French

III. ETHICS

There is no law that prohibits cloning but critics argue whether it is wrong or it is right.

Arguments against cloning:

The biggest problem caused by cloning is the decline of the genetic diversity because, at last, everyone would have the same genetic material and look alike. It causes various problems: for example, in this case, a disease would wipe up the entire population of the planet because everyone would react the same way to the disease. By the way, it would be quite boring to have everyone looking the same! Some religious sects could develop the cloning techniques so as to be able to clone humans. In fact, a family who has lost someone would be able to rise from the dead the deceased person. Actually, no human being has ever been cloned and we could ask ourselves the question: is it good for someone to be the exact copy of a dead one? In an ethical way, we shall answer no, because everyone has the right to choose his life.

Moreover, cloning is very difficult and as we have already said, it has not a 100% success rate. To clone Dolly, scientists produced many lambs with abnormalities, and it would be a problem if we tried to save endangered species because it might kill the last females instead of saving them.

Finally, researchers have considered the possibility of cloning thousands of individuals and then killing them for the sake of their organs. But technology seems not to care for many of the morals of our society and we should stop catering for our own needs and consider the consequences of cloning in our society.

Arguments in favor:

Cloning technologies are evolving and they appears to be useful in the cure of illnesses. For example, it could be used to reverse heart attacks, because scientists believe they can clone the healthy heart cells and inject them in the areas where the others have been damaged. Also, tissues or organs could be cloned to replace damaged ones (for instance, diabetes would be made curable).

Cancer, leukemia, spinal cord injuries and so on could be cured by cloning specific cells or by altering the genetic material and scientists like Ian Wilmut are working on it.

Finally, cloning is useful in agriculture: we can clone plants and alter their DNA so as to produce transgenic plants hard to catch diseases.

Iconography

• http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/animalbiotech/images/Image6.gif
• www.ocean.udel.edu/newscenter/embryo.jpg
• www.stephenjaygould.org/images/haldane.jpg (J. B. S. Haldane)
• http://post.queensu.ca/~forsdyke/images/suttonws.jpg (Walter Sutton)
• www.nobelpreis.org/italiano/medizin/images/spemann.jpg (Hans Spemann)
• http://sbchem.sunysb.edu/msl/dna.gif (DNA)
• www.rotten.com/library/medicine/cloning/cloning-cell.jpg
• www.royalsociety.org/downloaddoc.asp?id=88

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