Cloning is something that has already become a reality in our world. Take for instance the famous cloned sheep 'Dolly', created by scottish scientists.
Dolly's arival paved the way for the possibility of human cloning. We watched the film,l 'The 6th Day', a film in which the issue of human cloning is tackled. In this film, the main character Adam meets a clone of himself and stumbles into a grand conspiracy about clones taking over the world. Cloning had been introduced to society, in which you were able to take your dying pet to "Re-Pet, and have it cloned so that it could continue living with you. Human cloning however was not allowed, meaning Adam has to go about trying to destroy the company who cloned him.
The idea of human cloning is an extremely controversial idea within our society. The American medical association has issued formal public statements advising against human reproductive cloning. They believe that it would be unethical to attempt to clone humans, due to lack of understanding about reproductive cloning and the inefficiency of animal cloning. Dolly died at a young age after being put down due to a lung disease. She also suffered from arthritis. There has been no evidence to prove that these illnesses were a direct cause of being cloned but then again there is no evidence to prove that it was not dues to this! It is expected that the same problems that arise in animal cloning will arise in human cloning. Ashamed as I am to admit it, as I do love animals, I am not a person who has been overly concerned in the past with animal rights and animal testing. However when people go on about ethical reasons for not trying to clone humans then I think, well surely dont the same sort of ethical reasons apply to animals!? Maybe I am more concerned about animals welfare than I first thought!
An issue has also arrised within the realms of human cloning that we do not know how cloning would impact on mental development. (http://www.orn.gov/sci/techresources/Human_genome/elsi/cloning.shtml#ethics )
For me, this raised the question, 'what would I do if I was able to clone somebody who I loved and bring them back from the dead?'. My first thought would be, ofcourse, if you miss and love somebody then it will be inevitable that you would bring them back if you thought you could. However, I then thought, well if they are not going to have the personality that you no and love, would it be the right thing to do? It may be the case that it will be more upsetting to see someone who looks just like the person you love, but is actually a totally different person inside.
Should we play God? That is the big question. Maybe in years after I am gone, cloning humans will be an everyday event. But then what would become of the world? The population would simply grow and grow, wouldnt this cause problems!? I think it would!
Although here i seem be following the stance of being against cloning, that is not entirely the case. For instance, I am perfectly willing to accept that perhaps in the future scientists will beable to use theraputic cloning to generate tissue and organs for transplants. This is what cloning should be used for, not to bring people back from the dead but to prolong life in the first place if at all possible.
