Human cloning has been an ongoing debate for some time now. Some want it, some don’t. The reasons for or against cloning are little more than a person’s own moral beliefs.

Cloning is wrong, and it has no place in our society. Aside from health risks to the cloned child, cloning poses risks to our society. Think of all the troubles children with only one parent have now. Now imagine what growing up and calling a beaker “Dad” and a pair of scissors “Mom” would do to you.

Cloning will allow for two or more people to be exactly the same. One’s height, weight, eye color, intelligence and hair color can all be predetermined.

And if you thought one Carrot Top was bad, imagine a whole group of them telling bad jokes.

Genetically modified foods have been around since the early 20th century. Other forms of cloning have been around since 1952, when scientists first cloned frogs from tadpole cells. And, of course, we all remember the cloning of a sheep in 1997.

So why do scientists want to clone human beings?

It certainly can’t be that they want to increase the population of the planet, since scientists continually complain that the planet is overcrowded. The reason is so they can experiment.

But humans are not the same as food or animals and we weren’t intended to be mass-produced. Contrary to popular belief, we did not evolve from any simpler life. Instead, each one of us has been specifically designed, and each one of us is unique.

Our genes should not be messed with.

Scientists argue that cloning should continue in labs for research purposes. It is true that scientists can clone a human embryo without having intent to clone a person, but one act ends in death and the other doesn’t.

This is where another argument comes into play: Is an embryo actually a human being?

It most certainly is. An embryo possesses the ability to develop into a fetus, and eventually into a baby. The only difference is what is done with the embryo once it is cloned.

For research purposes such as obtaining stem cells, the embryo is cloned, the scientists get what they need, and then the rest is discarded. For human cloning, the embryo is cloned, and then it is placed inside of a woman’s body.

So what does this make a scientist who is just extracting genetic information from an embryo, and who doesn’t plan on cloning a person?

It’s simple: he’s a murderer. All the potential for development into a full-grown human is inside of an embryo. And since when does the United States discriminate against someone for being a little different than the norm? Do we discriminate against a four-year-old because they are younger and smaller than an eighteen-year-old?

The scientists who are in favor of continuing this research have no respect for life. They only have the ambition to do something someone else has never done and then to be recognized for their work.

Whether cloning is done for research or to create life, it is wrong. People should not try to play God. At the very least, someone should take a stand to stop cloning for a few years to give scientists time to think about what they are doing. The only way to stop cloning is to pass a law making cloning illegal.

If someone is smart enough to clone a human being, then someone is surely smart enough to figure out some other way for researching diseases and how to cure them.

And if I want a copy of myself, Kinko’s is open 24 hours a day. I can even get color for an extra 25 cents.

Erik Bussa is a senior in agricultural communications. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].