Human Cloning

Human Cloning

The at-present hypothetical, but ethically charged production of a de novo human from the DNA of one person without the genetic contribution from a second human. It should be noted that identical twins are a natural example of cloning that doesn’t engender the polarising polemic of unnatural cloning, the latter of which many view as playing God. The implications and ethical dilemmas that might result from having a ‘copy’ of a particular individual are considerable, which prompted Congress (the Ehlers bill) and the Senate (the Bond-Frist bill) to create legislation that would prevent same; some scientists have noted the potential usefulness of human cloning, in particular, for growing tissues—e.g., stem cells, pancreatic tissue, epithelial cells, et al—to treat diabetes, leukemia, burns, etc. Human cloning could also potentially allow donor tissues from a person’s own DNA, obviating tissue incompatibility