What is a GMO? A GMO is a Genetically Modified Organism, this is where a certain gene is spliced out and replaced or just added so that the organism will be better. I am going to look at the most extreme GMO, a clone. Cloning has become a
recent topic for discussion. Is cloning
right? Where do we start cloning? Where does cloning end? All these are questions that need to be
answered. As a Christian should we be
cloning or even accepting research done into cloning. I am going to take a
deeper look into the science then the morality of cloning; also what is the
goal of cloning humans and animals. I
personally believe that cloning is wrong but we will examine deeper and see how
and why.
First let us look at
the science of cloning. Most people do
not know how cloning works.Think Quest gives us information on how cloning works, in the case of Dolly the sheep and
many other present cases. “They first scraped some skin cells from the udder of
the first sheep, and then they took an unfertilized egg from the second sheep
and the nucleus was removed from the egg to prevent the sheep from looking
different. Afterwards, the cell grew with the second sheep and it was a
success.” The sad fact is that the clone
attempt for Dolly failed two hundred and seventy six times, according to the Human Genome Project. This is a problem
considering you killed 276 other sheep and you would do the same thing to
humans by cloning and killing them. The
second problem with cloning is the fact that the clones are born with old
genes. Dolly’s original was cloned at 6 years old; the average age of a sheep
is 12. Dolly died prematurely from
arthritis and cancer, both typically found in older sheep before they die.
Now
that we have seen the science of cloning we can look at the morality of
cloning. With 276 dead sheep clearly the
killing of the same amount of humans would be considered wrong, right? In
today’s world the answer is no. But that
does not make it right. We kill millions
of babies through abortion so we see that the world of today does not have
regards for young life. People would
consider murdering 276 children, adults, or any other earth-touching human
morally wrong. The problem does not lie
in the replication of the DNA, our bodies do that every day to preserve us, the
problem lies in the death and destruction it causes even the successes. There are many problems that correlate with
cloning such as the fore mentioned abortion and euthanasia. The Bible says in Psals127:3-5: “Behold,
children are a heritage from the LORD; The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like
arrows in the hand of a warrior. So are
the children of one’s youth. Happy is
the man who has his quiver full of them.”
Children are a blessing from God and not an experiment in a Petri dish. Mark Roberts of Westside Church in Irving,
Texas brings an interesting view on what cloning could become, “How about
producing a child as “spare parts” for yourself or another child that is sick.”
* It would be wrong just to use a child as something just to cure
diseases. When that clone is born it
still becomes a human not something to discriminate against.
Cloning
is just plain wrong, but the world does not see it. We as Christians need to be careful in what
we believe in as far as science goes. We
should not approve of unbiblical actions and try to prevent them from happening
in the future. There are some GMOs that are fine, such as one that prevent bug from eating them and other various modifications that improve the well being of the plant, but that is as far as it goes.
*Mark Roberts is emphatically against cloning. He is just hypothetically making the
statement.
