Human cloning and stem cell research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Human cloning and stem cell research - Essay Example This essay examines prominent scientific and ethical elements related to human cloning and stem cell research. While the nature of human cloning and stem cell research has a number of important medical implications, these notions are always accompanied by the ethical concerns of biotechnology. In considering current usages of genetic engineering one is able to establish a more broad ranging understanding of these questions; in these regards, genetic engineering finds widespread use in agricultural procedures, as well as genetically engineered animals (‘Ethical Issues’). As scientists experiment animal engineering questions emerge regarding what constitutes human cloning, as human genes have been inserted into animal organisms (‘Ethical Issues’). Stem cells specifically are biological cells found in multicellular organisms. Research has allowed scientists to artificially grow or replicate these cells that can be used in medical therapies. Stem cell research and human cloning poses a number of widespread benefits to humanity. Indeed, it’s been indicated that this technology could potentially be implemented to aid, â€Å"debilitating diseases and disabilities, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, diabetes, heart disease, liver disease, and spinal cord injury† (Lindsay, p. 228). Still, Federal funding has oftentimes been withheld from such research among arguments that such research kills an entity that is the equivalent of a person. While theology has ostensibly objects to cloning and stem cell research in terms of religious doctrine, it’s clear that even from a secular perspective the process poses a number of concerns. In these regards, if stem cell experimentation is allowed groups worry that eventually full-scale human cloning will occurs (Lindvall). Questions emerge concern the potential of human/animal chimeras. While such considerations are somewhat sensational, one also considers the moral issues