Two Of A Kind Essay, Research Paper
Two of a Kind
Within the past few decades, the world has experienced an incredible boom in technology, leading to such things as space travel, the internet, and wireless phones among others. The field of medicine has been no exception. With vaccines that have almost completely wiped out tuberculosis and smallpox, there is no doubt that the field of medicine has experienced some incredible advances. However, one such advance seems to have more harmful effects than beneficial ones: cloning.
Four years ago, the world was introduced to Dolly the sheep, the first successfully cloned animal. With this achievement, scientists have no doubt begun to look at the benefits of cloning humans. Organ donors shall no longer be needed, and any experimental drugs can be tested on a clone rather than animals. However, the benefits of this are a double-edged sword. While creating as many organs as needed will help increase the human life expectancy, it will also help to disrupt the balance of an already overpopulated planet. While it may sound heartless to deny someone a genetically engineered organ, one must look at the whole picture. In using genetically engineered organs to save lives, scientists are helping to decrease the death rate, and in turn increasing the population of this planet and the depletion of the world s limited natural resources.
Likewise, the military has also undoubtedly been studying the benefits of cloning humans. Whichever country has the ability to clone has the potential for a completely indispensable army of any number of clones. However, this brings about the issue of morality. By creating clones that are nothing more than indispensable killing machines, we degrade this fantastic gift from God. With such an army, what is to stop any country with the ability to clone from invading any countries that they want? With absolutely nothing to lose, this a very likely scenario that any government would chance. Cloning in the military seems to have absolutely no true benefits.
Finally, cloning has one more use seen as beneficial: the ability to clone endangered species. While this is an incredible way to help save dying species, it should not be taken as an alternative to protecting the animals and their habitats from destruction. I fear that once we begin to clone endangered animals, humans shall see no reason to kill them or their habitat. This once again cheapens life and reduces it to nothing more than something created in a lab. Cloning should be used to help stabilize the population of an endangered species and then used no longer after that.
While the ability to clone may have its benefits, the harmful effects still far outweigh the beneficial ones. The only true benefit of cloning is to help bring up the population of endangered species. However, scientists should not clone humans under any circumstances. The effects it could have on the overall world could be truly devastating.