English Speech on Cloning
Cloning is a very important issue in today's society. Many people have heard false ideas about it from the media, movies and entertainment, but it is and will be a very serious reality in the future. A Clone is a duplicate, or copy, of something. A good example of this for humans is the occurrence of identical twins, which are duplicates of each other. I don't believe that the cloning of humans should be legal, because of the many things that may result from it.
Recently, scientists have accomplished the first cloning of a fully developed mammal, a lamb; named Dolly cloned from the DNA of an adult sheep mammary gland cell. This is being considered a great scientific achievement, and many scientists now believe that humans can be cloned as well in the near future. Many people have asked the question, "Is the cloning of humans legal?" Cloning is illegal in England and Norway, but, surprisingly not in the United States. However, there are many restricting laws on cloning research and President Clinton imposed a moratorium on human cloning research on March 4th, 1997.
This issue has been debated for years, in a 1971 article titled "Moving Toward the Clonal Man" by James D. Watson discussed the possibility of cloning in the future. In this article, the author talks about the relationships of parents and children, and how a clone may not be accepted as a child and may turn against the person who cloned them. One quote from the article explains the bond between parent and child, and how cloning would interfere with that. "The Nature of the bond between parents and their children, not to mention everyone's values about the individual's uniqueness, could be changed beyond recognition, and by a science which they never understood but which until recently appeared to provide more good than harm."
He also claimed, "But the child who grows up knowing that the world wants another Picasso may view his creator in a different light". This could be true; there is currently no proof that a genetic clone, although being identical in appearance, would be physically or behaviorally similar to the donor.
I believe that the cloning of humans should not be allowed because individuality is something that belongs to everyone and children who are clones would not have the same privilege that all people deserve. Also, they may grow up resenting the people that raised them, if they are expected to be a great artist, writer, scientist, or leader, when they have their own mind.