NOVA SPEECH CONTEST WINNER: 1st Place in the Legal Prosecutors Category

 NOVA CONTEST

The Uncanny dilemma of Human Cloning 

By Natalia Pérez Samudio and Sofia González Díaz

(Cloning: the moral aspect)

Theoretical speech (essay)

Summary/abstract 

Cloning is known to be the technique used to make exact genetic copies of living organisms.  This process remains unnatural to the human species, as it remains an unexplored and not fully developed area of science. However, the lack of development in this area isn’t the only conflict brought up by this technique; As it also causes conflict between what it's considered moral or immoral, and its relation to legality. With this causing dilemmas between what it could actually imply to humans. Furthermore, the history of cloning shows a direct relation to fiction and literature, and the world of entertainment, which only show one side of the purposes cloning could serve and its effects.  

Argument 

According to the Cambridge Dictionary the word Cloning is “used for or relating to the process of creating an exact copy of a plant or animal by using its cells”.  The word clone itself comes from greek, referencing branch or sprout. Scientifically is when the DNA, which means deoxyribonucleic acid is taken of an organism, cell or a sequence to be copied and as a result obtains more of the same.

This process serves different purposes, hence there are different types. Some being: Genetic cloning, therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning. 

These processes are a way of reproducing either a full organism or a cell. Historically, the idea of cloning was officially introduced by J. B. S. Haldane, while Hans Driesch was the first person to clone an animal, and Steen Willadsen’s team were the first to clone a mammal, it being a sheep, in 1986. This process also resembles other natural processes found in nature, mainly by less complex animals or plants; Some being Binary Fission, Fragmentation, regeneration and vegetative propagation as they use a piece of an organism for reproduction. 

Homo sapiens, known to be the most evolved living organisms, aren’t and do not have the ability to reproduce in such forms. As they are mammals. With this in mind, it is important to know that processes of such nature are being tested and desired by scientifics. 

It is important to know that cloning is not either white or black, as it presents certain possibilities that can be interpreted differently according to each individual. 

The purposes of cloning depend mainly on what type it is. As previously mentioned, there is therapeutic cloning (Which focuses on the production of stem cells, needed for cloning organs or tissues). Additionally, reproductive cloning is meant to create a human clone. 

Therapeutic cloning can be used in medicine for transplants, thus nullifying the chances of rejection from the body and other side effects it may bring. Similarly, it can help with reconstructive surgeries or even cosmetic surgery. Following the line of disease, through cloning diseases can be studied to furtherly develop therapies with higher success rates.   Some countries remain with an undefined position on therapeutic cloning regardless of the possible benefits it may provide. 

(Reproductive cloning)This process allows for the reproduction of infertile couples as well as LGBTQ+ people who want a child. Methods of cloning would include in vitro fertilization which would consist of taking one single egg cell and fertilization outside the body to later insert it. This could permit sexing (choosing the baby’s sex). This however, design with several values, such as: the principal value of medicine, choosing one sex over another, or when the life of a human begins and if choosing would mean killing. Lesbian couples could “technically” have a baby with both of their hereditary material .In this case, both mothers would donate an egg cell, the hereditary material would be separated from the egg, and then one of the egg cells would be fertilized with the others. 

Cloning cells could also revert the process of aging by cloning cells, this way renewing the body. 

It is important to know that using the genetic material to clone a dead person is possible, at least when it is talked about its physical appearance. Taking into consideration that most of the behavior, values and personality are determined by the environment, surroundings, and experiences. 

As the clone would be different when it comes to behavior, it would also mean that they would be different individuals. Raising the questions of relationship dynamics between the characters, would they be siblings, or would they be the clone’s progenitors, or would they have control over the clone’s actions. For instance, the dilemma caused between the naturally created and artificially created could create a social separation between the clones and the “original”. Exposing the fact that this technique of reproduction, if used to create an identical clone of a person, could affect the interactions and order found in our current society. 

As claimed by Baudrillard “It is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the unreal.” The misconception given by the media produces a common and incorrect perception of cloning, and the technique is seen as a way of cloning an organism that is fully developed into another. Nevertheless, it would rather be the creation of an “identical twin” which in the end happens when two sperm cells reach the egg cell for fertilization. 

This way of reproduction would endanger the diversity and evolution of individuals, as mutations would remain limited and these are the ones that allow the progress and change in species, including adaptation. 

(The moral is not the same as the legal)

Human cloning, raises ethical questions, not only in moral terms, but also contextual ones that respond to real life situations, specifically an ethic of responsibility.

Legally speaking as an introduction to the opinion of various countries: 

• Argentina, Colombia, Canada, United Kindom, Australia, India, Romania, Serbia and United States have confirmed that human cloning is totally prohibited in their countries.

More specifically, certain codes or laws signal what is considered the individuality of a human being. Some examples are: 

Colombia: in the New Colombian Penal Code, issued by Law 599 of 2000 and which entered into force on July 24, 2001, refers to Genetic Manipulation, the repeatability of the human being and the fertilization and trafficking of embryos (articles 132, 133 and 134).

Spain: Following the model of the Spanish Penal Code, the national legislator placed human cloning as the “repeatability of the human being” – in the field of Genetic Manipulation and consecrated it as a crime that directly violates a wide range of rights fundamental rights of the human being and punishable by imprisonment for up to five years this type of conduct. 

• In the other hand we also found scientists from 67 different countries, who call for 

the legalization of human cloning only for therapeutic purposes with the main reason that the so-called pre-embryo (pre-implantation phase that goes from fertilization to 14 days), is not yet person due to the absence of its essential.  characteristics of individuality and indivisibility and therefore is not subject to rights.

The legal scope in the permission of human cloning is outright prohibited, but it is also being questioned by great minds and also by the United Nations Organization (UN). 

The legal and moral aspects do not intersect directly, since not everything that is stipulated by law doesn’t mean it is or not ethically or morally correct. To conclude, how advanced science and technology is  and how these advances harm and/or favor the development of humanity. But the reality, which for some may sound crude, shows that using science and technology to change the borderly maintained balance in society could cause a total overflow of normality and a damage to our reality, but also could open new possibilities of helping and saving human lives. 

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