Essay/Term paper: Cloning

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Biology

Cloning


Cloning opens many doors of opportunities in the agricultural aspect of
the United States of America. It has already been a major factor in saving the
lives of many humans. I feel the society as a whole can not and should not
degrade this scientifical finding. I feel that human cloning should not be done
and that this subject raises too many ethical questions. I would like to focus
on an agricultural aspect if I may. People raised hell when animal parts were
put into humans to save lives and today it is an accepted part of medicinal
science. I feel that cloning in an agricultural and medicinal aspect will
become the same as transplanted animal parts. It will go through much debate,
but ten years from now it will be accepted scientifically, socially, and morally.
In an article in Newsweek called A Cloned Chop, Anyone? They take a somewhat
neutral, but also somewhat negative viewpoint of cloning in an agricultural and
medicinal sense. They admit some good aspects of this genetic engineering, but
they still seem pessimistic of the future of cloning in animals excluding humans.

The first thing the article states is the Wall Street opportunities for
the biotech field. Instead of phone calls from eager investors only phone calls
from reporters were coming in asking about this market. I feel that now would
be a great time to invest in biotechnical companies specializing in agricultural
and medicinal cloning. This article says nothing about the great potentials of
long term investment. Long term investment especially in the medicinal field is
incredibly profitable. Just as in other controversial investing opportunities I
feel that investors will find they could have made a lot of money if they
invested in this area. Ten to fifteen years from now this agricultural cloning
will be a commonly routine thing and price wars will begin for the products
produced by them which means many great investment opportunities will be
available. But one must remember that Wall Street is extremely short term
investing so this is a good explanation for not many investors being interested
in this because it is still many years before tangible and profitable products
are made from cloning.
The article goes on to say the Scottish scientists have a lot of good
ideas, but they seem to be only a sci-fi adventure. Once again I disagree.
Scottish scientists are trying to help the human race, not be lucrative mad
scientists looking for another way to manipulate the human race. The following
are some things that have already been done with genetic engineering and they
are helpful to us, the human race. They plan on genetically engineering cows
that produce altered milk formulas for premature infants. This is great I do
not know how anyone can go against this because if their infant's life were on
the line they would do everything in their power to save their child's life.
Also they are genetically engineering animal organs to be more similar to those
of humans. So just like we have been trying to do we can take organs from
animals and successfully transplant them into humans. Again this will save many
lives of people with terminal diseases that can be saved by organ transplant.
Cloning is referred in the genetics area as transgenics. Some companies
have been altering genes of animals with genes of humans to produce proteins
needed to fight cancer and other diseases. Cloning may further enhance this
procedure witch will help catalyst this treatment easily past the human testing
stage into curing these horrible diseases. One company has already bred cows
that may produce milk containing a protein essential for infants who can not
nurse. Again I see no down side to this product and cloning will help speed
this research along so we can save lives.
The article next talks about some positives. It tells how sheep with
proteins necessary for saving human lives can be breed more efficiently with
cloning. Right now only one or two out of every ten sheep produce the proteins
needed. However with cloning these "good" sheep can be cloned. Then they breed
with other clones to make a whole generation of sheep with the desired protein.
One company in the biotech field PPL is hoping to genetically engineer animals
that will produce a tissue glue for use in surgery and a drug for cystic
fibrosis.
Finally the article states at the end that does anyone want to eat a
cloned chop. Well the major restaurant chains did not seem interested. But
first off only one sheep has been produced. I am sure they are not going to
butcher the only clone to see how it tastes. I do not feel people should
disclaim cloned meat. If an extremely good beef generation was produced they
could be cloned. This would give excellent beef all year round and year after
year. Of course cloning should not over take natural breeding, because through
natural breeding we find more and better varieties of livestock. I am sure that
the meat would be very tasty and palatable. The same goes true for grains, corn,
and other plants. A superior seed may be available for worldwide use through
cloning.
Overall there are many possible positive benefits of cloning in an
agricultural and medicinal aspects. As of now no one has the authority or right
to belittle cloning. Besides there is not even scientific evidence to support
any refutations to go against any cases about cloning that may appear in a court
of law. We must be patient as a world community to see what develops of this
subject. But it is years away from hitting the market; all we can do is hope
and wait that someday cloning will better the human race and ourselves.