Human Cloning

Human Cloning

The legend of the immortal and perfect man is associated with the practical application of knowledge of the genetic code. The first person to want the perfect human being was AdolfHitler. There are other scientists who seek the same objective through human cloning. There exists scientific work that revolves around the hope to create healthy human life through stem cellresearch. The question is how far can they go in the exploration of the secrets of life? I will address the important issue of human cloning as well as some benefits and risks to humanity.

What is humancloning? The result of cloning is a copy of a human being or a human body part. There exist two types of cloning. The first is therapeutic cloning where the goal is to clone a part of the human bodyfor use in research. The second is reproductive cloning whose goal is a copy of a human being. Human cloning theoretically starts with somatic cell nuclear transfer, in which the nucleus of a cell fromthe body of the human to be cloned is transferred into a human egg which has been retrieved from the nucleus. The egg is stimulated so that it begins to divide and grow, producing stem cells whicheventually develop into another human being. Using genetic manipulation (recombinant DNA) a scientist could replace selected areas of the genome to create a specifically desired outcome.

A benefitis defined as an advantage or profit gained from something. In human cloning there exists some benefits and I will explain a few. Someday it will be possible to reverse the aging process because ofwhat we have learned from cloning and its abilities. For example, cloning could be used to reverse the effect of heart attacks. Scientists believe that they may be able to treat heart attack victims bycloning their healthy heart cells and injecting them into the areas of the heart that have been damaged. Heart disease is the number one killer in the United States and several other industrialized...