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.
Within the F.D.A's Animal and Veterinary section , there is a sub section that details in Animal cloning. Any visitor can check on the "What is the F.D.A doing?" section and click on Risk Assessment. Once there ,click on 'Chapter 3: Developing the Risk Assessment methodology"chapters with in the page to see what steps the F.D.A are taking when tackling the issues of cloning. As read on in the following chapters, the F.D.A mentions that food labels are not required to state if the meat consumed are cloned or not. There are details about how approach the cloning risks baed on a case to case study. The reason for that is because each case of cloning varies, due to each clone's varied DNA constantly changing due to being transgenic. Here is a little excerpt from section D. Transgenic Animal Clones:
"Organisms derived from transgenic cells will have risks specific to the inserted construct, its insertion site, and its subsequent expression. Although it is entirely possible for transgenic clones (or any transgenic organism) to be produced safely and to be a safe source of edible products, the risks associated with each animal must be determined separately on a case-by-case basis, because of the added genetic material."
The possibilities of added genetic material being a threat are likely to be. One can assume what happens when this kind of genetic material are in the meat and distributed to the masses through Fast Food. It would be a scary thing to actually have a potential epidemic happen all because of consummation of non labeled, cloned food. With Factory Farms pushing for an already immediate food production, cloning seems to be a great deal. But considering how they are able to obtain a healthy group of cattle, sounds hard to believe. In order to have healthy, fit, food, they would need to have animals that are treated with care from services such as prairie farms. Factory farms are growing more and more every day, finding ways to produce meat products faster and faster. this would be difficult for natural farmers because factory farms are inhabiting more. This makes it difficult for farmers to even have a chance at making a living with in the market. It takes jobs away, which is part of the ripple effect that Cloning causes.
Within the F.D.A's Animal and Veterinary section , there is a sub section that details in Animal cloning. Any visitor can check on the "What is the F.D.A doing?" section and click on Risk Assessment. Once there ,click on 'Chapter 3: Developing the Risk Assessment methodology"chapters with in the page to see what steps the F.D.A are taking when tackling the issues of cloning. As read on in the following chapters, the F.D.A mentions that food labels are not required to state if the meat consumed are cloned or not. There are details about how approach the cloning risks baed on a case to case study. The reason for that is because each case of cloning varies, due to each clone's varied DNA constantly changing due to being transgenic. Here is a little excerpt from section D. Transgenic Animal Clones:
"Organisms derived from transgenic cells will have risks specific to the inserted construct, its insertion site, and its subsequent expression. Although it is entirely possible for transgenic clones (or any transgenic organism) to be produced safely and to be a safe source of edible products, the risks associated with each animal must be determined separately on a case-by-case basis, because of the added genetic material."
The possibilities of added genetic material being a threat are likely to be. One can assume what happens when this kind of genetic material are in the meat and distributed to the masses through Fast Food. It would be a scary thing to actually have a potential epidemic happen all because of consummation of non labeled, cloned food. With Factory Farms pushing for an already immediate food production, cloning seems to be a great deal. But considering how they are able to obtain a healthy group of cattle, sounds hard to believe. In order to have healthy, fit, food, they would need to have animals that are treated with care from services such as prairie farms. Factory farms are growing more and more every day, finding ways to produce meat products faster and faster. this would be difficult for natural farmers because factory farms are inhabiting more. This makes it difficult for farmers to even have a chance at making a living with in the market. It takes jobs away, which is part of the ripple effect that Cloning causes.
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>.
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