Twenty-two key reasons to support human cloning, including the practical (for future financial security), the vain (to cure baldness) and the truly awe-inspiring (to cure infertility, fix deformity and prolong life).
First I want to say that growing basic organs such as skin, cartilage, bladders, and blood vessels in a "test tube" is already a reality. Nice blog of bladder development.
While I'm typically a progressive about medical advances, I think human cloning is a bit creepy. Give me LASIX, slap on a robotic arm (if I need one), anti-obesity drugs, sugar substitutes, etc... I just can't wrap my head around people cloning themselves.
I'll use some of the "reasons" to clone human beings given in the digg.com article as a framework for why I think we are not ready for this.
Medical Tragedies: Some of the examples given were girl who needs a kidney, burn victim, cosmetic deformity. Okay, growing organs is cool. Making a kidney in a Petri dish is very cool. Cloning a complete human just so you can farm some of their organs is not cool.
Ethics boards have already dealt with this one and typically discourage a planned pregnancy solely for the purposes of a willed organ donation to a sibling. One of the main reasons is that the child cannot make an autonomous and unbiased decision on whether to give the organ. Can you expect a clone to make an unbiased decision on whether to give up his skin for a burn victim? "Sure Bob, I really like your DNA. You can have my skin."
To Cure Infertility: Many employers and many medical plans cover infertility treatments. ALL insurance carriers do not cover heart transplants and bone marrow transplants. Non-universal access to reproductive specialists and treatments are a poor argument to clone a human. Additionally, if a person is infertile and cannot afford access to infertility treatments, how are they going to afford to have a person cloned? In what day and age will cloning be on the HMO basic plan? If we're going to talk about "changing the world," then let's promote adoption.
Bad Parents: WTF? Is this seriously a social, medical, legal argument for cloning based on having a bad childhood? Did I miss the "just kidding" disclaimer? I think it's sad and horrible the childhoods that some people have endured. I can't, even with this in mind, stand behind a policy that says it's okay to cloning yourself so "you" can have a better chance at a normal childhood. Pay your intentions "forward" in other ways. There are many children who can be helped to have better lives without cloning yourself. SELFISH!
A child's right to be better than its (sic) parents - I'm not sure about a cloning advocate that labels a child an "it." Anyway, I digress... Nobody told me that I had a right to be better than my parents. I'm going to call my Mom and tell her about it.
Because you believe in freedom - Assuming that cloning does become a medical and legal possibility in the near future, who will have access to it? That's right! Rich people! We don't have universal access to basic healthcare in America and most people in the world don't have access at all. When do we suddenly leapfrog these problems so we can have the 2020 Assembly of People Worried about Universal Access to Cloning? Can't we worry about AIDS in India and Africa before we worry about rich people cloning themselves?
Too bad the essays link is broken (see referred page). All of my arguments have probably already been shattered.
Religious Freedom - I've never heard of the Raelian Religion and the Summum Religion, but even if they condone cloning and their members are cloned what if the clones don't want to belong to these religions? Maybe they'll become Catholics and then feel guilty about being a clone? I wonder what Mohammed would say about cloning?
Gay Couples - How does this couple decide which partner to clone? I fight with my girlfriend over where to get a burger. This argument would probably put me on the couch, again.
Okay, I've got to get back to studying. Please leave me some comments. Schwarzenegger movie theamed (The 6th Day) comments are encouraged.
Oh and here's a site where you can clone your pet: Genetic Saving and Clone
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