Philosophy
Case Study: Using Clones as Organic Donors (Human Cloning)
Moral issues involved in genetically engineering and cloning headless humans for organ transplants and medical research
Genetic engineering is the process of modifying the genetic code of a living organism. This process transforms the fundamental physical nature of the organism in ways that would never happen in nature. It is believed by many researchers that headless human clones are in position to provide support to organic transplantation that can result into a better life and future for the human beings. Since headless human clones have lost interest to live, they are considered the best and more acceptable than the ordinary human clones. However, it is should be noted that the headless human clones have morals or ethical views that are against it. Nevertheless, in case the headless human clones’ programs are achieved, many human lives could be saved by the organ from the clones. Unfortunately, there are no good results indicating the long-term safety of these clones (Kerry 12). Headless human clones’ programs tend to violet the oath of the medial that emphasizes that no harm should be committed.
According to research, it is good to ensure that when transferring the embryo into a woman’s uterus, it is very necessary that the child born as a result be not harmed. Human cloning has gone beyond the boundaries of ethics to the place where they are attempting to take God’s role to create human life without success. Thus, any person who thinks that they can take the responsibility of God and create another life is considered to have no respect for the morals and ethics concerned. There have been proposals to stop or ban the cloning of human beings; however, the process of cloning gives interesting possibilities in the field of transplantation of organs. Today’s scarcity of organs availability for transplantation is because of failure to get the right donor.
In most cases, transplant fails because of rejection of the transplant organ. Identical twins have been assumed the right donors because they have tissues that match to each other thus no risk of rejection (Yount 56). There have been a good number of people objecting this whole issue of cloning. The views are mostly based on the theory of personhood. It is noted that cloning an individual for spare parts would most likely violate the clone’s personal autonomy and liberty. This thus leaves creation to be both psychologically and physically an abuse of power. According to American Medical Association, “Cloning a human for use as a source of organs may also implicate the thirteenth amendments prohibition on property interests in human beings” (American Medical Association, 1999).
Furthermore, due to lack of consensus on the morality of cloning in general, there is a lot of misunderstanding over the legitimacy of cloning to save lives. Even with the much help for general human cloning, the availability of a clone may not be necessarily allowing the availability of organs and tissues for transplantation. A clone is an individual in his or her own right and thus should not be taken as an object from which to take and select organs. Today, the laws governing donation of organs are most likely to support the donation of a clone. This gives the chance to the clone to make a decision on whether or not to donate an organ, not the DNA donor.
Cloning is seen as a bid for immortality; for instance, it is assumed a step towards the transformation of growing old and disease. It is viewed that given a chance, cloning is to be developed and be made more exact science, and then it will automatically be possible for all human beings with enough money to consider having a transformed organ bank ready with organs to be taken for use. However, the problem occurs when considering the humanity’s biological propensity to reject organs that do not match to the recipients’ organic code. Therefore, human cloning is assumed the only suitable approach of developing a customized organ bank provided the difficulties of the biochemical of cross special transplant.
The idea of headless human cloning and of general cloning is sometimes taken to be extremely complex. The creation of headless human clones as a custom organ bank, ready for usage brings up ethical concern about the nature of human kind’s role. This is not just an issue of whether or not a man should have permission to play the role of God, or should they just be allowed to play the role as a way of satiating its vanity. Therefore, it is good not to make any errors since cloning is the actual form of human vanity. Organ cloning is assumed the bid for everlasting life and thus any trial to reverse everything and face the inevitability of disease, age, and finally death. Death is seen as natural as life itself, and being afraid of dying is also as natural and thus there is no any other creature that has the power or the driving forces in order to escape fear and death as human beings have.
A good number of people take headless human clones not to have moral values because they are assumed not to be human beings. This is because headless human clones do not have a sense of self-awareness; thus, it is not easy for them to know and understand the importance of life in general. Headless human clones have no right to life; therefore, they are acceptable as the actual organ donor since it has more intrinsic importance than the life of a headless clone.
Genetic engineering creates many risks to human life and the environment. It brings up many moral and ethical issues concerning the right of human creatures to destruct life on the universe, both sentient and non-sentient just for the benefit of the few individuals.
Moreover, in case there are some areas of genetic engineering that can still bring benefits to humanity while honoring other forms of life, then more energy needs to be put in place in all areas including scientific risk assessment areas and in establishing large ethical guidelines. The experts in genetic engineering in both science and ethical fields should be able to leave behind their extreme desires for money and self-benefit if they have to earn the trust and respect from the other individuals. The public should be granted the right and freedom to understand and assess the necessary dangers and problems concerning moral and ethical issues. Every person needs to be motivated when it comes to making decisions. They need to restore back the public welfare as the core consideration and the unrestricted amoral greed of multinational corporations.
Human cloning was put to an end by both the American Medical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of science. The banning focused on four moral principles hence as a result; the disadvantages seem to be more than the advantages. For instance, due to failure to produce useful clones, the headless human clones’ process may lead to extreme hidden circumstances such as the life of the host mother and her health may be in great danger during the period of her pregnancy or even during delivery of abnormal children. There are a good number of negative possibilities that may put the health and life of the mother at risk. Furthermore, it is also necessary that the ownership of the clones be put into serious consideration because it biologically belongs to the egg or sperm donors and they can still be applied to patients who find the clones to be compatible donors. However, as an outcome, this may lead to both researches, medical and psychosocial problems.
Another moral issue involved in genetically engineering and cloning headless humans for organ transplants and medical research is that the entire process is very expensive thus cannot be affordable to the majority. For instance, the reproductive cloning is generally very expensive and inefficient. This shows that it has not been proved as 100 percent effective; thus, it requires many cloning trials to see if the results could be obtained. Research shows that there is less than ten percent probability of all cloning trials (Herring 34). To make it even worse, the process requires more than 100 nuclear transfer steps in order to produce one good clone. Therefore, a headless human clone has many difficulties that require to be overcome before getting the required results. An individual may have the required finances to participate in this program; unfortunately, the medical researchers may not be able to select the potential patients to take part in the program because headless human clones are very hard to apply to all individuals.
Another issue is that cloning takes human beings as a manmade object. This means these people are not taken to have any dignity and humanity like the other people who were sexually reproduced. This is because most people do not view headless human clones as living human beings; rather they are viewed as people without life. This is according to the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy. However, it is advisable to treat the headless human clone with some dignity because they never chose to be that way, and since they were created though the eggs and sperms then they should be treated as normal human beings who have equal rights to life just like anyone else. Therefore, in terms of equality, headless human clones process leads to more harm than good to the community as it seriously violates the dignity of normal human beings.
It has been noted that headless human clones and genetic engineering have caused more harm than good to the health of human beings and their environment. Therefore, it is good that researchers try to find out more scientific information concerning these issues before conducting headless human clone programs in future. This will lead to better protection of human and human clones and the environment at large. Concerning genetic engineering, everyone should be given the opportunity to make decisions concerning the issues at hand and decision-making process should not be left only to the experts.
Works Cited
American Medical Association. “The Ethics of Human Cloning.” Report of the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, June 1999. Web. 06 July 2011.
< http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/369/report98>
Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy. Scientific and Medical Aspects of Human Reproductive Cloning. Washington, DC: National Academy Press 2002. Print.
Herring, Mark. Genetic engineering. Westminster, United Kingdom: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006. Print.
Kerry, Lynn. Illegal beings: human clones and the law. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Print.
Yount, Lisa. Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering. Chicago, CA: Infobase Publishing, 2008. Print.
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