What are the ethical considerations to human cloning?
TechNyou Manager’s thoughts:
OK I personally don’t believe that we should clone humans for moral, scientific and practical reasons, but mostly for practical reasons. The science will likely improve to the point that my moral objections will be void.
The practical reason is simply because I can’t see the point. Why do we need to clone a human? But apparently a lot of people can see a point and are lining up to be implanted, despite the high risk. And if the recent articles about the “rogue doctor” attempting to clone deceased children are any indication then cloned ankle biters will be running around sooner rather than later – see link to The Independant article below. That is, there is no real technical reason why we can’t clone humans. We have done it with other mammals and there are only relatively minor technical obstacles to overcome to achieve it in humans. It will just take time and a lot of money – and for most countries a change in the law and societal values.
Leaving aside the moral/ethical reasons for a moment, the question must be asked why do all these women or couples want to have a cloned child? The article in The Independent suggests the mother wanting to clone her deceased child wanted desperately to replace her child lost in a car accident. I assume she was counselled that the cloned child would be a completely different person and likely even look a bit different because of different womb conditions, growing up in a different environment where the child will be exposed to different chemicals, foods, peer-groups…and so on.
I wonder for the other couples if, for them, it just an extension of IVF, morbid curiosity, fame/celebrity status….?
(A little disclaimer here: My views are not necessarily those of the TechNyou)
Further information
Centre for Genetics Education fact sheet: Cloning and Stem Cells
Human Genome Project: Cloning fact sheet