Ethics and Fears and Wonders of Human Cloning By Dr. Alfredo P. Co
What is a clone? According to the Encyclopædia Britannica (1979), “a clone is a population of organisms derived originally from a single individual. By definition clones occur only in organisms capable of asexual reproduction and consist of genetically identical individuals”. There has been a successful recorded experiment which regard to cloning, although it was just an animal (a sheep to be more specific), there has been speculations that Human Cloning is not very far away. Before judging this issue, we should refrain having ignorant thoughts and try to study and understand the issue and detach ourselves from our emotions, religious dogmas and cultural habits/ or entrenched habits. We should see all the possible outcome of this, both positive and negative. Cloning is an issue that cannot be overlooked because everyone will be affected by the decision that would be put upon the issue, lives will either be saved and/or lost.
In February 1997, Dolly the sheep, was successfully cloned from an adult sheep. After this experiment, some people were enthusiastic with this successful discovery, because it may be the key to unlocking the ‘untreatable diseases’ that we are currently facing today. It may give life and/or prolong life, it may be the only solution and the only hope for families that are experiencing a very difficult time in watching their loved ones suffer, and it may be the only guarantee that the human race will not die out in an incurable disease. The author has laid out cases that are suggesting that Human Cloning is needed; I think that some of the cases were purely for the good of the people/masses while some are extremely selfish.
When I stated “good for the people/masses” I meant it in the terms of being egocentric. Being an egocentric, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is “concerned with the individual rather than society”. Wanting Human Cloning for