One area of science that many people find worrisome is that of cloning. The ability to clone opens up so many options for science. Scientists hope to be able to clone organs to be used in transplants, something that many people would appreciate immensely. Researchers also hope to be able to clone certain animals to perform research on. These animals would be identical, creating a very stable research specimen. But what about the abuse of cloning? Things like overpopulation are huge fears in the eyes of almost everyone. Thomas W. Clark writes a letter to the editor of the new your times on this issue. He writes:
"Instead of rejecting therapeutic cloning as the first step on a slippery slope to eugenics, Mr. McKibben and other concerned progressives should draw the line where it really belongs: to prohibit applications of biotechnology that serve no curative purpose."
So what is the right move? Do scientists continue to research cloning and potentially discover something that could save countless lives yet also open the doors for disaster or do they halt their research because of the fear of disaster. This controversy is one that is happening in all different fields of science and one that needs to be addressed. Whatever happens, it is sure to be quite the roller coaster ride.
1. Clark, Thomas W. "Fear of Cloning - Letter - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 02 Apr. 2002. Web. 04 Sept. 2010.
2. "Bennett Cartoon Archive: Human Cloning." The Cartoons of Clay Bennett. Web. 04 Sept. 2010.
I really like how you address this issue. When new discoveries come out, i dont feel like many people think about the reprocussions of them. The idea of cloning is pretty awesome, but i would not want this discovery to come out in my life time. I feel as if the con's outweigh the pro's in this situation. I wish society could/ would take this approach when new discoveries/ inventions come out.
ReplyDeleteI agree that cloning is a scary thing. The cloning of people is what scares me, not so much organs. I understand that we do not have enough organ matches and people are on waiting lists and many die before a donor is available. Along with this we need to accept that we are human. We will all die eventually and there needs to be some limitation to how organs would be used. It will happen one day and we will need to deal with these issues politically and personally.
ReplyDeleteVery well written in pointing out the positive and negitives of cloaning. It shows that there is a reason to keep doing research because if used properly it can help the world out tremedously but when the wrong people know how use the cloning technology it could be a scary situation.
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