Cloning is a scientific technique that allows people to create exact genetic copies of living things. With current technological developments, people can clone genes, cells, tissues, and even whole plants and animals. While such development seems like it only brought positive effects to the fields of science, in real life, it’s a serious topic for debate due to its side effects and nonguaranteed results. I think cloning has numerous negative effects that people should be concerned about before utilizing it in society. In other words, I believe the harm of cloning can outweigh the benefit of cloning.
Firstly, I believe cloning is not entirely safe, and the cloning’s result is not guaranteed. This is because many of the clones produced until now have had regularly developed health problems. For example, Dolly the cloned sheep only lived to six years old which is the bottom end of a sheep's average life expectancy. At the age of five, she developed arthritis. Moreover, the scientific research shows that Dolly showed a high risk of pregnancy losses and abnormal birth. Even lambs that were cloned recently still developed lung problems that caused them to hyperventilate and regularly pass out without knowing the specific reason. For me, the fact that similar health problems are continuing today is important; it demonstrates that the unexpected negative health effects could appear anytime in any way. This is not only the problem of lamb, because diverse cloned animals, in general, suffered from serious health handicaps such as gross obesity, distorted limbs, and early death. A similar effect is also evident in human, for human with cloned DNA has about a 21 percent greater risk of dying before the age of 76 than people who don’t. As adverse effects of cloning are evident in animals and humans, people only get about a 1% success rate of overall cloning in the best circumstances. I believe it could be risky to apply cloning technologies just in the name of ‘scientific development’.
Secondly, I consider cloning to be morally unethical. The book Frankenstein discusses the monster who was created because of the man’s ambition as a scientist who is yearning for knowledge. Though this is just an example from the novel, I believe a similar approach is also possible when we consider the designer baby. The designer baby might sound like it’s too overpredicted; however, it was already made in 2018. The New York Times claimed that India had its first designer baby to save the baby’s older brother who was suffering from a rare blood disorder. The baby was created in the form of a fetus using cloning technology and was transplanted back into the mother’s womb. Though it might superficially sound like the designer baby can have medically positive impacts, I suppose this can be a serious problem in ethical means. When the baby is designed, it means the baby is just being created based on the parent or society’s need. Baby, who is supposed to be born with love and care, is now being born to be exploited for certain purposes. Some people compare cloning a baby with making a doll: people make dolls to play with, and people clone babies to medically abuse. Thus, when the designer baby gets widely popular, child abuse can increase. Even if the designer baby doesn’t get popular, I believe the act itself can be considered child abuse.
Moreover, another ethical problem of cloning is that only the rich, who make up about 6% of the whole population, will be able to afford cloning based on the mathematical formula that can find the current demand and supply of cloning. This means the rich will use their money to transfer their genes. The author of Economic Policy claims that this unnatural selection will inevitably increase the proportion of high ability in society and further widen the gap between the rich and the poor. To be objective, this is not a big problem in present society. However, if cloning technology gets widely discussed and becomes much more accessible to people, I believe this can bring hazardous consequences to society.
Cloning certainly is a new technology that allows people to control nature to some extent. However, I certainly feel like there is danger behind it, even though it’s hard to see it at the beginning. Adding on, the possible risks are still being discovered today. Perhaps, this is an inevitable consequence of the human who is willing to change the course of nature. Therefore, I think it’s time for scientists to look back and see whether they are not losing anything before directly trying to search for knowledge.
Writer: Soyun Lee
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