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Should human cloning be banned?
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Human cloning is another alternative for starting a family

Clones already exist. About one in every 1,000 births results in a pair of babies with the same DNA. The world knows them as identical twins. Cloning is not the same as genetic engineering. Cloning could be a substitute to IVF if couples are infertile or if individuals wish to have a child who is genetically identical to themselves or their partner.
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The Argument

Even if clones are genetically identical with one another, they will not be identical in physical or behavioral characteristics because DNA is not the only determinant of these characteristics.[1] A pair of clones will experience different environments and nutritional inputs while in the uterus, and they would be expected to be subject to different inputs from their parents, society, and life experience as they grow up. If clones derived from identical nuclear donors and identical mitochondrial donors, the environmental and nutritional differences would be expected to be more pronounced than for identical twins. Scientific studies on twins (reared together or apart) show that they share many characteristics. Just how many they share is a contentious topic in human biology. But genetic determinism is largely irrelevant to the cloning issue. Despite how many or how few individual characteristics twins (or other clones) have in common, they are different people in the most fundamental sense. They have their own identities, their own thoughts, and their own rights. A person’s basic humanity is not governed by how he or she came into this world, or whether somebody else happens to have the same DNA. The clone would be raised in a different era by different people (like a lost identical twin, but younger).

Counter arguments

Cloning might exist, but it’s in terms of the duplication of an embryo within pregnancy. Human cloning is the process of taking an adult cell, someone who has already lived, and taking their DNA sequence to be rebirthed. The cloned individual will grow up differently, but it’s the ethics of the birth that’s heavily debated.

Premises

[P1] There is no wrong way to start a family, only different ways. Human cloning is just a different way.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] In regards to human cloning, it has not been proven to be successful on humans.

References

  1. https://www.nature.com/articles/nrg1205
This page was last edited on Friday, 17 Apr 2020 at 12:19 UTC

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