Cloning in the Social and Media Context - Essay Example

? Cloning in the Social and Media Context Cloning is defined as “the use of asexual reproduction to obtain organisms that are genetically identical to one another and to the 'parent'” (Dale et al, 2011 p115). This means that cloning involves a method of replicating organisms without the normal sexual conception systems which often involves a male and a female of the species in question. The use of asexual reproduction is known in micro-organisms and in certain botanical activities which enables living things to be regenerated. Also, Dale et al (2011 p115) identify that in contrast with sexual reproduction, offsprings from cloning are genetically identical. In other words, they look the same in terms of their genes and their features. This makes cloning quite different from reproduction through sexual means which results in offsprings that are not very similar to any of their two parents. There is a major conflict in the issue relating to the cloning of living things, particularly human beings (Restivo, 2005). This conflict has led to the creation of two camps on the matter: the biologists and the sociologists. Biologists believe that cloning will improve animal life and their breeding habits. They believe that cloning will lead to the preservation of endangered species and help to increase knowledge of human beings and prevent diseases. This is because there is overwhelming evidence that cloning could be used to create stem cell transplants and other scientific miracles that could lead to the control of some disease, particularly genetic diseases. On the other hand, sociologists believe that cloning stands to endanger the human society. This is because it will always affect the genetic identity of people and cause problems for the nuclear family structures of societies around the world. They believe that cloning will distort the concept of individuality and it would be used to promote eugenics and breed social discord. The 'sociologists' present their arguments through religious and ethical standpoints which make cloning appear to be unacceptable and 'unnatural'. This is mainly because religion, particularly the Abrahamic religions which are common throughout the world today see cloning as a violation of the natural order that was laid out in the various Holy Scriptures. On the other hand, other non-religious persons who see the dangers of cloning to society join in the debate through an ethicist point of view which seeks to condemn cloning. The conflict and controversy surrounding cloning has had an effect on the human society in a profound manner. Generally, cloning is currently banned around the world today. In attaining this end, there was a lot of controversy in the society relating to the technology of cloning. This was evidenced by the media's anti-cloning sentiments that led to the ban on cloning. This paper examines the overall effects of cloning on humans and animals on the society. It examines dominant and key debates relating to cloning and its impact on the wider society. The paper begins by examining the position of cloning in the modern society. It goes on to examine the relationship between cloning and the law. The paper further examines the impact of cloning and the psychological make-up of potential humans 'born' through cloning. It finally discusses the position of cloning in the media in the world. The Position of Cloning in the Society The family is the basic structure in societies. As such, a child is normally born into a family where s/he is socialized into the wider society. The normal method of procreation and socializing of children is one where a couple come together, engage in sexual intercourse which leads to conception and pregnancy. This is followed by childbirth and the raising of the child. If cloning becomes an accepted part of society, there is going to be an inevitable breakage in this cycle. Individuals would be able to just get children replicated for them as and when they want to. Clearly, this will violate the basic element of society and have a far-reaching consequence on the wider society. First of all, there will be a collapse of the traditional nuclear family system: father, mother and children. People will come into the world with absolutely little identity connections except for the fact that they 'resemble' a particular individual. As such, these persons would be denied the basic elements of civil law which promotes the rights of individuals to get a degree of safety and protection by their parents and immediate family (Pence, 1998). This is because persons brought into the world through cloning will have little connections or attachment to anyone. This therefore means that there is an inevitable disturbance to society when cloning becomes a part of reproduction. The identity problem that cloning brings has a wider dimension on the society. This is because there will be a difficulty in any attempt to connect people with certain social systems or structures. This is because cloning defeats the fundamental purpose of providing identities to people through their immediate family, nationality or social connection. This is because when a person has absolutely no connection to any family, such a person cannot be classified and this will inevitably lead to serious identity issues. Due to the inherent issues with cloning, many people continue to view cloning as a negative element of the society. Essed and Goldberg (2002) identify the role of cloning in the wider society. The begin their article by stating that cloning occupies the same position as the gruesome Nazi experiments because they are unpopular with the general public around the world. They state that the choice of cloning seem to reflect the desire of human beings to overcome nature and exceed the boundaries of their rights to self determination and have their own way. Hence, cloning is seen as people getting the choice to have babies just like them with no other party involved in the procreation process. They state that the whole idea of cloning could be easily connected with the issue of eugenics and the scientific study and procreation of race similar to what was used by the Nazis to justify their atrocities against Jews and Gypsies. As such, they create a tentative image of a situation where the world will proliferate only the preferred type of people: male, White, able-bodied, heterosexuals who are highly intelligent to run economies of nations. On the other hand, they would proliferate strong non-White individuals who lack intelligence to do manual work and never demand for any kind of fairness. This would create a system where