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C ommentary N ovember 26,2003 T ue C lackamas P rint • 3 FACE OFF Cloning: a breakthrough in science/here to stay Cloning is foolish and shouldn't be tampered with which is already in practice, but more about cloning full humans. So far, the U.N. has not declared human cloning as a “crime against Michaels Cooper humanity.” For this, I am breathing easier. I Shannon Armstead T he C lackamas P rint There are some who have claimed to have B T he C lackamas P rint already cloned a human. However, they also claim to have done this with only three years of research The United Nations voted 80-79 to hold off on No matter what your moral opinion is on and with great ease. Specifically, I’m referring to iiuman cloning, it cannot be denyed that the a company called Clonaid, run by a radical group voting for a ban on all forms of human cloning, which is unfortunate, because this United Nations is wrong to deny humanity the called the Raelians. They have refused to share unsound practice is unethical; it opportunity to better ourselves as a race, their research with the rest of the respected devalues human life and should through the research of human cloning. medical world, making many skeptics therefore be banned without When the phrase “human cloning” stirs up to their claims. hesitation. A ban by the U.N. on all images of a science-fiction future where we all There are two forms of look, talk and think the same, thanks to movies human cloning would only cloning, “reproductive” and like “Gattica” and “Star Wars II,” why shouldn’t push this organization under “therapeutic.” Therapeutic we be rallying against anything with the word ground and almost out of reach cloning, also called somatic ‘clone” in it? to the authorities. If human cell nuclear transfer, refers While cloning puts horrible pictures in our cloning were to become well- to cloning specific human lead of a world where our children are manu regulated like all legal medical cells, genes and other tissues factured like a computer from DELL, it is hard procedures, the company that do not and cannot lead to a for me to believe that the human race would would be forced to justify human being. Reproductive ever take it that far. itself and share its methods cloning, on the other hand, is using Consider nuclear war, for example. Forty with the world. Regulating cloning technology to create a human years ago, everyone was sure that it was just a such controversial com being. matter of days before we were all wiped out by panies such as Clonaid The latter has repeatedly been nuclear missiles from Russia. would certainly put shown as a highly fallible practice and Did that ever happen? No. Didn’t we think some of the public’s many scientists agree that it should not beyond a doubt that it would? Yes.- concerns to rest. be practiced on human life. Scientists Yet the human race has never taken it as far There are those have successfully cloned a few animals as our greatest fears have led us to believe. who might benefit but the vast majority of pregnancies'have Now, just because it probably won’t destroy from legal, safe gone terribly wrong. Some scientists say the world as we know it doesn’t mean we human cloning. cloning healthy humans is virtually should all go out and get ourselves cloned Presently, we may be impossible because of their biological ASAP. The United Nations has a right to be able to inform parents if make-up. wary of this new process called “human their child is autistic The average person should cloning.” Yes, it should be regulated, but ban before the baby is bom, have no trouble seeing that repro ning it outright prevent advancements in med but there is nothing ductive cloning is a foolish prac- ical technology. we can do about it. tice and most would agree that it First of all, the most popular type of cloning Again, theoretical- should be banned. Lord Robert deals with cloning single organs, like a heart or • ly, this and similar May, [resident of the Royal Society, the a kidney. It can be used to grow a heart for diseases could be prevent United Kingdom's academy of science, someone with heart disease or a kidney for ed at conception with the help called reproductive cloning “grossly someone on dialysis. The process is similar to of human cloning research. irresponsible.” cloning a full human, except it deals with repro Such advances in Since the majority of scien ductive cells instead of organ cells as its ground medical science cannot tists agree that reproductive work. be abandoned cloning should be banned, the Recently, the U.N. has been debating about a because of a social issue of therapeutic cloning is ban on human cloning. Their discussion is not so stigma on human what really split the UN vote. much geared towards cloning of single organs, cloning. President Bush sees the importance of banning the unethical practice of therapeutic cloning, and America and Costa Rica led the campaign for abolishing all forms of cloning. They were co sponsored by 50 other countries. Germany and France called for a partial-ban, which would ban reproductive cloning but allow for therapeutic. They were co-sponsored by 13 other countries. An Iranian call for a two-year delay would hold off voting for any kind of a ban. “It’s particularly regrettable that it was by a margin of only one vote that we will be prevented from formally registering that more than 100 members of the United Nations favor the pursuit of the goal of a total ban on human cloning,” said United States Deputy Ambassador James Cunningham. Why did 100 other countries support a ban on therapeutic cloning? First of all, the reality of subsequent ’cures’ for diseases is largely insignificant. “There are today, no therapies derived from animal embryo cloning, and it is speculative whether there ever will be, let alone from human cloning,” said Representative Dave Weldon, a member of the House of Representatives Science Committee and practicing physician. More importantly, the legalization of therapeu tic cloning allows for the creating and subsequent killing of human embryos. Those who support therapeutic cloning would justify it by saying that embryos are not really human life. However, this is not the case. “Each human being has 46 chromosomes; at fertilization, every one of those 46 chromosomes are present,” said human embryologist Ronan O'Rahilly. After fertilization, the embryo does