FREE ESSAY ON LEAVE HUMAN CLONING TO MOTHER NATURE

LEAVE HUMAN CLONING TO MOTHER NATURE

It's been three years since the birth of Dolly, the world's first successfully cloned
animal. The announcement of her birth brought about much ado and sparked many debates
concerning the morality of cloning. In the three years since Dolly was created, the
debate over cloning has swelled and receded, but has never been put to rest. A compelling
issue that has come into focus in the past several years is the idea of human cloning.
Many scientists believe that it is inevitable because the technology is there, and
anything that can be done eventually will be done. They preach the value of human clones,
dropping phrases like 'cure for disease' and 'prolonged life' to entice the public into
supporting their cause. Though these concepts seem beguiling, the notion of human
cloning, when looked at as a whole, has serious repercussions and should not be
entertained lightly.
From a strictly scientific point of view, we are just not ready to attempt the cloning of
a human being. Our scientific knowledge of cloning has been compared to Mr. Ford's
knowledge of the automobile just after the introduction of the Model A. The dangers of
producing human clones with disabilities and disfigurements are high because of our low
level of understanding of cloning and of human genetics in general. Even if the
probabilities of disfigurement were low, human cloning could not be justified. What
rationalization could be given to a child who would spend the rest of his life in
horrible disfigurement? Even one person forced to spend his life in pain should be reason
enough to avoid human cloning.
An area that has apparently been overlooked by the scientific community in their race for
the gold is world population. This is an issue that they have been screaming over for
years, and yet scientists are looking the other way where the issue of cloning is
involved. Many countries are overflowing with people, and the United States, among
others, becomes the nurturing nipple from which these distressed countries suck the
much-needed funds to support their starving citizens. China has for years placed a one
child per couple rule on its populace, and there are many out there who think it is a
good practice. At present, there are nearly 5.4 billion people on this planet. With all
of the uproar concerning over-population, why make more?
Of course, from a less technical standpoint, the issues with human cloning are endless.
The most chilling of all is the idea that cloning humans can save lives. Though on the
surface this seems to be a bright spot in the sea of darkness that surrounds the human
cloning issue, in reality it could be the darkest point of all. The reason being that
cloning in order to save lives gives rise to visions of human farms where people will be
made and used for parts, or research. Though there may be legitimate instances of organs
cloned, the most obvious and easy way to ensure longevity would be to clone your self for
spare parts. Black market operations would surely ensue, and add yet another dimension to
the already versatile world of crime that our society must endure. If the practices were
made illegal, it would merely add to our already overflowing court system. 
This brings about another point rarely discussed by either side of the cloning issue: the
clones. Has anyone bothered to think of these poor individuals? We can't even get
together as a society and accept the humans we already have. It seems incredibly brazen
of us to assume that we could accept these new additions to society as equal. It could be
a horrible stigma carried like a dark secret throughout the clone's life. The effects
would be devastating. Why would we want to put someone through that just to satisfy our
own narcissistic goals?
Finally there is the one thing that most people opposed to cloning agree on; our
intuition says "NO". This may seem like an unfounded reason to argue for the banning of
human cloning, however when inspected more closely, the idea can be supported. The reason
that the idea of cloning creates such a disturbance within us is that at a very deep
level, cloning challenges the theory of what it means to be a human being. The concept of
manufacturing humans assumes that we are little more than the sum of our genetic parts.
If it were possible to make carbon copies of humans, perhaps even limitless copies, how
would we continue to uphold the idea that humans are individual and therefore deserve
absolute respect? What thread would we rely on as a society to tie us together? 
Cloned human beings already exist in nature in the form of identical twins. Though the
individuals share the same genetic makeup, they are still just that: individuals. The
genetic map that our bodies follow is there merely to lay the groundwork. It is life, and
life's experiences that make us human. Therefore, it stands to reason that science should
not set out to do something that nature has already accomplished so well.