Unit 2: The Pros and Cons of Cloning
What are the Pros and Cons?
As is with everything, especially with science, there will always be two if not more sides to a story or experiment or procedure. Cloning is no different, there has always been much controversy surrounding the process and the outcomes of cloning. But what are the two sides of cloning? Lets take a look. Answering questions
By the end of this unit you will be able to:
- Identify both the pros and cons of cloning
- Identify issues that surround cloning including economics, ethical and procedural.
Activity 1
Have out a sheet of paper and answer the following questions:
- What do YOU think are some issues with cloning?
- What do you think we could use cloning for (besides making a copy of yourself)?
- What is your opinion on cloning right now?
You can set this sheet aside for now, we will come back to it later.
Activity 2
Follow the link below to read about what people think the pros and cons are of cloning:
Answer the following questions using the article you just read:
- What are the four things that we can do that are positive with cloning?
- What were the four things that are not so great about cloning?
- Why would people not want to clone things?
Activity 3
Below are several video clips of how scienetists have used cloning or will be using cloning. You can use these videos to help you decide where you want to stand on cloning.
In the above clips, you have seen both sides of cloning, the good and the skeptical. We have seen that we might be able to create organs that will not be rejected from a patients body, that they have already tested it on a woman who was disabled by TB. We have seen that scienetists might be curbed from performing any type of cloning because they don't want to sacrifice one human life to save other human lives. We have seen that
Now that you have seen some things that can be done or have been done, I would like you to read the following article about a group that in 2002 claimed that the first human being had been cloned.
There are many reasons why cloning a human is not the greatest idea in the world. The least is that there is really a very small success rate of the clones actually living. More so we don't know what will happen to that human once they are born and have lived. Are they going to live a normal life, will they die an early death because of some unknown complication that was brought around by the cloning process? The answer to this question is, we don't know! Because it's never been done, to the publics knowledge at least.
Not only are there ethical concerns about cloning but we also can see economic issues as well. In one report, economists expect a single clone to cost $250,000. So if we were able to find a fool proof way to clone humans, only the rich would be able to afford them.
Activity 4
Reflection questions
Answer the following questions on your sheet of paper to review what you have learned from this unit.
- What are some positives that you have seen come from cloning?
- What are some negatives that you have seen come from cloning?
- Have we actually been able to clone humans?
- What are ethical issues?
- What are your thoughts on cloning? Animals? Humans?
Look back at your first set of answers. Has your opinion changed from the time that you began this unit to the time that you have completed it? Do you think that we should be learning more about cloning before we make our opinions and take our stances?
Additional Links
Here are a few additional links that you can take a look at.
Go to Unit 3: The Debate
Go Back to Issues of Cloning
Go back to Unit 1: What is Cloning?