Cloning

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The biological definition of a clone is an organism that has the same genetic information as another organism or organisms ("Cloning", 1997). From this definition and from information about the science behind cloning, my current view on cloning is that it is ethical. This statement ignores information about how we can misuse cloning and what consequences occur when the procedure is unsuccessful. I currently do not think cloning should be used until it is perfected. I doubt however that we will allow cloning to be misused, and think most people would probably have this opinion on cloning, but their lack of knowledge on cloning, or their belief that cloning would be misused, is the reason for differences of opinion. Thus, an elaboration on the history, techniques, ethics, and reasons for researching the technology of cloning is necessary. The first thing that must be cleared up is what is cloning, and what is a clone. A clone is an organism derived asexually from a single individual by cuttings, bulbs, tubers, fission, or parthenogenesis reproduction ("Cloning", 1997). Parthenogenesis reproduction is the development of an organism from an unfertilized ovum, seed or spore ("Parthenogenesis", 1997). Hence, cloning, biologically speaking, is any process in which production of a clone is successful. Thus, the biological term cloning is the production of a genetically identical duplicate of an organism. However, people can use the word cloning to intend other meanings. For instance, we generalize many older and new techniques as cloning. This is not a good practice because these techniques are different and impose unique concerns and issues. In the world of scientific technology, cloning is the artificial production of organisms with the same genetic material. Scientists actually call the transferring of a nucleus from the cell of one organism to an enucleated egg cell nuclear transfer (Wilmut, 1997). This will produce an organism that has the...