Friday, February 29, 2008

Would You Eat Cloned Meat?

In Guterl’s (2004), “Would You Like Fries With Your Clone? The author introduces the topic of eating cloned food and mentions that United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) and European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) are going to permit cloned food to be sold to consumers. First, he gives a background on genetically modified food. He compares the United States and Europe showing that they have different opinions as regards cloned meat; however, both want labels on GM food. Third, according to the article there is currently a discussion about if eating cloned meat would be safe or not. The author also claims that producing this kind of meat is very expensive, so there is no an evident need of cloning. In addition, the author tells us that it is possible that cloned animals would develop some problems that could be bad in humans; however this would not be necessarily a problem. He also writes about what scientists have found out about cloning; they think that perhaps cloned meat could have secondary effects, so it would not be totally safe to consume. In conclusion, the author states that at this point it is not possible conclude what is going to happen.

Cloned food is currently a very controversial issue. Since there are not many studies about effects of cloned food in humans, at this point nothing is clear about what will happen with its consumed. Considering this situation, cloned meat should never be introduced to the dinner table for the reason that it goes against nature, it is not a natural way to produce food, it could create new diseases, and it could have DNA defects.

First of all, cloning meat goes against nature. According to The Bible (1995) which is the most quoted book in the world, God created all that exists. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1. The Bible mentions specifically that God is the creator of all animals, Genesis 1:20-22, 24-24. If God created everything that exists, people who clone would be fighting against Him. Genesis shows us clearly that God is the only one who can gives life, so he can also destroy it. Subsequently fighting against Him could become in sickness, destruction, and death. Considering all of these things, people should be very cautious before accepting cloned food in their dinner table.

Second, cloned meat could have secondary effects on human body. Cloned animals do not accomplish the natural process of life, so we do not really understand what we would inherence to our future generations if cloned food is accepted on the dinner table. In addition, at this point there are not many studies to give us the guarantee that eating cloned food it is totally safe. Moreover, Guterl (2006) tells us that ”Epigeneticists have begun to enumerate ways in which traits can be passed from one generation to the next that have nothing to do with DNA. This raises the theoretical possibility that cloning may have unintended effects even though a cloned animal is an exact DNA replica from the original” (para 7). In other words, it has not been proved that cloned food would not develop strange effects in humans. Therefore, at this point it is safe to say that by eating cloned meat could bring serious consequences for humans.

Furthermore, cloned food could create new diseases. Human body is very sensitive to new things, so cloned meat could be very strange for the stomach and perhaps it would not tolerate this new kind of food. As a result people would get intestinal diseases. Furthermore there are probabilities that cloned animals are not totally normal. According to Guterl (2008) “There is some evidence that cloned animals show a higher propensity for developmental problems, such as retardation. That would be tragic in a human” para 6. It is very probable that eating cloned food would be harmful for humans.

In conclusion, consumers should consider cloned food very seriously because its consumption could bring irreparable damages to the human health. There are no studies to show us that eating cloning food is safe. No one is able to give a guarantee that consuming cloned food would be totally positive. So, if we do not understand everything about cloning, why should we consume it? If we simply ignore it, it is very probable that in not too many years people would be facing irreparable problems with their health.


References

The creation (1995). Genesis, The Bible. Retrieved from http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=1&chapter=6&verse=7&version=49&context=verse

Guterl, F. (2008, January 18, 2008). Would you like fries with your clone? News Week. Retrieved February 9, 2008, from http://wwwnewsweek.com/id/95962

No comments: