- A. What is cloning?
- B. The ethical question behind cloning
1. What is cloning? Cloning is understood as the production of one individual exactly the same as another using genetic techniques rather than sexual.
2. Types of Cloning.- There are two very different techniques:
- Cloning by embryonic cleavage.- It is a similar process to that which occurs when twins are born. When the embryo has 4 to 8 cells, each of them is Totipotential and if it is separated from the rest it can produce a new twin embryo. The artificial separation is called embryo-splitting.
- Nuclear transfer is a form of cloning.- A unicellular embryo or an ovum is taken and its nucleus is extracted. An adult cell is then taken and fused with the previous cell. The result is a cell with a nucleus and chromosomes of an adult surrounded by the cytoplasm of the Totipotential cell. This new cell is also Totipotential and creates a new being that is almost identical to the initial adult. Almost, because the cytoplasm also influences the result.
3. What is therapeutic human cloning? It is called therapeutic as it claims and craves to cure an illness. The idea is create a clone, take from it whatever you need and then kill it. Take a look at Stem Cells.
B. THE ETHICAL QUESTION BEHIND CLONING
1. Is it correct to put into practice everything that Science lets us do? No. The fact it is possible does not make it a good thing. For example, technology allows a terrorist to murder at a very large distance or to use bombs. But it is not correct to do it.
2. What questions arise when discussing human cloning? Cloning hurts the dignity of human beings in various aspects:
- A Scientist decides what genetic patrimony a certain person is going to have and no one desires to be so profoundly manipulated.
- The clone would be a copy of the original meaning his dignity (that of the clone) would be less. Some describe it as an incomplete or imperfect in regards to its similarity with the original.
- The clone is not fruit of mutual human love but a pure fabrication. The clone is used to satisfy distant desires.
- Family relations suffer. For example, a woman could be a twin of her mum and not have a father.
- Women lose the value of maternity and they turn into a “womb renters” or egg provider.
3. More ethical problems with cloning.- In this day and age the cloning technique has not been perfected and this causes serious and grave problems:
- Many embryos are killed in the experimental process of creating a single clone. For example, in the creation of Dolly the Sheep 276 sheep embryos were killed, without counting embryos killed prior during the experimentation.
- There is a high possibility of producing a defective being, as it has been proven with animals (Dolly died in little time).
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