Attack Of The Clones

Attack of the Clones

When most people hear the word “clone”, they think of maybe a science fiction movie such as the Star Wars films, or some other image that the mainstream media portrays it to be. The thought of “making” a copy of oneself is by far a stretch of the imagination for most in society. Copying persona CD’s and DVD’s are a task for most as it is! Little do most people know, the ability to clone a living organism has been done in animals, crops, and almost in humans. Cory Nelms, a classmate of mine finds cloning a controversial but beneficial practice that could maybe save lives and cure certain chronic diseases. Read on.

Scientists have been investing plenty of their time and efforts working towards successfully cloning animals, and crops to better supply our ecosystem with a surplus of food to consume. Although most people don’t know it, we consume plenty foods genetically engineered with the methods used to clone other organisms, like animals. Although genetically engineered foods are not rejected in our stores or by our people, the act of genetically copying humans, or the term “cloning”, is widely rejected and feared amongst most our people and the government. Like most great breakthroughs, cloning humans has both great advantages, but scary disadvantages as well.

Although I have my own opinions on whether it should be legalized and practiced in our science labs, I wanted to get a second view opinion from my fellow peers on the issue. Read on.




The controversy with cloning humans has actually been around longer than people know. In late years, organizations have made claims to have actually cloned a person, but never have been able to supply proof of their success. Others claim that their works have succeeded, but just kept private to keep clones’ identities safe. Because it’s a diverse subject to talk about with so many pros but also so many cons, the subject has yet to be resolved legally in our court system. Either way, society wants to know what the outcome would be of this bold act of mankind.

After interviewing a peer of mines, Cory Nelms of New Jersey, I got to hear a second response to a “gray-area” topic in politics and ethics. When asked if cloning was right/ethical or not just for the sake of it, there were plenty of responses that could have went both way. “Cloning people takes away from the actual human/natural way of reproduction. If people were to stop reproducing naturally, then the world itself would change as a whole“ which I agree with. The word “natural” would have a new meaning if cloning were to be legalized in our country. People wouldn’t have children born to be their natural selves. Children would be engineered or copied as if they were a crop planted in a plain field. The diversity in physical traits in humans wouldn’t exist like they do today. The very flaws we have actually distinguishes us as unique people in its own way. Also since they are “copies” of ourselves, then who is to distinguish who if the clone were to commit horrible acts on others unaware of the circumstance? Would the clone be considered an actual person and given actual human rights under the constitution as we all are given? It brings about question after question when it comes to the negatives of cloning.
Like negatives of cloning, pros to cloning are vast.

Cloning can not only be as cosmetic as people make it to be, but can and should be used for medical purposes for ourselves. Many illnesses and defects could be cured with the aid of cloning humans. Most people suffer from fatal diseases that could be cured if cloning was allowed in our country. Allowing scientists to keep organisms to create a clone of yourself would allow them to keep “spare parts” just in case yours were to go wrong. “To save the life of a family member, most definitely. If it came to life and death, yes I would.” Like Mr. Nelms, others would like to be able to save the life of their family members who need major surgeries, such as heart transplants or donating kidneys to their relatives who need them. With cloning, the body parts are not taken from a living human but are stored for future use, a “spare” you could say. As proved with animals and crops being cloned, it helps to better produce goods at the same rate, but guarantees a good healthy product.
Although humans are more complex than animals and plants, the outcome is thought to turn out the same.