Zainab Bu Ali
Advantages of Cloning outweigh its disadvantages
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.
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 to 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 huge 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
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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 to the organs transplant
processes in humans. 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, 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 the 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.
In conclusion, cloning is one of the contentious issues in the world because of its opposition to morality
and religion. Despite that, currently, scientists are trying to clone animals from earlier eras by extracting DNA
from their remains. In fact, I support cloning use in therapeutic terms that do not conflict with the moral and
religious values.
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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
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, Vol, 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-rare-species.html
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