigated weather whether they agree or disagree cloning has
several advantages that overcome its disadvantages. The results indicate that 13 participants
agreed; four were did not know; three were disagree; two were strongly disagree, while two of
them were strongly agree. We can see how the public opinion supports the statement put forward
in this paper. This might be due to the fact that cloning has advantages that overcome its
disadvantages. The study has certain limitations related to its scope: it only included 24
participants from the Internet. Despite this limitation, the study contributes to examination of the
issue of cloning. Future research should focus in the cloning aspects that could be useful to
create treatment for patients and safe the plants and animals from extinction.
References
Abraham, C. (2001, July6). Cloned animals are genetic misfits, MIT scientists find. Retrieved
from:
http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/series/stemcell/archive04.html
Barrett, R. (2010, Aug14). Medicine, not food, may have more to gain from cloning. Journal
Sentinel. Retrieved [tab]from:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/health/100703769.html
Choi, C. (2009, February 10). First Extinct-Animal Clone Created. National Geographic News.
Retrieved from:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/02/090210-bucardo-clone.html
(CNN,2002). “Research progress: Pig cloning for organs”. Retrieved from
http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/01/03/pig.cloning/index.html
De Stasio, E. (2003). Cloning Organisms. Genetics, 1(161). Retrieved from:
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3406500056&v=2.1&u=psucic&it=r&
p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=326fd238b3c6898e777b7b5e316cae15
Pennisi, E. (1997, December 19). CLONING: The Lamb That Roared. Journal of Science,
278.Retrieved from:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/278/5346/2038.full
Pollack, A. (2000, October 9). Cloning Used In an Effort To Preserve Rare Species. The New
York Times. Retrieved from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/09/us/cloning-used-in-an-effort-to-preserve-rarespecies.html