I'm not going to tell you what to believe, but this is my argument against human cloning.
First, everyone has to realize that making a clone means producing a new baby with the same genes as the original person. Movies tend to portray cloning as a complete regeneration of another human body of the same age. Not true. It's a brand-spankin' new baby.
However, this does not imply a matched personality or character - you could generate someone who looks exactly the same (ten years down the line) but is completely different from his original counterpart.
Now, the first animal cloning was Dolly the Lamb. This was a phenomenol thing, except that it had flaws:
1) Dolly died early. No one really knows if this was a result of cloning, but that is the general consensus. If this would happen to human clones or not, no one knows.
2) Dolly was one out of nearly 300 other embryos to get cloned. That is an extremely low rate of success for cloning. Imagine how much money it would cost to pay for a human clone, because it would cost money first to make a clone, and second to dispose of all the embryos that didn't make it.
Now...
The next issue is what to do about defected clones. I heard of a company who charged $50,000 to clone a cat; the charged that much because they usually ended up with one successful cat among unsuccessful embryos AND other defected cats. These cats were born without tails, without legs, and without eyes, or any combination of defects. Of course, who wants those? So the company had to dispose of them.
Similar lines might apply to human cloning. That's a problem, because "disposing" the defects would be morally wrong and unjustifiable.
People are for human cloning because the people who (sadly) passed away are loved ones who we want to connect to once again. But as mentioned, these clones aren't always going to come out with the same personality - and in fact, will come out as a baby.
[EDIT]
In the ten minutes that it took me to write all this out, a bunch of individuals had typed out their answers. While I respect all the answers, I must differ with a number of them.
One person mentioned that it would be better because you could clone very intelligent people; again, cloning does not guarantee an identical personality or intellect. These kinds of things are grandly affected by the environment by which the person, as a child, is raised.
I'd also like to bring awareness to the fact that just because someone is a clone, it doesn't mean that he or she will have the same memories as the original person. It would, in theory, just be a new baby with the same genes and (maybe) the same look.
With regard to physical attributes and appearances, those may vary in the clone as well depending on environmenal influences (i.e. raised in Alaska as opposed to Hawaii).
And finally, one person mentioned using clones for the purposes of organ transplants. This is a great idea, but you have to remember that these are human beings that you are creating as clones (assuming you're successful). As a result, it is the moral obligation of the doctor to first obtain consent from the clone to be a donor, just like any other person in the world.
2006-11-26 16:56:06
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answer #1
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answered by Jin 3
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Cloning is both good and bad. THe ability to duplicate human cells can wipe out diseases or create enough organs for everyone to get the transplants they need, but when you start cloing whole humans you will have many problems. The first problem is the mistakes that will happen in the inital clones. The second problem is who is entitled to a clone and why? The third problem is what happens when someone tries to create a master race or the perfect soldier etc. etc. etc. The possibilites are endless.
2006-11-26 16:50:18
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answer #2
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answered by מימי 6
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This Site Might Help You.
RE:
Is Human Cloning a Good or Bad thing?
Im currently making notes for my Bio Class debate, and i just want to know more about what people think about human cloning? Advantages? Disadvantages? Reasons? Thanks =)
2015-08-14 14:46:01
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answer #3
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answered by Anonymous
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good thing:
- u don't necessary clone the whole human. clone part of human organ or skin graft onto mice, or culture can help people. eg. organ failure, skin burnt, heart attack. it is like having a accessory part for our body.
-clone human/organ to use as study for certain disease, drug test... no need to directly test on human to know the side effect of the drugs
bad things:
-if clone a whole human. do YOU still consider you if there is another YOU?
-not really you can clone a genius or Einstein or Hitler. OK, you cloned them, and they are genetically the same Einstein and Hitler... but what shape a person's personality is their experience and environment. in this environment now... will they become as brilliant as Einstein, or as evil as Hitler? maybe yes, maybe not.
