Pros and Cons of Cloning and Gene Editing (Essay Sample)

Pros and Cons of Cloning and Gene Editing
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Pros and Cons of Cloning and Gene Editing
When Ian Wilmut and his colleagues announced they had successfully cloned a sheep, it surprised and intrigued the entire world, especially the science community. Since then, numerous gene editing and cloning have shown these procedures have unlimited potential. They can beneficially be used to eradicate infertility, solve organ transplant rejection and shortages, and enhance medical knowledge on humanity and body systems. On the other hand, these procedures could be dangerous. Cloning and then editing a person’s genome would violate the right to a distinct identity, add more children to a population that already has many homeless children, and expose the clone to unknown risks. This paper discusses the individual, medical and social pros and cons of human cloning and gene editing.
One of the benefits of cloning and gene editing at an individual level is that scientists can use these procedures to treat infertility. According to Navratyil (2013, p. 109), cloning and gene editing would especially be helpful for women who cannot procreate biologically and want “have a genetically related child” due to ova or sperm insufficiency or same-sex couples. He further explains that scientists can clone embryos through splitting or nuclear transfers to improve the odds of successful conception (Navratyil, 2013). Scientists can then use gene