Blog 10 - (actually it's blog 9.2) Revised Essay :Animal Cloning by Anthony Andujar jr

Anthony Andujar Jr

4/12/14

Eng101

Professor J.C. Smith

  

Society shouldn't clone animals

   There are various forms of media that have shown forms of fictional stories , like alternate realities, men in armored suits and clones of an individual or individuals. But what was once science fiction has now become reality and Cloning is that living proof realized. But what is cloning? Cloning means, an organism or person that is an exact genetic copy of the original organism that it came from. This is a conflicting topic, which is why society shouldn't clone animals. Reason being that there are potential risks that could develop into a wide epidemic. There are numerous studies that detail the complications and the results of cloning animals when it comes to producing food for corporate factory farms at a large pace. If society continues to exercise these very actions, then the number of health risks will soar more than what society could ever imagine.     

Society shouldn't clone animals, because it could also lead to more ethical problems amongst society. Especially when it concerns human beings and the possible push to go into human cloning.

   Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation , He goes into detail about factory farms, and how they do damage to not just the animals, but also to the environment due to the amount of waste that is left behind along with the cruel treatment that are inflicted to the cattle's. This is an example of a ripple effect that would start as an isolated event, which would then snowball into a more global event. Much like factory farming itself, Cloning, is just that. It's a genetic test tube farm that can be tampered and augmented with which could allow for numerous unnatural things that could be injected into the very foods that society would eat. The craziest thing is that society would never really know that they ate cloned food since the FDA doesn't think anything of it. That is a scary thing considering how much is tampered with the very

food that society eats and even the European Union are still holding off on labeling cloned meat. It is a potential threat that to some would seem minor in the present, but can become major threat in the future as a health scare.

    There are articles such as some that mention Dolly the cloned sheep a point of reference as a perfect clone, yet despite this, there have been numerous cloned animals that died multiple times in birth, or would die after a few weeks of age. Some of the symptoms that would lead to death as explained in articles such as University of Utah's 2014 article "what are the risks of cloning". In that article, they mention that’s the risks of animal cloning and causes of death are due to: abnormal brain/kidney development, and weak immune system. End animal cloning.org expands on the side effects mentioning that animals cloned are also born with enlarged limbs , along with other deformities.

   These are signs that show the possible health risks that it can pose on humans.Although there hasn't been any research studies to definitely prove that some one has been stricken with an illness due to eating cloned food, It's still risky business when one day it could happen. Most animals are already in a state of torture as it is due to factory farms experimenting with whatever ways to produce cattle faster and slaughter them quicker for a larger profit. And since the FDA (food and drug administration) seems to lack its focus on the matter, Who's to say that whatever side effects that are affecting these animals, won't happen to a consumer who buys cloned meat, without any knowledge that the very food that they bought was cloned, and the potential side effects that could follow suit, leading to largely possible health epidemics. attention since it could cause possible diseases if not checked and dealt with. . It also harms the very animals that bare the clones and causes side effects to the carrier as well as the child that is to be born. The side effects of cloned animals that lead to their death such as deformities, abnormal growth in limbs, immune system failure, are enough risk factors among potential risk factors that could develop ahead of time. All these things could harm society and put every one in danger of potentially new diseases if left unchecked.

   Back in 2007, South Korean geneticists were tinkering with the genetics of a cat, and used a virus to enable the cat the ability, to glow in the dark. When scientist were asked the reason for the experiment, they said: "the ability to engineer animals.. will enable them to artificially create animals with human genetic diseases." Following with a Today NBC report by Natalie Morales who reported (back on December 14th, 2007) that the Scientists were doing these studies to understand human genetic diseases. A 2014 BBC article by David Shukman , reported that China's Genetics company BGI, is Cloning animals on an industrial scale. Cloned pigs are used as test dummies for new medicines. "Hand made" cloning and other forms, are attempts to push for a cloning factory as reported by Shukman. When shukman interviewed BGI's Chief executive Wang Jun about animals , Jun responded with:

" If it looks cute ..you should sequence it..its like digitalizing all the wonderful species" and responded to ethical questions with " We're following nature, there are people dying from world hunger and protein supply. So we have to think about ways of dealing with that."

When looking into this issue, one must wonder how it could affect bio-diversity and cause potential harm. What used to be science fiction has now become a reality. Be it Huxley's Brave New World, Marvel Comic's: Mister Sinister /X-23/X-men stories, Spider-man: the clone saga, DC's Superboy, The Star Wars films, Orphan Black(tv series), Anime/Manga etc, there is a common reflection about the direction that society could head to based on the various medias and their views based on the topic.

Despite the great things animal cloning, Animal Cloning is wrong. The idea that there could be possible meta pathogens that could cause more harm and be resistant to all sorts of anti virus medications is something that should be looked into. there is not a lot of research that has been reported about possible meta-pathogens due to cloning, should be looked into in case of possible horrors that could exist. With that said, as much as it can help society, animal cloning/ cloning could harm humanity and all of bio-diversity as a whole If left unsupervised.

References:

"Animal Welfare : End Animal Cloning." Animal Welfare : End Animal Cloning. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2014. <http://www.endanimalcloning.org/animalwelfare.shtml>.

Layton, Julia, and Cristen Conger. "How do I know if I\u0027m eating cloned meat?." HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks.com, 5 Jan. 2007. Web. 13 May 2014. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/cloned-meat1.htm>.

Shukman, David. "China cloning on 'industrial scale'." BBC News. BBC, 14 Jan. 2014. Web. 11 May 2014. <http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-25576718>.

Waterfield, Bruno. "Meat from cloned animals need not be labelled, EC says." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 16 Dec. 2013. Web. 13 May 2014. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/10525282/Meat-from-cloned-animals-need-not-be-labelled-EC-says.html>.

"What are the Risks of Cloning?." What are the Risks of Cloning?. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2014. <http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/cloning/cloningrisks/>.

"12 bizarre examples of genetic engineering: Glow-in-the-dark cats." MNN. Mother Nature Network, n.d. Web. 11 May 2014. <http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/photos/12-bizarre-examples-of-genetic-engineering/glow-in-the-dark>.