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Buffy Summers
Mrs. Van Doren
Honors English 9
October 19, 2003
Bringing Back The Dead
Imagine if Hitler came back from the dead. Would he try to take over the world by
creating another Arian Race? Or would he give up his evil deeds and live his life in solitude?
These are questions that no one could answer, but would someone be crazy enough to try and
find out? In the future, scientists may be able to clone human beings. This would be a huge
scientific breakthrough, but would it be beneficial to the rest of the world? I think not. I believe
that the cloning of humans would only have a negative impact on society.
If cloning were to become a part of life, the technology could be misused. “If technology
exists that meets biological needs, someone, somewhere will use it, whatever the ethical
opposition—and probably whatever the cost” (“Fasten”). For example, countries could clone
geniuses and use them for wars or political battles. Also, families could choose to clone a family
member that recently died. They could use cloning in attempt to bring this dead family member
back to life. They would not realize, until later, that the clone wasn’t the same person. Although
it would look and talk similar to the original, its personality would be much different. It is
impossible to predict all of the ways that people could misuse this technology.
Next, cloning is not the normal way of producing a child and, therefore, it should not be
done. Children have always been created the natural way, with a male and female, and why
should the ways of life change now? Dr. Wilmut, the scientist who created Dolly (the first
successfully cloned mammal) stated the following: “We can’t think of a reason to do it. If there
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was a reason to copy a human being, we would do it, but there isn’t” (Ross).
If there is no need
for science to create more children, why should we waste the time and money? When scientists
were creating Dolly, it took 277 tries before they accomplished their task. “Because cloning
humans is more complicated, even more deaths and lethal birth defects can be expected during
experimentation” (Emig). If there is no need for scientists to try and save the human race, when
it is surviving on its own, why should a scientist put a cloned child, and the family that was
supporting it, through the hardships of experimentation?
Furthermore, the people who are being cloned have a risk of being discriminated against.
Instead of being looked upon as the humans they are, they would be judged as clones. Today in
our world we still have problems with racism. Before allowing another type of human being into
this world, we should teach everyone to accept those that are already here. If we were to start
cloning, the clones would be thought of as “abnormal” human beings because they would be
different for others. Society would “view (cloned) children as objects and not recognize that
they have worth in and of themselves” (Emig). I feel that creating another type of human, who is
different, would only increase the segregation between the human inhabitance of this world.
If cloning were to become a part of life, I think it would only have a negative impact on
society. To me “human cloning sounds bad” (Reeve quoted in Bishop). Cloning could make it
possible for Hitler to return from the dead. Perhaps he would not be the same in shape or form
but his thoughts about creating the perfect world would be similar. The first Hitler’s view of the
perfect world consisted of blue-eyed blondes. This new Hitler could establish an entire new race
that was made up of people exactly like himself, clones. Although I think this situation is
unlikely to occur, it is impossible to predict what will happen in the future. If cloning becomes
accepted, countries could establish large number of clones. Like in Star Wars, many clones are
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created, as armies, to fight the enemy. I do not think that the human race should become
dependent on clones to fight battles or populate the earth. The human race is fine just the way it
is, we should not change a thing.
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Works Cited
Bishop, LuAnn. “Actor Christopher Reeve Advocates for Stem Cell Research.” Yale University.
11 April 2003. <http://www.yale.edu/opa/v31.n25/story7.html>.
Emig, Mary R., Law, Michael, and Shone, Nathan. “The Religious and Ethical Debate.”
University of Virginia. 8 April 1998.
<http://www.cs.virginia.edu/%7Ejones/tmp352/projects98/group1/ethic.html>.
“Fasten Your Seat Belts…” NewScientist. 6 Dec. 1997.
<http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/cloning/cloning.jsp?id=21110200>.
Ross, Andrew. “Dr. Frankenstein, I Presume?” Newsreal. 24 Feb. 1997.
<http://www.salon.com/few97/news/news970224.html>.