Ethical Issues in Genetic Experimentation and Development (Essay Sample)

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Ethical Issues in Genetic Experimentation and Development Introduction
Modern advancement in technology has made it possible for scientists to create human beings in the laboratory. However, scientific procedures such as stem cell research and cloning raise much controversy in the society. Therefore, the debate on whether the government should legalize experiments that generate human beings from the laboratory is far from an end. The topic raises a number of questions from various entities in the society. Some feel that it should be legalized to help create artificial human beings for the sole purpose of medical research (Brannigan 45). Therefore, many of them agree that generation of human beings from the laboratory would help ease the shortage of research materials. More often than not, religious doctrines criticize the proposal arguing that it demeans the sanctity of life as given by the Supreme Being. They argue that scientific procedures such as stem cell research and cloning of human beings goes against the teachings of religious scriptures which emphasize that only God is the only giver of life.
Arguments for and against Genetic Experimentation and Development
Although it may sound a good achievement from scientists, it is unfortunate that their efforts attract criticism from the society. The procedures raise moral questions on whether scientists should have a mandate to manufacture human beings just like commercial products. From a philosophical point of view, manufacturing a human being is ethically and morally wrong. It is a fact that science has made life easier and better owing to the range of studies that have produced better vaccines and cures for disease that were previously a menace to the society. However, many feel that science has gone too far if it has to replace God in creating human beings.
Manufacturing a human being is immoral in that it is outright injustice to the dignity of humans because it alters the foundations of the origin of life. Moreover, it demeans the ethics that defines a morally upright society. Therefore, if cloning becomes legal, it will lead the human race to some developments and they may never relapse back to the ancient ethics that laid the moral directions in the society. The dictates of moral relativism do not allow people to adopt practices that are likely to break the social fabric that holds a community together.
Cloning human beings raises serious questions about the rights of the manufacturer over the cloned human being. If a person can manufacture the other one, they have rights to own and maybe kill them. After all, they may manufacture more. Manufacturing human beings from the laboratory for purposes of medical research reduces the dignity of human beings into mere objects of human use. Hence, it fails to consider the effects of the experiment to the artificial human beings because they can replace them from the laboratory.
The traditional discourse lays a constitution to protect human life. However, it does not include artificially manufactured human beings nor does it give them any rights. The concept is not acceptable because it has no provision in the social platform that defines humanhood in theology or law. Similarly, philosophy does not engage it in its moral concepts; thus, making it a mere ideology. Cloning attracts several legal issues and different countries have different legislation to guide scientific experiments. Countries such as Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Norway, Denmark and Canada have enacted laws that prohibit scientists from cloning human beings. Others do not fund research geared towards manufacturing of human beings. Some states in America such as West Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina and New York among others have enacted laws following the cloning of Dolly that guide cloning especially of human beings. Similarly, the federal government has enacted a series of federal laws to monitor health facilities that provide reproduction services. The law regulates the number of times a medical engineer can manipulate an embryo. The Catholic Church opposes stem cell research arguing that it amounts to murder of innocent beings.
From a religious perspective, cloning/ manufacturing human beings from the laboratory have received sharp criticism. It has no provision from the Holy Scriptures such as the Quran and the bible. Hence, religious leaders propagate for a ban of the practice on human beings (Cole-Turner 18). The Orthodox Church claims that cloning traverses the biblical accounts of procreation in that it engages a third party in the process. It argues that cloned human beings emanate from a chain of experiments and not love as it should be. Furthermore, they also believe that the soul of a clone do not match that of a human being. Moreover, they express concerns over the possibility of producing malicious individuals if they add animal genes to the human beings in the making.
Several religious leaders brand cloning as being evil. They raise questions on whether the sole purpose of cloning is for medical procedures or to generate spare parts for transplantation of dysfunctional human organs. They denounce the argument that cloning generates embryonic cells to treat Parkinson's disease. Others feel that it is wrong to store a living being in the bank and withdraw them when demand chips in.
Some entities feel that medical procedures such as stem cell research are likely to subject human beings into abuse by the practitioners. Conservative individuals believe that scientific procedures are suspicious in nature; thus, they cannot trust their motive. Critics of human cloning denounce it arguing that it subjects human beings to harm and exploitation by the researchers. Such human beings do not enjoy the psychological and physical back-up that other children enjoy from their parents. Therefore, it is certain that such individuals do not have a social and cultural identity.
Although manufacturing human beings from the laboratory and other developments raises many moral questions, the practices have significantly helped in the advancement of medical technology. Medical researchers have found cures for some genetically linked diseases such as the Parkinson's disease that has troubled mankind since time immemorial.
Although such experiments receive criticism from the public, it has a number of advantages in the field of medical research. It helps medical scholars' generate identical animals in terms of genetic composition that helps in scientific experiments (Klotzko 34). Hence, it breeds desirable animals for purposes of factory farming through generating a transgenic population of animals. Such procedures allow scholars to unearth the mystery behind cell differentiation.
Stem cell research indicates that stem cells from an embryo can reproduce indefinitely if they are in the right environment. Similarly, they undergo cell differentiation to become different types of tissues. Therefore, it is useful in the provisi...