the dominant and stronger social group will try to enslave weaker groups permanently. Although sameness had been attempted in different points in history such as cases of equality, education, management and the military, it is not wise to attempt to attain that end through cloning. This is because cloning could become a tool for reproducing sameness which could be disastrous for the human race. Essed and Goldbergy (2002) identify that cloning in the social context could lead to horizontal and vertical issues. Horizontal issues relate to the fact that there is the need for more of the same people at the same time which could lead to systematic bias in the reproduction of human beings. Vertical issues relate to the fact that more of the same people are needed across time. Thus, for instance, preferred stars and public figures would be reproduced so that they can continue to satisfy the needs of the masses. This could be quite problematic and go against the established norms of society where people live and die after attaining their goals in life. Cloning and the Law The moment the first clone of Dolly, the sheep was announced in 1996, there was the need for the society to take a decision about cloning and its future. In the President's Council of Bioethics report (2002), a thorough debate was undertaken about legislation relating to cloning and the acceptance of clones into the human society. The technology that led to the cloning of Dolly had been used since 1920. However, it had developed over the years and although there were as many as 277 experiments before Dolly could be cloned, there was the possibility of it being practiced on human beings successfully. At the onset of successful cloning of Dolly, the United States allowed each individual state to enact laws concerning the issue of cloning humans and as of March 2000, only 5 states had banned cloning (Lauritzen, 2001 p207). In order to prevent a standoff and the illegal cloning of human beings in other states in America, there was the need for Congress to decide on the matter. This is because numerous dangers were raised in relation to cloning and its potential destruction to the global order. As such, the Bioethics Committee had to meet to discuss whether it was suitable for the law to allow such practices to persist in the society. The discussions related to the rights and position of the children that could potentially come out of such cloning activities. The Bioethics committee accepted that it will be reckless if cloning was replicated on human beings. This is because it would affect the identity of the child-to-be and have serious implications on the legal position of such a child. Based on the compelling evidence of the issues of humans being cloned, the US came up with a law banning cloning. However, the US congress agreed to leave some room for further research into some forms of cloning. These research works were meant to provide the opportunities for the development of medical cures and other things to help to improve many aspects of the society. It can also be identified that most countries around the world have moved to ban cloning in its entirety. This is because cloning stands to destroy the fabric of their societies and create social and individual problems for persons who are cloned. Cloning and Psychology Generally, an individual is defined as a personality. The personality of an individual the total make-up of the person which include the inherent and acquired characteristics of the person. This defines the position of an individual in the society and gives a person a unique identity which confers rights and responsibilities of citizens and membership of any given community s/he resides in. Personality is defined through normal and conventionally accepted methods of reproduction. Usually, in most societies, an individual personality has some connection with his or her family bloodline, the status of his or her parents prior to conception, and the position of his family in the social hierarchy. In most cases, where people have issues with these fundamental elements of family ancestry, people are open to serious identity issues which often lead to crises. A typical example is the case of a person born out of rape by an enemy soldier in a war. In such a situation, the child's position might be dented permanently and this might lead to serious social challenges that would prevent such persons from integrating into the society properly. From the nature of cloning as a method of bringing people into the world, there is an inherent challenge to the way people are going to view such a person when s/he is born. This will affect the way people think of and perceive such a person. This is because most people are used to having children from normal sexual encounters between males and females. As such, if there is going to be exceptions to the norm, then it is appropriate that some changes are made to the psychological positions of persons before anything of that sort is authorized. However, there is n o guarantee that this paradigm shift would occur. This therefore means that it might be inappropriate to allow cloning to become an accepted norm in the society. Morales (2009) identifies that there are three main psychological points that need to be noted in the event of authorizing cloning. First of all, clones will be harmed by the psychological attitudes towards them. In other words, people in the society will not view them as normal human beings. As such, there will be the need for corresponding laws to provide some level of equality in order to get them accepted fully into the society when they are born. Secondly, clones will be harmed by demands and expectations of their parents and genotypes. This is because they are going to be the same as their parents or genotypes. As such, the will have serious identity issues and other problems that would always work against them and prevent their complete integration into the normal society. Thirdly, clones will be harmed by the awareness of their origins. They will be aware of who they are and how they came into the world. As such, they will be haunted by their past and will not have a normal life. These psychological problems will manifest itself in the behavior human clones. They will not have usual behaviors because of these obvious challenges. There will also be social implications for their actions and attitudes will go against them. Their conception and identity will be a problem and as such, it is better off not to allow such cloning activities to happen in nations around the world. Cloning and The Media After the cloning of Dolly the sheep, cloning became a very important