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DEBATE THREAD 2!
Chatterbox: Down to Earth
DEBATE THREAD 2!
DEBATE THREAD 2!
I feel like we need another Debate Thread. It's been a while....so, presenting Debate Thread 2!
Admins, is it okay if we debate on the topic of gene science and whether it's okay to clone people/animals or not, etc.?
Yes, as long as comments are respectful, even if they disagree (which should happen in a debate). And please avoid very technical statements that we may not have time to check for accuracy and try to specify whether what you say is fact or opinion. Preface opinions with "I believe" or "I think." We'll see how it goes. It seems to me that, if the technology is available, then this is really a moral question.
Admin
submitted by Leafpool
(June 22, 2017 - 11:30 am)
(June 22, 2017 - 11:30 am)
Sounds cool. Which part of gene science? Cloning? Genetic Engineering? GMOs?
(June 22, 2017 - 10:17 pm)
All of it, probably.
By the way, I've actually never debated before. I enjoyed reading previous debates but I don't think I was really old enough before...so we'll see how this goes! (Handily, I was just reading about gene science for my science work. And I have a whole textbook-sort of thing that is about genes and DNA and includes cloning, GMOs, etc.
(June 23, 2017 - 1:33 pm)
Sounds cool. I'd definitely be more qualified to partcipate in this debate topic rather than the other debate thread, which was politics.
(June 23, 2017 - 5:37 pm)
I, for one, am in favor of some forms of cloning. I understand that creating an entire living being poses many ethical problems, but what if you only created a small part of a human? Cloning could be used to artificially create organs that could be matched to a person's genes, taking away risk of rejection and other transplant problems. This way, people in dire need of, let's say, a new kidney, wouldn't have to worry about finding a donor on time. Scientist could use the patient's own cells to create a new kidney that would be a perfect genetic match. What do you guys think?
(June 23, 2017 - 9:38 pm)
I agree completely.
(June 24, 2017 - 6:40 am)
@Nebula
That might help, but wouldn't there be something wrong with the kidney in the first place, so cloning it wouldn't help?
(June 24, 2017 - 10:20 am)
Perhaps the healthy kidney, being given from a healthy donor, could be cloned many times to create an army of healthy kidneys that could benefit multiple people that needed that specific match of kidney. However, this brings up questions around the donations: would the donor have to know the amount of times his/her kidney is being cloned? Would they have to get paid more, or less if they were actually getting their kidney back? How does that work?
Byte says nent. Sooo close!!
(June 24, 2017 - 12:07 pm)
Well... It's complicated.
The idea of cloning organs is great, and very few people have objections to it. But killing embryos to aquire these stem cells causes a lot of arguments.
Nebula, thank you for your comments. We appreciate your explanation, but I've deleted much of your comment because it's too technical for us to take the time to check out and getting into themes not appropriate for Chatterbox. We may, in fact, decide to delete this whole thread or shut it off to further replies.
Admin
(June 24, 2017 - 4:00 pm)
So when we have a conversation that has a real-life subject, it has to be censored?
Every comment is reviewed before being posted, keeping in mind our youngest readers. We deem some topics inappropriate, either in real life or fiction.
Admin
(June 25, 2017 - 8:49 am)
I agree with Nebula. I think cloning organs so that there's many organs on standby for those who need them is a great idea. It could save lots of lives. However, I disagree with killing embryos to acquire the stem cells needed for the research.
(June 24, 2017 - 7:31 pm)
Same here, Leafmist.
~~
So, I read about people wanting to be able to clone family members that have died, which I think is just super weird and messed up.
I mean, if my older sister died I would want her back, yeah, but I wouldn't want a whole new one of her. First of all it would be weird, second of all...same thing for stem cells, and third. It wouldn't really be her. There's the whole nature/nurture thing, where a lot of your personality is generated from how you've been brought up. I don't think two people can ever be the same, just because each little thing in your childhood can change who you are.
And then, doesn't our culture today say that you can be whoever you want to be? Cloning someone to replace a deceased person would basically be forcing them to be that person, rather than being themselves.
...?
(June 26, 2017 - 12:59 pm)
I'm sure they'd be able to clone an exact replica of the deceased person physically, but they wouldn't be able to recreate their brain pathways, so...a completely new person, personality-wise. I don't think there'd be any point.
(June 28, 2017 - 3:04 pm)