Debate at a glance:
- International
- Four countries participated
- USA, India, Australia, Italy
- 24 students (19 and under) participated
- Debate conducted similar to an online discussion
- Portion of debate conducted in classroom
Note: This page includes perspectives from various children around the world on the
issue of cloning. What they said has been included here in their own words.
No portion of their writing has been edited. |
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| Cloning |
| This debate started off with the following question: |
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| How do you feel about conservation cloning being used as a tool to rescue animals from extinction? |
| For scientists to aid in the situation of a close to extinction species is a noble cause. For scientists to prevent illnesses such as cancer or genetically inherited diseases by manipulating the human genome is unarguably noble also-and necessary. Without the question of religion and ethics in play, which can be saved for another discussion, cloning and basically, messing around with genes seem rather respectable and with merit. However, one has to see other important roles that come into play in the process of cloning. Simply speaking, scientists today do not have sufficient advances in technology and background about cloning to do a respectable job. The prime aim of cloning to prevent extinction is to prevent extinction by cloning several of the species and allowing them to expand on the species by themselves. Unfortunately, reproductive cloning fails on this count. Not only is it expensive and ineffective, cloning fails its purpose: it does not allow the cloned species to produce offspring easily. More than 90% of cloning attempts fail to produce viable offspring. (1) More than 100 nuclear transfer procedures could be required to produce one viable clone. (1) Clearly, cloning in today's advances is quite a letdown. But even after producing that one viable clone, the hardship does not end. Cloned species suffer from intense and inexplicable side effects, such as Dolly, the firs mammal to be cloned, was put down after suffering from lung cancer and arthritis. While most Finn Dorset sheep live to be 11-12 years old (1), Dolly died when she was only 6 years old, half the age of a natural sheep. While preventing all cloning is impractical and confining to scientific progression, cloning as of now, with the bare information and successes, is costly and should be restricted until sufficient development in this field has been reached. Then, cloning as an aid, not a baseless and cruel trial-and-error test, can truly begin. http://www.ornl.gov |
| TingTing (USA, Age 16) |
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| I would prefer not to clone any animals. I think that cloning is against God's nature and it's dangerous to be playing with DNA like that. However, if the scientists and the environmentalists felt that cloning was the absolute only way to prevent the animals' extinction I might reconsider my feelings. Animals are critical in the circle of life. I would want very, very, very strict laws in place. These laws would have to make sure the scientists don't clone any and every animal they want. They would only be able to clone if there was like one to five animals left. |
| Courtney (USA, Age 10) |
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| It is a big waste of money. There is no guarantee it works. Once they cloned a gaur spending a lot of money that died a day after it was born. |
| Meena (India, Age 13) |
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| Shouldn't they address the root cause of the problems? Human activities have caused a lot of extinction. Instead of trying to control their activities and fix the problem, we are going about it all wrong. |
| Prakash (India, Age 14) |
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| They were successful with Dolly. Why not? If this is a way to save them from extinction I am all for it. |
| Dan (USA, Age 12) |
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| In New Orleans, I don't remember the organization, they cloned the African wildcat. They made seven or eight clones and then they mated two of them and had eight little kittens. Cloning maybe expensive at first, but if cloned animals are allowed to reproduce then they can go to natural way of having babies. This is an excellent option. |
| Kristina (USA, Age 14) |
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| Cloning may seem to solve the problem, but if you really think it through this is not really the solution. You have to address the problem, not treat the symptoms. |
| Miranda (USA, Age 14) |
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| In my country, they are talking about spending over 1 million dollars to clone the endangered Asian lion. They say there are about 250 to 300 of them left in the wild. Mind you, this is a lot of money for our country. Once they are cloned, provided they survive, where would they put them? All of their natural habitats have been destroyed. If their habitats were not destroyed in the first place, we would not be in this situation. We are destroying the planet and scientists think they are doing something marvelous by cloning. |
| Sethu (India, Age 16) |
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| I think that conservation cloning is a creepy thing that should not be used until absolutely perfected. |
| Joe (USA, Age 13) |
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| I don't really like the idea of cloning. If we want to stop dying out, then we should find other, more natural ways of doing it. I don't like the idea of "playing God." |
| Kyle (USA, Age 12) |
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| I think that if it is possible, it should be done, because preserving the species of this planet is important. |
| Taylor (USA, Age 13) |
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| I think it's okay because it's helping animals from becoming extinct. |
| Kerri (USA, Age 13) |
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| I think it would be great as long as it did not harm the animals in anyway. More animals means more animals for the future. |
| Erin (USA, Age 12) |
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| I feel that this is a little extreme. But if it is completely necessary then it's okay. |
| Alex (USA, Age 13) |
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| Makes sense, it's better than captive breeding. |
| Spencer (USA, Age 13) |
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| I think that it's pretty cool if you are trying to rescue the animals. However, I think it's pointless because they're just going to die. There's a reason those animals are extinct, and mass cloning is not going to fix it. |
| Sarah (USA, Age 13) |
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| I feel either upset that people are taking an easier way out. I don't see why we can't do our best and sacrifice to help animals and their natural environments. |
| Lauren (USA, Age 13) |
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| While it could be good to repopulate the species, it would be terrible if we had to revert to that to save a species. Could cloned animals reproduce? |
| Drew (USA, Age 13) |
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| I don't like the idea.
• Because I don't know much about and
• It doesn't seem right for humans to duplicate animals that will be exactly the same. Maybe clone 1 or 2 and keep them safe, and if you have to, clone a little more. |
| Ryan (USA, Age 13) |
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| I think conservation cloning is okay, but only if they do it just enough to rescue the animal from extinction. I think that if they do it too much then the animal will be overpopulated. |
| Branden (USA, Age 13) |
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| It's our fault they are going extinct, but if they are in no pain, then it is okay. |
| Sam (USA, Age 12) |
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| It took more than 300 tries to create Dolly. I am totally against this. It is a waste of money. Let us stop destroying their habitats, poaching, and trading them. If we can do that, then we will only have to deal with natural extinction, which is necessary and tolerable. |
| Anita (Australia, Age 15) |
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| Not only did it take 300 tries to clone Dolly, she only lived for 6 years, half of how long a sheep lives normally. |
| Piala (Italy, Age 17) |
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| Did you know that when they clone, the surrogate mother ends up going through torture? For instance, many of the animals that carry the clone go through spontaneous abortions? In some cases the animal has had a later-term abortion which has jeopardized the poor animal's health. Well, their thinking is what if it dies, we will find another one to carry the cloned embryo? Pathetic, it makes me sad and angry to see the way some people treat the animals. We have no right to do this to them. |
| Balaji (India, Age 16) |
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