Essay/Term paper: A cloned chop

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Biology

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.