The Dilemma of Cloning Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Topics

The Dilemma of Cloning      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Man is quickly approaching the reality of cloning a human being. Once regarded as a fantastic vision dreamed up by imaginative novelists, the possibility of creating a person in the absence of sexual intercourse has crossed over the boundaries of science fiction and into our lives. While genetic engineering has helped improve the quality of life for many people, it poses many ethical and moral questions that few are prepared to answer. The most current and volatile debate surrounding human cloning seemed to surface when the existence of Dolly, a clone-sheep, was announced on February 23, 1997 by Ian Wilmut and colleagues at the Roslin Institute in Scotland. The cloning technique, which had never been successfully performed in mammals before, involved transplanting the genes of an adult male sheep with a differentiated somatic cell and transferring them into a female sheep's egg, of which the nucleus had been removed. Since Dolly contained the DNA of only one parent, she was deemed the "delayed" genetic twin of a single adult sheep (1). Since the spring of 1998, several other genetic clones have been announced, including the Massachusetts cell research firm's claim of "designer cattle" and the talk of a cloned mouse in June (2). Skeptics wondered, if such animals as mice and sheep can be cloned, what frontiers remains except for.....us? Recent legislation by the Clinton Administration, following the announcement of Dolly's birth put a ban on any funding whatsoever in support of science dictated toward human cloning. "Personally, I believe that human cloning raises deep concerns, given our cherished concepts of faith and humanity", the President said in a June 1997 national radio address (3)... ... of doing so, and the prospect of cloning a human being is an issue which must be carefully weighed by scientists and legislators alike. It is an event that can shape the history of mankind, but it is also an event that can create history in itself.    Works Cited (1) http://bioethics.gov/pubs/cloning1/executive.htm (2) http://www.reason. com/biclone.html (3) http://www.reson.com/biclone.html (4) http://www.reason.com/opeds/eibert.html (5) http://www.nejm.org/content/1998/0338/0013/0905.asp#tref-6 (6) http://www.nejm.org/content/1998/0338/0013/0905.asp#ref-6 (7) "Cloning: Legal, Medical, Ethical, and Social Issues". Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Health and Environment of the Committee on Commerce. Serial n. 105-70. February 12, 1998. Pp. 14 (8) http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/articles/0,3266,17681,00.html