-OK, now you clone a human spare part to replace your organ that fail to work... eg. heart attack or kidney failure. However, sometimes, the diseases are due to genetic problem, an inborn error. no matter how many times you clone it, the defect is still inside your DNA, your genome. unless you can recognise and modify the error in you DNA. or else, you will still get the same heart/kidney that might give you the same old problem sooner or later.
-just ask the creator of Dolly, the 1st cloned mammal, how many times he failed before he successfully cloned Dolly. it is not easy to clone a mammalian organism. the genome is big (compare to prokaryotic organisms like bacteria, and also yeast). the parameter that you need to look after is a lot more compare to less complex organisms. Dolly develope arthritis before she died. is that due to the inborn error? or amall mistake the scientist made when he cloned Dolly? nobody knows.
Human Genome Project is fully sequenced. Scientist found that 99% of human genome are the same. only the 1% or less then 1% that made each of us different and unique. it is hard to characterized that 'less-then-1%' of polymorphisms (or single nucleotide polymorphisms). how are we going to control this small differences among us will not go wrong in the cloning process? any conbination of this single nucleotide polymorphisms in us might actually cause inborn diseases in us? that's is also why we react to different diseases so differently.
now, scientist are trying to mark down these genetic variants in each of us, and try to find out how the differences causes different disease. they hope to know by looking at these SNPs, they will know what disease this individual prone to and correct it, hopefully.
in my opinion, we can only talk about HUman Cloning after we really solve that problem above. otherwise, cloning doesn't mean anything and doesn't really benefit anyone.
2006-11-26 20:06:23
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answer #4
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answered by june81 2
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Its not right at all like the clone is going to replace loved one. I'm not going to bring religion into it but that's stupid why would anyone waste money on something that might not live long. Like Dolly only lived to 6 that's more emotion lime co e on now.
2015-04-20 07:25:45
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answer #5
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answered by Matthew 1
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well...
just think of the idea of looking at yourself in another body.. (i'll freak out!!).. irregardless of the age.. it's just weird to know there's another "you" roaming around somewhere, or even commiting a crime on your behalf....
i think is is not ethical to clone someone for the sake of a new organ or body parts.. if the "cloned" is a person and a life.. to clone for the body parts will equate to murder... don't you think so??.. if the "cloned" is perfect, then what's the point of you (the less perfect ) to survive in the world??
if Dolly can be sucessfully cloned, then technically, we should be able to clone another human.. so i see no point in experimenting with a real human body.
it does not only subject to religious issues, but also social order and the judiciary restriction.. if we allow cloning, then new rules and order (or even law) need to be laid out, socially, it will create impact eg, housing and education for cloned people... environmentally, i'm not sure if it will create a boom in population and or the ecosystem.. that's for you to find out..
psychologically..well, i might just freaked out ...
2006-11-26 18:03:20
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answer #6
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answered by cheesecake 2
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i think it's wrong. if a person dies than he should be dead. i know this sounds mean, but its the way of life. i would think that the clones would change and it's just not right. i dont want someone exactly like me but then does things that i wouldn't do or think is wrong.
2006-11-26 16:54:49
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answer #7
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answered by HANNAH S 5
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Creating human tissue from stem cells is a bold but necessary step for scientists to take in the fight against disease, deformity and cell deficiency.
The main disadvantage is the emotive side of the issue, where the religious right is able to spread untold misinformation to enrage the indignation of ordinary folks, fearful that hard cold facts and common sense might sway them to tentatively support it.
2006-11-26 17:13:28
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answer #8
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answered by Bart S 7
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It would be good for national defense. Take the world's best marine or any serviceman and assemble the same.
Also be good to clone supermodels. hehe
2006-11-26 16:54:33
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answer #9
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answered by gandalf 4
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in one hand its a bad thing cause GOD made u one and if u make a clone of urself that makes u 2 and not what GOD kept u.in one way it is disobeying GOD.
on the other hand it is a great improvement in science,look at todays world,people in 1930 used to have a cam wheighing 1kg and now 2006 we carry cams in our pocket.
2006-11-26 16:51:57
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answer #10
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answered by Anonymous
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