not become any other kind of thing, it simply divides and grows bigger and bigger and as such it is human life. It takes abstract reasoning to tell us first that an embryo is a human being, and then follow that basis to the eventual conclusion that therapeutic cloning is murder that values 'research' over the value of every human life. Medical doctor and bioethicist Megan Best sums up the immorality of therapeutic cloning when she says, “It is unethical to view a human being-regardless of its age-as a means to an end.” Step up to the feeding trough folks, it's time to go wild! c E □ "o U 3 0) (D £ 42 • <D u Cory Price Co Editor-in-Chief As we enter into the holiday sea son tomorrow with an opening day of gluttonous gorging, better known as Thanksgiving, I would like to take this time to reflect some feelings about this day of thanks. Let's begin with the food, since this is the dominant activity in which people gratefully participate in on this day of thanks. There are not many days in the year when people have the excuse to gorge themselves so full that pant sizes jump up a couple of notch es. This is also the only day of the year we Americans make what a sumo eats look like a carnivore in a salad bar. Every year, I hear people com plaining about how tired they are after a big holiday feast, and they blame it What on the turkey. What did poor ol' Tom do to deserve this treatment? He does contain an amino acid called trypto phan, but doctors say his levels of this chemical are too low to make some one drowsy. Instead, blame it on the fact that everyone just ate more food than an Ethiopian would see in a life time. The best thing about this all-out eating fest is the lifetime supply of leftovers. A man can make turkey sandwiches until the next year's feast ing session. My all-time favorite, though, has to be leftover scalloped potatoes. Just throw a plate full in the microwave and minutes later it’s Thanksgiving all over again. The funniest thing about this day of gorging, though, is how people roll out of bed the next morning for the first official day of the Christmas shopping season.- And what do they go buy? Underwear and socks! This world has gone too far. People drag themselves are your T he C lackamas P rint 19600 S Molalla Ave. Oregon City, OR 97045 (503) 657-6958 The Clackamas Print is a weekly student publication and is distributed every Wednesday except during finals week. feelings on ting at home, spend the rest of the time playing a local game of Ttirkey Bowl. One other alternative to suggest to the corporate giants is changing the time. They could air it from 8-10 a.m. and move the afternoon football up to 10 a.m. So then the breakdown for the day would be play football, watch football, watch more football and then have a giant feast That way, Mom doesn't fight with Dad, Grandpa or anyone else for that matter, over foot ball being on during dinner. A great new tradition would be adding a night game to the line-up. This would create an entire day full of the great American sport of football. Stop bitching about Thanksgiving being a family holiday! Americans have forgotten the meaning of "fami ly time." Let me tell you something about the original Thanksgiving. It was a three-day celebration and giv ing of thanks for the harvest So why invite that crazy uncle of yours or that cousin twice-removed? human Jessica Poggi “I think that embryonic cloning for the purposes of human dis eases could be helpful for humankind.” “I think it’s just wrong, moral wise.” Co Editors-in-Chief: Advertising Manager: Production Assistants: Cyndee Mady and Cory Price Copy Editor: Katie Funk News Editor: Jared Eschweiler Opinion Editor: Pete Ford Feature Editor: Karen Hill A&E Editor: Isaiah Creel Sporte Editor: Nie Delzell Mark Falling, ext. 2578 Tech/Design Editor: Robb Egan Staff Writers: Shannon Armstead, Michaele Cooper, Earl England, Shingo Izumi, Karlin Johnson, Frank Jordan, Jesse Lamond, Jessica Le Claire, Ben Maras Megan Cline, Tamie Johnson, Maggie Leniger, Shannon Nielsen, Justin Orton, Carmen Richard Adviser: Linda Vogt “Do it, don’t do it Doesn’t matter to me.” Department assistant: Lauren Vulsteke Thanksgiving is a celebration where you should only call someone you want to share a time of thanks with. Set aside the gorge fest and over sized balloons of Mr. Moneybags the Monopoly guy. Don't call Uncle Ralph, the one who has a funny odor and rambles all night about the good days, or Aunt Edna, who pinches everyone's cheeks until they're as red as the cranberry sauce. Instead, how about calling up a Native American friend. Invite him over, but make sure he says "how" when he comes to the door and is wearing his buckskins and chiefs feather hat. This is sure to make an authentic Thanksgiving feast for all to remember. At least shut up about another hol iday that you “have” to do. Call up some friends, get together, have a few non-alcoholic beverages and have a good time into the wee hours of the night. cloning? Somer Erickson Kevin Palan Charles Meeker “I think it’s probably bad because people have souls. A clone wouldn’t have a soul because it wasn’t created by God.” out of bed at the butt crack of dawn to the mall and fight over once-a-year deals on undergarments. A lit tle old lady turns into a raving lunatic and will resort to violence if you get in line in front of her at the fabric store. Let's put shopping aside and keep the leftovers simmering on the back burner. It's time to talk about the early morning tradition of watching Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Over 2 million people brave the elements to line the streets of New York City; over 40 million spend pre cious hours at home viewing the spec tacle on TV. When the marching bands come by to break up the monotony of over sized, helium-filled cartoon charac ters, all I hear is the same song. Over and over, every band carries the same tune. Why do millions spend three entire hours watching this tedious pro cession? Let's axe the parade down to one or two hours! Then, instead of sit Frank Boothby “I feel in certain cases it would probably be beneficial, but it would have to be severely regu lated.” Goals: The Clackamas Print aims to report the news in an honest, unbiased, professional manner. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the student body, college administration, its faculty or The Print. Email comments to chiefed@clackamas.edu. The Clackamas Print © 2003
