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The Ethical, Social, and Legal Concerns of Cloning

What is Cloning? Clones are organisms that are exact genetic copies. Every single bit of their DNA is identical. There are two ways to make an exact genetic copy of an organism in a lab: artificial embryo twinning and somatic cell nuclear transfer. Artificial embryo twinning mimics the natural process that creates identical twins. Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), also called nuclear transfer, uses a different approach than artificial embryo twinning, but it produces the same result: an exact genetic copy, or clone, of an individual. This was the method used to create Dolly the Sheep.

Ethical Concerns of Cloning Cloning can occur at the level of DNA, at the level of the single cell, or at the level of the whole organism. Typically, ethical attention is focused upon cloning in the context of the genetic copying of a whole organism. While the cloning of non-mammals has occurred in research contexts for many years, the cloning of the first mammal, Dolly the sheep, surprised many in the scientific community. What quickly followed was the cloning of other species and intense speculation about the possible cloning of humans. Cloned human embryos have been produced, but there are no reliable reports that any have been implanted in a woman’s uterus, let alone developed to birth. Cloning to birth has come to be called ‘reproductive cloning’, whereas cloning embryos so that their stem cells may be extracted for possible research or therapeutic use has come to be called ‘therapeutic cloning’. The key ethical issue with therapeutic cloning is the moral status of the cloned embryo, which is created solely for destruction. The ethical issues with reproductive cloning include genetic damage to the clone, health risks to the mother, very low success rate meaning loss of large numbers of embryos and fetuses, psychological harm to the clone, complex altered familial relationships, and commodification of human life.

From a religious standpoint, many argue that the act of cloning makes humans God, an equality not viewed as appropriate as humans lack omniscience. Morally, the arguments are more broad. The ethics of animal research come into play, where many, such as the moral philosopher Peter Singer, believe that all animals are created equal, suggesting animal testing in science should be completely eliminated. The possibilities of unforeseen health risks in cloned organisms and potential negative effects of decreased genetic variation on the human gene pool are seen as ethical causes for concern in addition to the mixed ethical and social consideration of increasing population sizes when worldwide resource availability is a problem.

Social Issues

The social issues of cloning tend to focus on human clones in terms of both availability of cloning technology and integration of clones into society. Reproductive cloning raises the question of cost and who should have access. However, the biggest social argument is that cloning negates a person's right to individuality and ignores the potential psychological effects of such a parentless and de-individualized identity.

Legal Questions

Legally, funding has always been a concern for cloning research. Many believe the government and taxpayer money should not support research not agreed upon by a clear majority, and in this respect, the U.S. Congress has continued to prohibit use of taxpayer dollars for any research that may result in the death of human embryos. However, reproductive animal cloning continues not just in the U.S., but around the world. The biggest legal issues concerning animal clones are who should be responsible for and at what depth there should be oversight and accountability, as well as the legal right to patent live organisms.