Cloning: Stronger, Smarter and More Perfect Humans
A few years ago if you were to ask someone about the possibilities of cloning they would most likely say it was impossible. This attitude towards cloning has been held into belief up until recently when scientists in Scotland cloned a sheep. And immediately after scientists in Oregon cloned a monkey (Fackelmann 276). The most major breakthroughs of the century in science has occurred and we are not ready for it. The scientific breakthrough of cloning has caused a great deal of controversy in the media and also in the government. The advantages of cloning are tremendous to the human race and cannot be ignored.
I believe that cloning humans is what the human race needs to advance. Humans would be stronger, smarter, and more perfect. Scientists could remove bad genes from the parents and replace it with a good one. If one of the parents had a bad gene or hereditary disease this could be removed from the embryo and replaced with another “clean” gene. This process is called embryo screening it is used to determine if the child has received the defective gene. Several embryos could be cloned, then the DNA from one of the embryos would then be removed and standard genetic testing would be used to detect whether or not that embryo contained the genetic disease.
If this cloned embryo containd a disease then one of the other embryos could be used for implantation in a parent, this guarantees that the child would be free of genetic disease (Marshall 1025). For those who disagree with cloning I am sure if there child could be saved from a genetic disease they would reconsider cloning. Imagine if one of your friends or family members was in need of a liver or kidney. Most likely you would donate your own liver or kidney to save there life. But then you are one organ short.
Well this happens a lot and seems to work fine. But if they needed a new heart you might have trouble finding one. Not if you had a clone of yourself that could supply you with a new organ or maybe even a relatives organ that was naturally stronger (Cloning 1117). Someone could replace their old organs with new ones and extend their life span. Thousands of lives that could be saved if we had the technology and advanced science of cloning available.
Even accepting an organ from a relative it may fail, it has to be compatible with our body system , if its your clone, then its a perfect match. Cancer is one of the largest killers and also one of the largest dilemmas scientists face today. Well, cancer research is possibly the most important reason for embryo cloning. Oncologists (People who study Cancer) believe that embryonic study will advance understanding of the rapid cell growth of cancer. Cancer cells develop at approximately the same great speed as embryonic cells do.
By studying the embryonic cell growth, scientists may be able to determine how to stop it, and also stop cancer growth in turn (Watson 66). Whenever there is a draft for a war people protest hide and even leave the country why should people be sent to fight for something they don’t believe in or even in my case a country they don’t want to die for. We cannot dispense human lives as if they were candy. If we produced smart, strong and loyal clones, we could have the perfect soldier. There would no longer be humans in the military, there would be no worries about losing lives or family members.
Clones made specifically with a sole mission to die for there country these perfect soldiers would make up a perfect army. Well, in the case of a lost relative, more specifically parents losing their child. Parents could clone a child who had died, as a homage of love. The saying “there is nothing that you can do to bring him/her back” would now be obsolete with the process of cloning. Of course parents could never have their child back exactly as he/she were but they could definitely start over again.
Or parents could simply clone the traits of a famous person or favorable traits of someone else and put them in their child’s embryo. Maybe even if they wanted twins or even sextuplets. Parents would be able to make more decisions on their child or children’s traits. The benefits of cloning do not stop at humans it extends out to animals. A lot of controversy is brought about when animals are used for laboratory testing.
We should clone animals specifically for laboratory tests, these animals would not be depleting any populations nor would they be taken away from their habitats destroying any food chains. Also farmers would benefit from cloning their select animals. This would also give the consumer better meat quality and lower the price of meat. Governments in countries where famine is present could master cloning techniques and provide for the starving populations in their country. One of the most beneficial effects of cloning animals is that species of animals whose populations are almost extinct could be replenished by cloning.
Animals such as the Blue whale, the condor, and the Norfolk whale. These are only three examples of endangered species, there are practically hundreds of endangered species that could be saved with the process of cloning. We wouldn’t be bothered by activists or any more “save the whales” foundations asking for you to donate money. If the amount of animals produced were controlled according to the food chains and habitats, these species could thrive once again. We could grow plants that would be immune to bugs or pesticides.
Farmers would have crop that would survive the winter and frost. We could eliminate the loss of crops that forces the prices to go up in the supermarkets. Crops that require less water or can grow in certain types of soil. This would be could for California where water is scarce. This is only the begging of the benefits we can achieve from cloning. Creating a stronger and more advanced human race.
Diseases would become weeded and cleaned out of humans’ genetic makeup. Of course there is a chance of this getting in the hands of a madman or someone who would use it for ill purposes. But we can not let this amazing discovery stopped by people that can only see the bad side of cloning. They must also see the vast benefits of cloning, how it can save lives and entire species from extinction. I believe that cloning is a part of our evolution, our ancestors evolved by using their hands and minds, by creating language and civilizations, this advanced them.
Cloning is what will advance our race more. Our bodies have stopped using and have disposed of unnecessary organs and body features which have proved to be useless. Diseases and deformities are useless and cloning can aid to the evolution of humans by cleansing our bodies of such ill and in some cases deadly burdens. There are too many advantages in cloning for us to ignore it.
