To Clone Or Not To Clone?

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate October 2001

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To Clone or Not to Clone? It's a boy!!! A loud shout comes from the delivery room; the doctor hands the newborn to the new father. The overjoyed parent takes the child, as images of football games and long talks about cars dance in his head. All the months of waiting are finally over, endless nights of wonder and worrying over what color the new baby's room should be pink or blue are now no longer issues. Cars or ballet, dolls or footballs. Isn't this all part of the excitement of a new baby, the wonder and mystery is half the fun. All the excitement in the delivery room, will it be a boy or a girl, " I don't care as long as its healthy", as most parents would say. This is what most parents would expect on delivery day.

Should it be crying so much? Why does it look that way? IT ONLY HAS ONE EYE! Seriously, I mean these are the two scenarios that parents could have to possibly deal with, one more than the other is but still they are both still possibilities.

Technology today can only do so much for expectant parents. It can tell you many things about your new package. But can it really tell you everything, I mean can a parent really raise a retarded child if they waited till they were 50 years old to reproduce? Imagine, however, if you will what it would be like if we could take the mystery out of this miraculous day? What would it be like to know exactly what your new arrival will be like and what he or she will grow up to be, an athlete, a scholar, or beauty queen; all these questions may be answered within the next few years. With all the advances in biology today one can conceivably pick everything down to the eye color of their offspring. But isn't there something morally wrong with this. Isn't a baby a gift from god? Shouldn't on be happy with what they get? In the twenty first-century scientist predict that we will have many biological advances. Between cloning body parts to putting them together to make the perfect child, there will be no element of surprise to a new life anymore. In his book, Jeramy Rifkins says: The biotech revolution will affect every aspect of our lives. The way we eat; the way we date and marry; the way we work; the way we engage in politics; the way we express our faith; the way we perceive the world around us and our potential place in it "“ all of our individual and shared realities will be deeply touched by the new technologies of the biotech century. Surely, these very personal technologies deserve to be widely discussed and debated by the public at large before they become part of our daily lives.

In a way he is correct. If cloning becomes a normal thing sex could become obsolete; will it be possible for humanity to continue without dating or marriage anymore? All of these are very real possibilities in the biotechnical revolution. One can even clone an aging pet. Now one can clone Fluffy part one and have Fluffy part two waiting in the wings to take over when Fluffy one dies out. Does this mean that Fluffy one will no longer be missed? If this scenario is a possibility with pets what is stopping us as a society from doing the same thing with humans. If one has a son or daughter with an incurable disease can they just make a copy of the child minus that particular gene and love it just as much? A how would one go about telling that child that he or she isn't a real offspring but rather a clone, a scientific replicate of a some or daughter that died before them? They would basically be a replacement. Can parents love this replacement child as much as the original? Can this clone grow up to be normal with out psychological disorders? All these questions need to be answered before we take cloning any further.

These are all problems that need to be thought about before entering this New World of cloning and genetic alterations. If a dad wants his son to be a jock, he can now just go program the child to be a jock. Now you can have two parents who can't through a ball who have a son that is a superhuman athlete. Is this right? Should we be playing with things like this? Personally I think that we should not be playing god here. By doing this we are disrupting the circle of life. If the world was full of all super models what would make Cindy Crawford pretty? In a world like that she would just be another face. Or if the world were filled with all athletes with superhuman skills what would make them any different from Michael Jordan. Once it starts it will turn into an endless cycle, nothing will be good enough and we will all end up as part of this super human race. Technically, however it won't be super human because everyone will have these extraordinary qualities so it will just be normal.

Is that a bad thing? YES. I'm all for conformity, to a certain extent, but how will one feel special or outstanding when everyone else can just go to the store pop a couple of pills and be able to do anything ten times better than a child with natural skills. Eventually that's what it will come to. Is there a limit to this madness? Say that we dos tart doing this. Once we start producing, or should I say manufacturing these super children isn't human nature for one to want their child to be the best. But how far will one go or how far will one be able to go. There is no telling what will happen if this technology falls into the wrong hands. It does seem like a pretty picture at first but once one start to explore it. It doesn't seem that way.

I personally think cloning is wrong. It makes me ill to think that people would actually attempt it. My view on the whorl is this: Ok so God made the world, and everyone who is placed on this earth by God had a mission to complete before they die. As they will because god controls that too. Everyone has a mission to complete and whether that is to raise a child until he dies of an incurable disease or if they are to raise the next super athlete, that may just be the in the cards that one was dealt. Maybe they did something wrong in there past life and they have to be punished for it. The world works in weird ways. One example of this is the September eleventh happenings. Ok so everyone thought that it was a horrible for this to happen and I agree, but look at the out come. All the patriotism that has brought this country together is awesome. People are literally opening doors for eachother helping old ladies cross the street and even leaving bigger tips at restaurants. Its all b/c of these horrific incidents, people have a renewed sense of community, it is really touching. It's like they say " every cloud has it's sliver lining. I think this is true. Especially when talking about an unborn children. So what if your daughter isn't a beauty queen. When you get old she may be to ugly to have a husband and kids and she will be able to take care of you. That's a blessing. There are so many little things. Plus unless one is really warped they won't really care what their baby is like, one will take it as it comes and love it just as much as any other child. You can't hate a child that hasn't done anything to you just b/c its handicap or sick. If your wife or husband of twenty years suddenly fell ill or something and couldn't perform sexually would you leave them? Or would you stay and take care of them. It's a question like that; it all depends on what kind of person you are I guess. But then again with my theory if God didn't want us to have this technology he wouldn't have put the person who discover it on this earth. We haven't found a cure for cancer yet. Maybe there is a reason that we have all of this technology and AIDS's and Cancer are still killers in the world.

With this technology can an African American couple have a blond hair blue eyed baby? That's what it is coming too. If people could manipulate their children's genes to what they wanted everyone would wan the next Michael Jordan or Brittany spears. Well if we had a bunch of the same blue eyed, blond haired people running around would that quality be special. What would be pretty or ugly would there be no popularity due to the fact that everyone looks the same. Or what if people had a super smart child. What would make all the other scientist look like then the next couple would want their child to be even smarter? See it's like a never-ending cycle. It will never end if we start I don't think people will have the self-control to stop.

This is why I personally don't think it is smart to mess with this kind of technology. What will it come too? Where art the limits? Who will be in charge of this? These are the questions that will rip our society apart. These could be the issues that lead to world wars. Could there be a whole race of hitless in the making? The world may never see peace again. Or happiness. They're a lot of heavy issues that go along with this issue and they have to be discussed. We have to all come together and once and make some decisions about this new technology. What can we do then? These issues are a never-ending cycle of questions.