If and when it's possible, should human cloning be allowed?

[AB Asks]

There have been news reports of a breakthrough in primate cloning, which has brought the possibility of human cloning a step closer. Should scientists be allowed to go ahead and clone a human, or is it something that should remain in the science fiction novels? Can it be justified ethically?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7094215.st m

[Gromit]

They can clone monkeys!

Ed - Your job isn't safe!

[4GS]

lol @ Gromit

[Louisa 69]

lol Gromit. you are sooooo off to the dungeon :))

[Loosehead]

It should not be allowed to create cloned people. The technique can be used to generate organs etc and that's fine. The problem is that once the genie is out of the bottle, someone will create a cloned person, frightening!

[LoftyLottie]

Nice knowing you Gromit. Byeeeeeee

[China Doll]

I'm not entirely sure science has advanced that much... But either way, it'd be really useful to have another China Doll. I'm not sure the world agrees however.

[sp1814]

They should clone Madonna.

That would be excellent.

We could have a different Madonna for every day of the week.

Sweeeet.

[jno]

except they wouldn't be. Different, I mean. Just be identical material girls all over the place. As for another China Doll, are there that many shoes in the world?

[jake-the-peg]

Let's just seperate fact from fiction here.

If I cloned you it would not be some fully formed adult looking and talking and thinking like you from some monsterous aparatus.

You would have in your arms a baby. Born normally with a normal mother.

It would be as if you were actually born as a twin but your twin were frozen in time at your birth and now taken out.


Now here's the ethical question - Suppose you have a child say a 5 year old who is dying.

Cloning that child to give them a "twin" would mean that the dying child could receive a transplant or other medical treatment from the twin.

Would you let your child die?

[LoftyLottie]

Yes

[jake-the-peg]

But do you feel you have the right to force other parents in that position to let their child die?

And why do you think you have that right?

[LoftyLottie]

Because I don't think a life should be created to save another life.

A good book to read is 'My Sisters Keeper' by Jodie Picoult. Its about a girl who was conceived in order to keep her sister alive and it is food for thought.

[jake-the-peg]

And you think that because you believe something that's a good enough reason to force that belief on others?

[sp1814]

J-T-P makes a good point here.

I think there are a number of people who think that a clone would be like an exact photocopy of 'the host'. Human beings are lot more complicated than (say) Dolly The Sheep.

jno - I take issue with your remarks about My Good Lady.

You could easily have seven different Madonnas:

Mon: Disco Madonna (Confessions On A Dancefloor)
Tue: New Age Madonna (Ray Of Light)
Wed: Political Madonna (American Life)
Thur: Classy Madonna (Evita)
Fri: Dirty Madonna (Sex book / Erotica / Body Of Evidence)
Sat: Rubbish Actress Madonna (Every film except Evita)
Sun: Chubby Madonna (1982 to 1985)

There...and I've not even mentioned English Aristocrat Madonna, Muscular Madonna, Cowboy Madonna or Equestrian Madonna.

[LoftyLottie]

Think if you had been created just to keep another person alive. How would you feel? The book I refer to is about a thirteen year old who rebels against having operation after operation to save her sister and actually employs a lawyer to stop it happening. Clones, and children born to parents that intentionally have children to save another child, have feelings to.

[Gromit]

Surely sunday should be:

Has-been Madonna (1998 - ad infinitum)

[LoftyLottie]

I haven't forced my beliefs on others, but I think it is a belief that others may consider.

[China Doll]

Yes but Jake I've asked about this in Science before I'm sure and was told that the possibility of actually being able to clone a human and the technology involved was a very long way off.

Before I venture a serious opinion on the subject then how feasible is it exactly? Unless I completely misunderstood the article (always a possibility) it's only the embryos they've managed to do, so from what you say those embryos would then have to be carried on to a full term pregnancy? Or in a test tube? And didn't Dolly the Sheep actually have quite a few problems throughout her life that would be magnified in a more complex animal like humans or apes? (Small words please if you attempt to answer this, you know what I'm like :c)

So if I'm not completely way off track, then we're a long way surely from actually being able to clone a human aren't we?