Human cloning is too close for comfort. When the first animal was cloned, human cloning was too close for comfort. What is cloning and why should we be worried at all? Cloning is a science with it’s focus not on healing and finding cures for diseases that exist already but it has a focus of creation of something new. It’s the focus that is of concern. I love science. I happen to be for Embryonic Stem Cell research, but this research has the wrong focus.
What is its focus? Well, first there is some waste involved. Sure, okay many things that we humans do involves some waste. What happens first is that there has to be a host cell so to speak. A donor cell is found and its DNA is extracted and not used. Kind of like not using the white of an egg. Then the nucleus of the animal of choice is added to the donor cell and implanted into the animal that the donor cell was pulled from, to be cloned. The cloning process speeds up the natural process called gametogenesis which reprograms the cells. The natural process can take months to years. With cloning this gametogenesis is sped up to take only minutes to hours. This is where the scientists feel the complex reprogramming of the cells can go wrong. With animals we are not told of the high failure rate. Yes, we are told that they were able to do it! Great, but at what cost. The animals for the most part are, not able to produce viable offspring. There only a few reports, of that happening with the help of surrogate mothers, at that. A great site to go to for more information is: AMA Another great site is: Human Genome Project Information
Okay, so the scientists are able to clone a human successfully, what then? Will that human be able to produce viable offspring? Will that human, have disorders that we have no idea about? How will we begin to treat them? Will they be treated right if the experiment they are a part of goes wrong? So many other areas that we can focus time and energy and finances, rather than a whole other bag of mystery questions that seem very dark indeed.
I’d much rather see our scientific minds put to work on the use of embryonic stem cells that could be a way of helping in the repair of tissues, helping in heart disease, Parkinson and others disorders that decrease the human quality of life and even end it.
