Human Cloning Controversy

Since the dawn of civilization, mankind has been plagued by innumerable ethical quandaries. From the subjugation of those whose pigment doesn’t match our own to the creation of weapons of mass destruction, history has repeatedly shown us that as the human race progresses, there are always ethical dilemmas that make us question our every step. As our technological capabilities continue to grow at an exponential rate, these predicaments have continued to crop up alarmingly fast. Among the most recent ethical questions to plague our society is the one pertaining to human cloning. Supporters of this potential technological breakthrough cite it as one of the greatest achievement of the human race, while its detractors bemoan the ethics of
Research into the field would cost California an exorbitant amount of funds, funds that would better put to use fixing our roads, or providing welfare and healthcare for the underprivileged. According to the budget proposed by Jerry Brown for 2014-15, the state of California saw 106,793 million dollars in expenditures, the majority of which went to K-12 education (42.4%), healthcare (20.4%), higher education (11.6%), and the prison system (9%) (Brown, 2015). The remaining funds – which total up to about 15% of the expenditures – were allocated for human services and environmental projects. If funds were to be found for the purpose of endorsing research into human cloning, these areas would undoubtedly experience significant cuts. We would be sacrificing our education system, our healthcare system, or even our environment in order to satisfy our curiosity. Moreover, an influx of clones that are specially created for labor would drastically decrease the amount of jobs available to unskilled workers. This fact is highlighted by Giles Saint-Paul, who claims that, “financially motivated cloning will shift the distribution of [employment] to top-ability workers,” (Saint-Paul, 2003). These “top-ability workers” will be clones created from individuals who have desirable traits for the tasks that
For example, according to Walter Glannon, cloning, as a form of asexual reproduction, can result in serious long term genetic costs to the survival capacity of the human race (Glannon, 1998). Sexual reproduction allows for genetic variation among offspring, which, in turn enhances the ability of a species to adapt to change (Glannon, 1998). If this natural method of evolution is taken away, we may find ourselves unable to adapt. Jamie Ahlberg also touched on this topic, as he stated that, “Genetic diversity allows a species to survive the force of new and rapidly developing pathogens, and cloning would undermine the effectiveness of this line of defense” (Ahlberg, 2010). As our world continues to change due to global warming and carbon emissions, we cannot risk the survival capability of our race simply because we are curious as to how far science can take