Organ Cloning for Future Heraditary Diseases
By: Cynthia Garibay
Cloning has been a topic in the science field for many years now, but throw a subject such as organ cloning into the mix of a conversation will take it in a different turn. Organ cloning for future hereditary disease brings up many different subjects that may have not been discussed in the past. When this topic arises, many may feel strong about both sides of the argument because it is such a difficult subject to take on without the proper research used. This medical controversy is a matter of life or death when it comes to choosing a side because if people are against cloning people are denying others of organs but if people are for organ cloning individuals are saving thousands upon thousands of lives. As for the question of this being for the sole benefit of personal control of our bodies or is it medical and scientific progress that only benefits commercial interest is the question that will have to wait. Before the decision is made about whether organ cloning is beneficial to the person itself or for the medical and scientific side of the argument, one must do a bit more research to answer the question. Of course this argument on organ cloning for future hereditary diseases has both a positive and negative side but it also has a side of whether this is for personal interest or scientific purpose.
The subject of organ cloning has a positive outlook for the future and has limitless possibilities when it is successfully achieved. The problem with organ transplant is that organ donations are limited and nowadays’ families are against having their loved ones be pulled out piece by piece and given to someone else. If the families are willing to give up their loved ones organs there are still thousands who are suffering waiting for that one particularly organ. “However, despite the advances in transplantation over the past 50 years, a severe shortage of donor organs limits the availability of this treatment, such that in 2001, nearly 80000 patients were awaiting a donor organ, and over 6000 patients were reported to have died while awaiting an organ transplant” (C.J. Koh, A Atlta 2). Not only are there people waiting years for an organ, there is a possibility that the organ they end up with might be rejected by their own body. That right there is the problem, years of waiting for an organ and with the possibilities of rejection from their own body is traumatic and devastating. Organ cloning is for future hereditary problems one might face later on in their life and is more towards personal control of one’s body than scientific research.
Chester J. talks about the help of stem cell research and how it can lead to the replacement of organs. With all the rules and regulations that are set now in the countries about organ cloning it is giving scientists limited access to go on with the experiments that could be useful to organ cloning. “Subsequently, the issue was deferred until the adoption of a nonbinding resolution in 2005 that came in the form of a declaration, rather than a ban, merely urging member nations to prohibit all human cloning” (Stabile 453). Even with the regulations in place and obeying the countries rules, discoveries such as the positive responses of cloning were taking place with rats. Doctors were able to regenerate a liver of a rat in different ways that involves stem cell research. The overlapping of particles of the rats and mice are also in humans as well which give all three of them a connection that others may have not seen before. A team of scientists and doctors in OHSU, with much research, discovered a development of replacement cells for the use of multiple types of tissues. The way these scientists and doctors did this was without the use of full embryo cells which is what most laws are against the help of an embryo cell. These doctors and scientists managed to over come and go beyond the rules to achieve this discovery.
With all other subjects of course organ cloning for the future has a negative side as well for some religious people. Some religious people are opposed to cloning and are against the fact that scientist are, in their opinion, trying to make human mutants and are abusing cloning technology to makes monsters. New cells such as these that are being used to clone are said to develop defects. A good amount of people believe that organ cloning is unethical and should not be further pursued. To their point of view it is “scary” and against “God’s” wishes because these organs are not born, these organs are created with science and technology. The way that organ cloning is now being considered and thought of as, is “organ harvesting.” “Though a cloned embryo is the laboratory product of a type of asexual reproduction, the position of the church is that ‘therapeutic cloning’ still kills a human being in his or her earliest stages’ (Szyszkiewicz, 2005)” (Stabile 196). Especially with some of these experiments are using embryos to create these experiments. The fact that embryo cells can only be obtained by aborted fetuses is a huge issue for some.