Animal and Human Cloning: Moral, Ethical, and Regulatory Issues

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Animal and Human Cloning: Moral, Ethical, and Regulatory Issues

Dolly, woolly, innocent, and sweet, strongly contrasts with the severity of the issues that she has raised. Ever since the news surfaced that Dr. Ian Wilmut had succeeded in cloning a sheep, people around the world have been participating in a frenzied debate over the morality of cloning animals, and more importantly human beings. The cloning of animals and humans could help the world in unprecedented ways, but could also give rise to unforeseen problems. It raises moral, ethical, and regulatory issues which must be considered during with the formation of cloning legislation. While I believe animal cloning is useful on a restricted level, I feel that human cloning is unnecessary and I advocate its full prohibition.

Animal cloning could, in many ways, be beneficial to society. For instance, animals could be cloned to produce medicine. According to Ian Wilmut, cloned sheep could be used to produce a protein called alpha-1 antitrypsin that can help treat cystic fibrosis (2). Alpha-1 antitrypsin can be produced by inserting certain genes into the sheep that will be "expressed in the mammary cells," making the protein available in the sheep's milk (2). By cloning a sheep with such capabilities, scientists could have a potentially unlimited supply of this protein (2). According to one article, the animals would act as "hoofed pharmaceutical factories" (2). Scientists are also hoping to use this technique to produce human factor IX for hemophiliacs (15).

In addition to its medicinal benefits, animal cloning could be used to produce tissues or organs for transplants (15). This can be done by culturing "embryonic stem cells," or "primitive cells that appear between ...

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...n-as-Creator", Mercury Center, http://www.sj mercury.com/news/nation/clonre/022497.htm, (7 March, 1997).

13. "Should We Be Cloning Around?", CNN Interactive, http://www.cnn.com/TECH/9702/24/cloned.sheep.index.html, (7 March, 1997).

14. "Should We Clone Animals?", Society, Religion and Technology Project, http://webzone1.co.uk/www/srtproject/cloning.htm, (7 March, 1997).

15. "Transgenic Clones Possible Within Months", Fox News,http://www.foxnews.com:80/scitech/030597/clone.sml, (7 March, 1997).

16. Weiss, Rick, "Human Clone Ban Opposed By NIH Chief", Washingtonpost.com, http://washingtonpost.com:80/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-03/06/100L-030697-idx.html, (7 March, 1997).

17. Weiss, Rick, "Lost in the Search for a Wolf Are Benefits in Sheep's Cloning", Washingtonpost.com, http://washingtonpost.com:80/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-03/03/045L-030397-idx.html, (7 March, 1997).

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