Every day sixty-eight people receive an organ transplant. Every day eighteen people die because there aren't enough organs available for transplant ("Saving Lives"). As of January 22, 2004, the waiting list for an organ donation is 82,000 people long. One out of every three of those on the list will die while waiting for the organ they desperately need (Madison). Methods exist that would allow an exact replica of a patient's organ to be grown in a laboratory and implanted with almost no chance of rejection. However, these methods are highly controversial and require cloning, something that the media and the general public have looked down upon since the topic first became a scientific reality. Since then, most of the world's major scientists have proclaimed their wish for an international ban on reproductive human cloning, but they have not pushed for a ban on therapeutic cloning. The U.S. and other Roman Catholic countries have held out on this ban in favor of a ban on all cloning, including therapeutic cloning (Coghlan). Therapeutic cloning and stem cell research should be legal because the medical benefits outweigh any ethical, moral, or religious issues.
In general, cloning is divided into two different types: reproductive and therapeutic. Reproductive cloning is the creation of an exact duplicate of another human being. Therapeutic cloning is the creation of tissues from embryonic stem cells taken from an undeveloped clone of an individual. The latter type has several medical .
implications and may provide better treatments and even cures for some of the worst ailments.
Imagine a world where paralysis no longer means being confined to a wheelchair for a lifetime. Replacement livers could be grown for patients dying of hepatitis. Heart attack victims could have their hearts repaired, or have a new heart grown to save their life. Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease could be cured by replacing damaged nerve cells.
