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Definition, ethical, social & scientific issues, animal & human cloning, benefits & risks.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Definition, ethical, social & scientific issues, animal & human cloning, benefits & risks.
Paper Introduction:
Genetics today is on the cutting edge of biological science, and scientists working in this area are involved in a wide variety of pursuits that will have profound implications for our future on this planet, with projects including the creation of new biologic entities, curing diseases, manufacturing synthetic versions of biologic substances, identifying different genetic codes and what they do, and perhaps finding a way to control that genetic information to produce animals with certain characteristics or without certain characteristics, including greater strength, resistance to disease, and a higher yield in meat, eggs, dairy products, or whatever they provide. Geneticists have already accomplished many of these things with grains, plants, and even certain farm animals. Such advances in medicine and biology offer great possibilities for future medical
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and British researchersthat they have genetically engineered sheep and goats to secrete drugs intheir milk as a means of giving the biotech industry a streamlined meansfor producing many pharmaceuticals. We create in this sense inthe context of already existing beings--we do not create new people in anempty world and so must re-produce. Cloning: A Biologist Reports. David Heyd points out that the act of "procreation" begins with theprefix "pro-," meaning that this is a positive act. Somepeople are concerned about any and all forms of genetic engineering, as ifthe danger was just too great. One can support a variety ofapproaches to genetic engineering involving gene splicing and recombinantDNA research and still oppose human cloning, and a clear distinction can bemade between these types of research, though they are linked and constitutea progression in scientific development. Human experiments have been conducted without suchconsent and without other safeguards to protect either the subjects of theresearch or the integrity of the research itself, which only undercuts theability of the profession to gain support for any such experiments, Yet,the real question is whether genetic experiments on human beings, includingthe cloning of human beings, is an ethical expenditure of time and money. This procedure is known as nucleartransplantation and is widely referred to as cloning. Experiments in the late nineteenth centuryon frogs provided the groundwork for cloning (McKinnell 9-1 ). Cloning is such achallenge and raises ethical issues that have to be discussed long beforesuch research is undertaken. Schaeffer notes that at onelevel, the cloning of sheep could yield important benefits for medicine.However, the suggestion of human cloning raises important questions aboutgenetic diversity, human identity, and the exploitation of human genes(Schaeffer 3). To create thelivestock, genes were inserted with a needle into fertilized eggs whichwere then returned to the female's uterus. Genethics. The essentialfact of sex in both plants and animals, that hereditary material from twoindividuals is joined to form a new creature. The fertilization and embryonicdevelopment of the frog ordinarily takes place outside the animal's body inponds, and so it is more easily accomplished in the laboratory in glassdishes, a method which permits direct observation of and experimentationwith all stages of development. Hubbard refers to the recent cloning of a sheep in Scotland and askswhether we will one day be cloning human beings for spare parts, and shealso finds that we need mechanisms for controlling this technology: "Weneed town meetings, public hearings, forums where people can becomeinformed about the antisocial implications of these technologies anddiscuss how best to rein them in" (Hubbard 5). Goats developedat Tufts University and Genzyme Corporation in Cambridge, Massachusetts,for example, bear the gene for TPA, or tissue plasminogen activator, a drugused to dissolve blood clots in heart-attack patients. Heyd further notes that the creation of a different sort of offspringgoes against human biology and psychology: This approach to procreation also explains the sense in which we think of certain genetic or educational manipulations as dehumanizing. Clone refers to asexual reproduction, or vegetative reproduction.The cloning of plants is an established practice because of the ease withwhich plants are propagated or cloned from a twig or a slip. The word "clone" is derived from the Greek "klon," meaning twig orslip. The sex cells providediversity so that each offspring produced is unique in its combination oftraits. As a result, the profession has developedstringent and specific regulations and requirements for allowing suchtesting, including the requirement for informed consent by the subjects ofsuch experiments. Today, dozens of drugs aremade in vats filled with genetically engineered bacteria, which are mucheasier to manipulate genetically than mammals, but milk can contain 1 to1, times the drug concentration of a lab culture. Might such arguments be extended to the morality of cloning plantsand animals as well? Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1979.Schaeffer, P. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992.Hubbard, R. Works Cited"Animal Pharmacy." U.S. Recombinant DNA is DNA molecules derived from different sources thathave been artificially spliced together in vitro to form novel hybrid DNAmolecules not normally encountered in nature. and P. "Irreplaceable Ewe." The Nation (1997, March 24), 4-5.McKinnell, R.G. