Do you believe it is desirable to clone humans? Why or why not?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Cloning refers to the process whereby a new organism is reproduced from the nucleus of a single cell. The resultant new organism has the same genetic characteristics of the organism that contributes the nucleus.

The possibilities are as fantastic as they are repulsive. In 1993 a university researcher in the state of Washington cloned human embryos using a technique that already was widely used to clone animal embryos. The process involves taking a single human embryo and splitting it into identical twins. Because human embryos can be frozen and gestated at a later date, it is now possible for parents to have a child and then, years later, use a frozen cloned embryo to give birth to an identical twin. It is also possible for parents to save identical copies of embryos so that if a child ever needed an organ transplant, the mother could give birth to the child's identical twin, who would be a perfect match for organ donation.
In 2001 biologists at Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Massachusetts, announced they had created human embryos through cloning. They removed DNA from a female human egg, and replaced it with the DNA from a body cell. (The embryos died at a very early stage.) The technique used at Advanced Cell Technology was similar to that used to clone the sheep Dolly in 1997. Their goal is not to create cloned humans but to grow so-called stem cells for medical purposes. Such cells may be used to find cures for diseases like Parkinson's, ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), diabetes, paralysis, and other thus far incurable conditions.
In 2008 Dr. Samuel Wood and Dr. Andrew French announced that they had successfully created the first five mature human embryos using DNA from adult skin cells. (Their objective was to provide a less controversial source of viable embryonic stem cells.) The DNA from adult skin cells was transferred to human cells. It is not clear if the embryos produced would have been capable of further development. All the cloned embryos were later destroyed.
Cloning could, among other things, be used to resolve the ancient controversy of heredity versus environment. But there are grave dangers and perhaps undreamed-of complications. Will cloning fuel the population explosion? What legal rights will clones be accorded (regarding inheritance, for example)? Will religions recognize clones as having a "soul"? Who will decide which individuals can make clones of themselves? Couples may face the choice of having children naturally or raising children who are copies of themselves. In the relatively near future, we will progress from cloning human embryonic cells to cloning a human.