“The whereabouts of cloning technology”

 

Yoshiko Suda

Oct. 10, ’01

 

In March 1996, the news of the birth of a cloned sheep named “Dolly” shocked the world. I was also shocked by this news. After that, a lot of argument has been reiterated all over the world. As a result, some countries in Europe and Japan decided to ban the study. But I firmly believe that the cloning technology should not be banned, but should be improved more and more, because it would increase high quality livestock, actualize the organ transplant without allograft rejection, and give infertile or lesbian couples the chances which they can have their baby.

First, it is very complicated and needs a lot of time to do breed improvement. But if we could supply high quality livestock easily, we would be warranted supplying competitive price and unsurpassed livestock, and it would be able to simplify the process of improvement in livestock varieties.

Second, if your family or bosom friends becomes seriously ill, such as a heart disease, a kidney disease, and so on. This is the question upon which life and death hang for patient who need the organ transplant. Your must think about the last way, cloning. In these kinds of situation, technology exercises its power.

I understand that many countries have expressed their idea that the study of cloning should be banned. They strongly fear the disruption of morality and ethics. It is said that there is no assurance that the clone grows healthy; we, human beings, must not “make” or “create” a human who has same DNA, and it means the blaspheme against God. However, is it true? But Zavos, whose partner, Dr. Antinori, hit the headlines by helping a woman of 62 have a child in 1994, said “This is not an issue of morality, this is not an issue of being ethical or unethical, but rather assisting people to have children and that is the business we are in.” I strongly agree with him, because a clone would have its own personality, character, intelligence, talents, brain, mind, environment, and experiences. It means the clone is not exactly same person with original person. He or she has his or her own personality. Even if you were to clone yourself, you could not create the same person. In addition, to help someone who are distressed seriously is a very honorary post, conversely.

Every technology has two aspects, useful part and dangerous one, so we have to get along with these aspects. In this case, the cloning technology has just reached such a level and gives us distinct possibilities, such as increasing high quality livestock, actualizing the organ transplant without allograft refection, and giving infertile or lesbian couples their babies. Government and we need to think about this positively but never forgive the abuse. It is time to consider how treat these facts and how regulate them by law. Banning is not a solution; we should sanction the technology and try to utilize it. And this is not the issue for one country, but for the entire world.