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1989.----------------------- 8 Only a small fraction ofoffspring grew up bearing the foreign genes. "Dolly Greeted with Excitement, Reserve." National Catholic Reporter (1993, March 14), 3-4.Suzuki, D. Medical experimentation on human beings isoften a necessary component in medical discovery and progress, and themedical establishment recognizes this fact as well as the many dangers thatcome with such experimentation. Geneticists have already accomplishedmany of these things with grains, plants, and even certain farm animals.Such advances in medicine and biology offer great possibilities for futuremedical procedures and for entirely new procedures such as genetic splicingto create new forms of life for good or ill. Genetics today is on the cutting edge of biological science, andscientists working in this area are involved in a wide variety of pursuitsthat will have profound implications for our future on this planet, withprojects including the creation of new biologic entities, curing diseases,manufacturing synthetic versions of biologic substances, identifyingdifferent genetic codes and what they do, and perhaps finding a way tocontrol that genetic information to produce animals with certaincharacteristics or without certain characteristics, including greaterstrength, resistance to disease, and a higher yield in meat, eggs, dairyproducts, or whatever they provide. The livestock produced in this mannerare called transgenics because their cells contain foreign genes whichdirect the production of proteins with medicinal purposes. Genethics. Cloning of animals is less common, but there is a procedure wellestablished for permitting asexual reproduction in amphibians such astoads, frogs, and salamanders. They certainly could by some, notably the animalrights activists who see little difference between animals and humanbeings. For most of the population, though, the benefits to medicine andscience found in animal and plant cloning can be accepted, while humancloning cannot. "Most Adopting Cautious Approach as Congress Confronts Cloning." CQ (1997, March 15), 641-642.Heyd, David. News & World Report (1991, September 9), 1 .Carney, D. Before livestockstart producing drugs commercially, though, someone must invent ways toextract the drugs from milk, which is a trifling problem compared withthe decade it took to develop transgenic animals ("Animal Pharmacy" 1 ). This means that the technique has the potential to transform thegenes of all species into a global resource that can be used to shape novellife forms obedient to the scientist rather than to the dictates of naturalselection (Suzuki and Knudtson 115-116). Frogs were the firstmulticellular animals cloned because they have an abundant supply of eggsand sperm that experimenters can use. Cloning is used in agriculture to produce high-quality,uniform products (Carney 641). Heyd offers a moral rationale forchallenging the idea that the cloning of human beings should be allowed.Heyd states that pure reproduction in the form of creating further exactspecimens or copies through a process such a cloning cannot be a model for"fruitfulness" and creativity, for this goes against the norm of humanexistence and against what we really want: We want our offspring to be sufficiently like us so we can see them as our continuants, sufficiently similar to us so we can have a meaningful rapport with them. They do not degrade the subject, since it is a potential person whose identity is thus formed; but they undermine the continuity of the human species, they make us less human in our genesis behavior (Heyd 217-218). Cloning does not involve sexual reproduction, and so the clonedplant is not the result of a union of different material. Knudtson. This response alone shows that while we are willing toaccept benefits from certain biological technologies, we are not willing toaccept a challenge to our humanity and individuality. The government has responded by considering rules toprevent human cloning before it starts, and President Clinton has calledfor regulations. Modern genetic engineeringtechniques based on recombinant DNA permit genetic exchanges betweenspecies that do not normally interbreed thus offering the opportunity forus to transcend the limits imposed by nature on hereditary processes.Using these techniques, scientists can manipulate genes individually bydirectly modifying the DNA molecules in which genetic information isencoded. These new possibilities bringwith them great responsibility and require that experimentation anddevelopment in biology be conducted following ethical precepts. He also notes thatsexual procreation involves two people becoming proxies in the creation oflife and in so investing the world with value. The plantproduced by cloning is a manifestation of the capacity for new growth ofthe old plant body, so the new plant is usually genetically identical tothe old plant. The most recent flap has concerned thepossibility of the cloning of human beings. The sorts of genetic changes science has been seeking can be seen inthe recently announcement by a combination of U.S. But we have no interest in exact mirror-images or in indistinguishable copies (Heyd 217). This new genetic technology has raised a number of ethical issueseven with reference to what has been done to date on plants and animals,and even greater issues are being raised with the potential for experimentson human genetic material.
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