Ever wonder what it might be like to one day walk the streets to find someone who is identical in appearance to yourself? Ever thought about women bearing babies without even getting pregnant? Well, this is how cloning works. Biologists began their cloning endeavors in 1952. For many years, the work was based on animals, but with the development of technology, the first cloned human was “born” on the 26th of December, 2002.[1] Accordingly, people were excited by this new potential for the human race! However, concerns arose. The issues of terrorism, of genetic and social issues, and other fears gave way, and quite justifiably. In all, I strongly agree that cloning is bad for us, it is a dangerous science to tinker with and, thus, should be treated with extreme caution if it is pursued.

For one, let’s think of the worst case, but a very plausible, scenario. Say that cloning became in customary part of society much like food is to survive. But, instead of it filling us with sustenance, I envision it could be used by extreme forces to create riots and chaos in our communities. This would be exponentially larger than the potential benefits it could bring. For instance, extremists, religious or otherwise, could take advantage of cloning. They could create their own armies of clones to harm others. Think of it: technology is abused every day. For example, for the past year, over half of innocent civilians are dead due to bomb attacks, including 26% of suicide missions.   [2] Another 23% of the death was created by the tactic of armed assaults. [2] From the statistics above, we can see that extremists aren’t afraid of losing their lives at all. With the help of a clone clan, they then are free from all inhibitions—they can sacrifice as many people as they want
to. The chief executive of the largest Chinese cloning corporation, Xu Xiaochun said this: "The technology we have is very advanced ... [but if uncontrolled] technology can also do damage ... Every technology has to have a boundary.” [3] His expertise suggests that cloned people might be extremely dangerous and cannot be trusted. And terrorists do have inclinations towards weapons to destroy. According to scientists, the genes could be repeated many times, which means if the terrorist got to know the essence of it, it is unstoppable. [4]
Besides the terrorist chaos that could ensue, cloning would harm biologics. Let’s consider that in order to create the best clone of people, the request for the cloned genes being perfect or of high quality would be in large demand. Only the genes that are healthy, or have a good appearance would be chosen. Think of how this effects our society today: discrimination based on appearance is very serious. “The economist from the University of Texas is convinced, based on his extensive research in the United States, Canada and China, that beautiful people get all the breaks. Simply, “they earn more.”[5] Therefore, we can easily imagine the world where only the aesthetically beautiful people are appreciated and, if cloned, these people would be widely “produced”. The greater amount of the clones produced, the genes would get more and more similar, and problems could occur easily among decedents—not only because that they look similar, but that their babies might have some issues with their intelligence. According to research held in China, “when the genes of the parents are too similar, the possibility of their children of being mentally or physically damaged is around 1/8000. The risk is 125 times higher than normal marriage.” [6] Thus, the technology of cloning would cause high risk of decedent’s defect.“ I hope that moral responsibility will prevail, and an absolute ban on human cloning would be extended. It is necessary for all of us that we remain human beings.” quoted by “Father Dimitry (Pershin)”, a professor at the State Medical University.[7]

On the contrary, many people claim that the cloning of human organs and humans themselves contribute greatly to the medical field; that it had greatly changed the status of women who cannot conceive. This technology can also provide gay or lesbian couples a chance to have babies.[8] The organs could be used to save people if their organs are no longer functional. In the book Never Let Me Go, the author described the world of clone. People try to observe the lives of cloned people, and just kept on going, even though they know that it is not right to do so in the first place.[9] The convenience it has brought is definitely worth medical value. However, the price is extremely expensive and actual operation have not been successful or safe. "It's risky, and the risks have never been properly studied…. We need to think about if we want to put real young women at risk for this speculative kind of research.” says Marcy Darnovsky, executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society, which is a public interest organization based in Berkeley, California.[10]

As we can see above, although cloning is an exciting, new rising technology, somehow impacts society in a positive way, the harm it would bring is much more. For instance, what would our world look like without uniqueness? It is very important that we all care about what is being issued and what is right or what is wrong. Therefore, clones should be banned for the good of the whole society for the reason that it might be misused or abused or used as weapons. I call for difference, safety, love and sanity in the world, and cloning is not a right way to provide all these needs. Finally, it is more likely to bring chaos to our world when all we’ve ever wanted was peace.