PERSUASIVE ARTICLE

Human cloning for better or for worse?

Christian Meguel C. Villanueva

Human cloning involves many social, moral, and ethical considerations. It may be useful to experiment with goat, pig, deer, rabbit, rat, cat, mule, and horse clones, but the scenario of human cloning chills my enthusiasm. It has been used to clone a sheep and other mammals. The DNA from an ovum is removed and replaced with the DNA from a cell removed from an adult animal. Then, the fertilized ovum, now called a pre-embryo, is implanted in a womb and allowed to develop into a new animal. As of Jan 2002, it had not been tried on humans. It is specifically forbidden by law in many countries. There are rumors that Dr. Severino Aninori has successfully initiated a pregnancy through reproductive cloning. It has the potential of producing a twin of an existing person. Based on previous animal studies, it also has the potential of producing severe genetic defects. Many medical ethicists consider it to be a profoundly immoral procedure when done on humans. Cloning, even so-called therapeutic or experimental cloning, creates a new life without a father, and reduces a mother to the provider of an almost emptied egg. Nonetheless, it is a new human life and the determination to destroy it and limit its use to scientific research for therapeutic ends compound further the moral issues rather than protect mankind. As such, cloning embryonic human life under any circumstance crosses an ethical line, takes an irrevocable step, from which science can never turn back.

Human cloning is not clearly defined as a human being. It is a created human life whose nucleus was transferred from a human cell. This unclear definition is purposeful, since it does not say directly whether a human clone is like us or not. I do not know why, but for me human cloning is associated with another creature of the same kind that would completely lack morality and ethics. I would like to state my position to disagree with commercialized human cloning. People have made enough mistakes, and for me such trials of humanity are a very heinous act and that might threaten human lives. Human cloning is perverse, abnormal, unhealthy and unnecessary. It is an unjustifiable waste of human and material resources. It was good that cloning efforts have statistically high failure rates. The more failures, the less attractive the idea may be to those who want to be Nobel Prize winners. As for me, human cloning is similar to nuclear weapons, dangerous in the hands of potential terrorist clones. Human cloning is a controversial issue that is becoming one of the most debatable subjects.

And as a Christian, this is something thats not accordingly what God wants for us so I really beg to disagree on this matter. The process of cloning was stated in the light of several scriptures. First, human beings are created in the image of God and, therefore, are unique. Genesis 1:26-27 asserts that man is created in Gods image and likeness and is unique among all creations. Clearly, human life is something to be valued and not treated like a commodity to be bought and sold. Some people have promoted human cloning for the purpose of creating replacement organs for people in need of transplants who cannot find a suitable donor. The thinking is that to take ones

own DNA and create a duplicate organ composed of that DNA would greatly reduce the chances of organ rejection. While this may be true, the problem is that doing so cheapens human life. In essence the cloning would throw away many human embryos as waste material, eliminating the chance for those embryos to grow into full maturity. In addition, if humanity was created, then there must be a Creator, and humanity is therefore subject and accountable to that Creator. Although popular thinkingsecular psychology and humanistic thoughtwould have one believe that man is accountable to no one but himself and that man is the ultimate authority, the Bible teaches differently. God created man and gave him responsibility over the earth (Genesis 1:2829, 9:1-2). With this responsibility comes accountability to God. Man is not the ultimate authority over himself, and he is therefore not in a position to make decisions about the value of human life. Neither, then, is science the authority by which the ethics of human cloning, abortion, or euthanasia are decided. According to the Bible, God is the only one who rightfully exercises sovereign control over human life. To attempt to control such things is to place oneself in Gods position. Clearly, man is not to do this. In conclusion, I strongly disagree on such a matter like this. There is a God who exercises sovereignty over the human family so we people dont have the rights to do such process. It is evident in Gods moral law that human beings are not a means to another end. This is an important and a very strong objection to biomedical cloning (stem-cell research), that we sacrifice one humans life to serve the interests of another. It is inevitable that we would create clones to meet some desire of our own - for companionship or recreation or labor. If we consider ourselves the creators and designers of cloned humans, it is certain that we will make ourselves their masters. At

present, we create embryos for stem-cell treatments and grant ourselves the right to kill them. It is certain that we would regard full-fledged clones as our slaves. In the end, cloning will enslave and destroy our humanity, just as sinful rebellion against God always does, and result in Gods judgment for the horrors we will inflict. Sources: y y y y y
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_cloning http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/genetic/human-cloning.htm http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/genetic/human-cloning.htm http://www.globalchange.com/clonech.htm http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/cloning.shtml