By Laurie Brenner, Updated Aug 30, 2022
Photo: anyaivanova/iStock/Getty Images
Scientists worldwide continue to debate the merits of cloning, hoping to unlock its full potential for research and medicine. While over 30 countries have banned human reproductive cloning, nations such as China, Sweden, England, Israel, and Singapore permit cloning for non‑human applications.
Cloning offers promising applications—reproducing livestock, reviving extinct species, and providing organ tissue for transplant—yet most opposition centers on the ethics of human reproductive cloning.
Cloning can produce genetically identical tissues and organs, enabling surgeons to harvest precisely the parts needed for a patient while sidestepping the moral quandaries of full‑body cloning. Other benefits include:
Cloned organisms inherit all the genetic flaws of their donors. Dolly the sheep, the world’s first cloned mammal, was a six‑year‑old sheep’s genetic copy and lived only six years, succumbing to arthritis and lung tumors—conditions likely linked to her donor’s genome.
Following the 2003 completion of the human genome map, researchers harnessed CRISPR‑Cas9—a powerful gene‑editing tool discovered in 2012—to excise harmful genes. While CRISPR offers hope for curing genetic diseases, it also raises concerns about “designer babies” and potential socioeconomic disparities, as access to such technology may be limited to the wealthy.
Ethical debates focus on human reproductive cloning, where a clone would be a separate human with the same rights as the original, raising questions about consent and individuality. Critics argue that creating a child from another’s DNA infringes on the clone’s autonomy and imposes a genetic destiny chosen by someone else.
For further reading: Nature: The Science of Cloning
