Cloning Benefits Far Outweigh Problems

According to Webster's Dictionary, for something to be 'moral', it must be looked upon as being able to express or teach a conception of right behavior, or must be something sanctioned by one's conscience or ethical judgment.

As humans, I believe we all have certain individual standards of morality which we express personally through our own decisions and actions. What may be ethically sound for one, might be found ghastly by another. Therefore, the conclusion must be drawn that morality is relative who are we to sanction what is right and what is wrong for a tremendously large group of people?

The recent outcry against cloning is nothing but a battle of morals in which one group thinks their views of the world are better principled in comparison to the other.

When people who are uneducated in the field think of cloning, chances are they visualize rows upon rows of test tubes containing humanoids, gestating within a primordial ooze of some sort, ready to jump into an intergalactic battle at the push of a giant red button. Isn’t Hollywood great? But anyhow, this scenario has yet to happen in our lifetime. After all, we didn’t see five million ‘Dolly the Sheep’ Kamikazes sent out to reek destruction upon the world, did we? What the World is failing to realize is what a truly scientific, medical, and biological achievement alike this could possibly prove to be.

Of all the potential, hypothesized uses for cloning, the most beneficial would be the ability to clone human organs for transplant. That way, the recipient would be able to have a guaranteed chance at an operation, and the organ would be young and fresh. In 2000, around 89,361 people in the United Stated alone were put on waiting lists in hope of receiving an organ donation. Of that number, 4,920 died waiting. Not during the operation, not from a transplant failure... from waiting.

Many people think that to get a cloned organ, an entire human must be created and essentially ‘harvested’ to reap the benefits. This is wrong. Scientists will be able to narrow down the specific genes and cells in DNA so that only a certain organ will grow. This will not only lower the American mortality rate, but the cost of transplants as well, since organs will no longer be as scarce. Each state could house organ banks.

Cloned cells can also be used to help repair deteriorating organs inside the body. Scientists have recently discovered that the injection of healthy heart cells into a patient who suffers from heart disease can actually reverse the chance of having a heart attack. Heart attacks brought on by heart disease is the number one killer in the United States and many other industrialized countries.

Cloning may also help infertile couples have children. Statistics show that the current infertility treatments are less than 10 percent successful. By using the parent’s DNA, a cloned child could be conceived and born without having to suffer the defects and ailments brought on by current treatments. Look at the child as being a genetic twin born at a later time then its sibling. Only physically will they be the same. Genes do not create a person’s mentality, their environment and personal experiences do.

Cloned tissue and skin could also prove to be a more natural and sanitary method of plastic and reconstructive surgery. Anyone from burn victims to women who want larger breasts could utilize this mean of reconstruction or enhancement and have wonderful results because of it. There are many fatal repercussions that effect people who have undergone the knife with today’s medical technology. Skin graft patients commonly grow bacterial infections from exposure to germs, some of which prove to be fatal.

The bottom line is that cloning can be looked at with just as much, if not more, good than bad if you view it from a technologically advanced stance rather than from an uneducated, Hollywood influenced one. The issue of questionable morality should not influence the government’s legality decision on cloning at all. If it does, I believe that alone is more immoral than anything else. Since when did saving and enhancing lives become a bad thing?