aspect of the media. There were so many news items about cloning. Due to the popularity of cloning in the media and its related debates, there were numerous programs on the media that sought to present various views of segments of the society about cloning. Numerous movies and documentaries were acted to provide an insight into the futuristic position of cloning if it was allowed to become a normal part of society. In most cases, these media productions about cloning were inspired by popular positions taken by the society in relation to what is right. Maio (2006) examined the role of the media in public debates that featured the acceptance or rejection of cloning as a component of the society. In this, he examined 25 documentaries and filmed related to cloning aired on German television between 1996 and 2001.He identified that all the films and documentaries showed that cloning can change the fabric of society. These films were shown with scenarios based on scientific facts that were incorporated into them to make cloning appear to be a wrong thing. In the films assessed, Maio stated that the idea of cloning was presented as an apocalyptic vision of the destruction of the world by scientists. He identified that there were metaphors with dramaturgical value that showed that cloning will destroy the world. In one of these metaphors, cloning was presented as a break in 'the dyke of society'. In other words, cloning was going to open the door for the destruction of the world and humanity. He also stated that although there were possible negative consequences of cloning, the shows in the media about cloning were presented as if they had already occurred. As such, any viewer was made to see cloning as something that is already bad even though it was never allowed or carried out at any point in history. This means that the film producers' personal sentiments were cast through the movies to cause the whole society to become prejudiced against cloning which had never been permitted. This shows a pessimistic account that presented cloning as a threat to the society. In the movies, cloning is presented as a system that sought to create certain types of humans or groups of persons who sought to subdue other persons in the society. These movies and documentaries were in support of the Judeo-Christian view of creation which involves the Creator who created the world from nothing and created humans. As such, it appears that the permission of cloning would destroy the sanctity of marriage and prevent people from following most of the laws set out in the Scriptures of the Abrahamic Faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) as well as most of the world's religions. As such, the media was seen as a convenient outlet to demonize cloning and set the world up against cloning. The religious elements of cloning are presented through the casts and plot of films and movies aired on TV about cloning. First of all, the scientist who undertakes the cloning is identified as evil and the human clone is seen as an evil specimen whilst the original person is cast as a good person. Also, in the films, the scientist who conducts the clone is eventually punished as a sign that G-d will punish anyone who clones a human being and tries to be like Him. Also, the setting within which cloning is permitted is always cast as an era or place where there is decay and catastrophe. This is to show that the world will be nearing destruction when cloning is permitted. Finally, in movies about clones, order is restored the moment the clone is killed or dies. In essence, the movie is to demonstrate to the entire world that the clone's existence brings chaos into the world. Maio points out that no effort was made by any of the movies and media shows to indicate that cloning could be good and positive to humanity. It is always the norm to cast cloning in the bad light so that the media shows could get the right patronage and continue to antagonize cloning as an activity. Conclusion Cloning is basically a problematic activity because it has implications for the society, religion and the individual. In the society, cloning provides a serious and inherent risk to the identity of individuals that will be brought into the world through this element of science. This is because the identity of cloned human beings will be difficult to define in a society where human beings will defy the standard elements of procreation which happens to be sexual in nature. Due to the risks and potential issues relating to cloning, it is always wise for the law to intervene to ensure that no human beings are cloned. In the United States, this was done through state laws. However, when the global threat of cloning became widespread, there was the need for the United States government to intervene through a set of national laws. In 2002, the Federal Bioethics Report showed that cloning was not ideal for the society. This led to the creation of laws banning cloning. Individually, cloning of human beings create a psychological issue for persons that are born through cloning. This is because such persons might not get the ideal connections to society and this will create problems for them. In reaction to the problem, the media has played a proactive role by casting cloning in a very negative light. Most movies and documentaries about cloning show it as an immoral activity that will ultimately destroy the world. References Dale, J. W., Von Schantz, M and Plant, N (2011) From Genes to Genomes: Concepts and Application of DNA Technology Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. Essed, P. and Goldberg D. T. (2002) “Cloning Cultures: The Social Injustices of Sameness” Ethnic and Research Studies Vol 25 No. 6 No. V 2002 pp1066 – 1082 Keene, M and Ismail, M. (2002) Religious Studies: Truth, Spirituality and Cloning New York: Oxford University Press. Lauritzen, P. (2001) Cloning and the Future of Human Embryo Cell New York: Springer Maio, G. (2006) “Cloning in the Media and Popular Culture” EMBO Reports (7) pp241 – 245 Morales, N. M. (2009) “Psychological and Ideological Aspects of Chuman Cloning: A Transition to a Transhuman Psychology” Journal of Evolution and Technology Vol 20 Issue 2 Pence, G. E. (1998) Flesh of My Flesh: The Ethics of Cloning Humans: A Reader New York: Littleman and Rowfield. Restivo, S. P. (2005) Science, Technology and Society: An Encyclopedia New York: Oxford University Press. The President's Council on Bioethics (2002) “Human Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical Enquiry” [Online] Available at: http://bioethics.georgetown.edu/pcbe/reports/cloningreport/historical.html Accessed: 7th June, 2012. Read More