Matthew _______
Mr. _______
Speech
29 March 2012
Duplicating the Homosapien
Envision a future when cloning homosapiens has been legalized. The streets are lined with filth; there are no trees or country side. America has turned into a giant city, and our states have become districts. All individual housing has been torn down, and tall apartment buildings have been built with small alleyways in between. All apartments in each district look the same. Who will you find walking the alleyways in the cold winter nights and hot summer days? Surrogates: the intended replacement for human workers. In this world, where duplication is allowed, humans no longer physically reproduce. The couple must be consult a doctor and have them evaluate their characteristics to find out if they are allowed to reproduce. After they are tested, humans must see a cloning doctor to have a synthetic child. The meaning of familial relationships have diminished so much that nobody now knows why they continue to have synthetic offspring, it is simply habit. Most of the world now operates only on habit, and what has been passed on to them. Life is boring, life is meaningless, and life is questioned in every way. What is the point to go on? Humans have researched everything that they would have the ability to, and space travel is now impossible with all of the natural resources and fossil fuels gone. There is nothing left to do but drudge on in hopes that maybe one day things will change.
Human cloning is a rising conflict that will affect your family, your friends, as well as you and me. The outcome will indefinitely affect our world as a whole. The idea of human cloning has intruded my mind for more than a few years now. I have done countless projects concerning the matter, and with the continual advancement of technology, my research is seemingly more important. If we do not put an end to the research of human cloning, it could very well be the end of our distinguished society. The continuation of this will bring about a diminished sense of identity for the resultant child, as well as a lack of diversity among the human population. This will lead to eugenics (the manipulation of the ability to control characteristics) and even the research of making new characteristics present in the resultant child. Human cloning will eventually lead to an overcrowded population, and all of our natural resources will be used up within decades. And, without an alternate planet to retreat to, our society will end abruptly as we will have no food or means of production.
This process completed only through extraneous genetic engineering will most probably lead to a diminished sense of identity. With the advancement in cloning, people with common interests in traits and characteristics will design similar persons, and it will become a trend to have a child or sibling looking a certain way. This will ensure that most persons look the same and therefore establish a sense of missing identity, and they would not feel like a unique individual when in fact, they are unique but just lack the physical evidence to prove it. It would be very hard to distinguish members in our society. Causing this mass difference of identity will create havoc in our marketing and credit system, and everyone will have a similar image on all forms of photo identification, enough so that even police will not be able to tell the difference between two individuals. Authority not being able to properly identify people will increase crime rates, and our society will slowly dwindle to a halt as crime rates increase and nobody can tell the difference among each other.
Eugenics is a complicated idea that can be put into perspective once cloning becomes a reality. With the ability to clone, the human race will be able to pick which traits that a person shall be born with. This relates back to Nazi Germany and Hitler's desire to create the Aryan race of super humans, and making any other characteristics seem "unhealthy." If this is accomplished, then some traits may even be lost over time if they are not used in this era of genetic engineering and manipulating. Traits will be forgotten, and soon enough society will have forgotten that people once had a certain type of hair color, or facial structure. Eventually, the human race may be limited in appearance to only a few characteristics. The development of biotechnology could be a weapon in its own. The human race will use this technology to produce soldiers with specific qualities for war. We will no longer have to spill our own blood, we will never have to face danger's doorstep, we will no longer truly appreciate this so called "freedom" we have because we will not be the ones fighting for it. People would form groups where certain requirements must be met to fit in, and this could cause a civil war all in its own. These groups will require persons must look a certain way and have specific traits to join. Humans will rebel, thinking in their minds that it is not their choice to look the way they do. They were simply made to look how their parents want, and now think that this is unfair to our society. To compete with the other groups, some would indefinitely break any established laws to create more persons to meet the standard of their group, simply to outnumber the other groups. However, not much time would pass before we became overcrowded.
Human cloning will lead to overpopulation, which in turn will use up our natural resources. With only a limited supply and no means of getting more, we have to be at least somewhat conservative when it comes to using our only natural resources that many take for granted. With our fossil fuels being limited and gasoline prices already on the rise, there is little to no room for error or misuse. Soon gas will be unaffordable, even for the wealthy branch of society. Nobody will be able to drive. Planes will not fly. Trains remain out of coal or gas. Our natural supply of nucleic substances will be limited, causing electricity to be on high demand. Districts on the sea shore have lucked out, members of the society have pitched in money to convert all appliances to run on water power. Water stations line the coasts. The inland districts however, have slowly put up windmills on the rooftops of apartment complexes. The wealthier districts could afford to put solar panels on the roofs, which helps considerably more due to the Earth's atmosphere dissipating. This causes the suns rays to shine stronger and brighter. Solar flares occur often and spike temperatures up to 30 degrees higher. In places where temperatures on average were 80 degrees in the summer, now are 95 degrees in the summer. The average temperature increases annually, and there no longer is snow, with exception to the north and south poles.
With exception to these simple flaws in cloning humans, some might agree that we can use this ability to remove genetic disorders from society. According to several doctors and citizens of Denmark, their country is pushing for a Down's Syndrome free society. Although this seems rather wonderful that doctors can prevent children being born with Down's Syndrome, this requires that the child be aborted during pregnancy once signs of Down's Syndrome show. Hospital records in Denmark show that 90% of babies showing sign of Down's Syndrome are aborted before birth. Many agree with each other that this is morally wrong, and that having a Down's Syndrome free society will NOT be a perfect society! Down's Syndrome will only be the first step. Soon following they will screen for other imperfections such as Asperger's, Bipolar, Heart Disease, Asthma, and with more research scientists could scan for anything at all... Nobody can be perfectly free of all imperfections. Many people with these imperfections add color and vibrancy to our world and make the average day not so boring.
This world has not yet been corrupted by cloning technology! Although it is present, scientists are currently unable to clone humans due to laws passed by our government. Supporting a world of cloning is supporting a world of death. Of distaste. Of disorder! Inside your heart, you know that it will be impossible to live without regret if you support cloning of humans. With all we have to lose, our world will remain distinguished and full of color if you do NOT support cloning! I will not allow this to happen without a fight! It will not be under my hand that this Earth turns to filth, that it is stripped of its foliage. It will not be under my hand, that this Earth is crowded into districts and stripped of individual housing. And it is NOT under my hand that familial relationships are ended! A world with cloning is without individual identity, without its natural resources, and with a corrupted idea of manipulating the characteristics of humans to-be. Step up for what you believe and don't let our society bring this destruction upon itself. Disagree with those who oppose you, and make it obvious which side you are on. The silent are not innocent, but only helpers of the tormenter. Will you be an accomplice to the end of the human population?
