Cloning: Medical Miracle or Human Hubris?

Should human beings be cloned? With a Brave New World advancing quickly upon us, each new announcement of cloned animals, chimeras and human embryos finds scientists, ethicists, politicians and citizens trying to answer the ultimate question: whether what can be done, should be done.


The majority of Americans, and people around the world, are repulsed at the idea of creating identical replicas of human beings. Proponents of cloning, however, are working to change this.


Tapping into the natural compassion for victims of disease and handicaps, the bio-tech industry is presenting cloning as a potential avenue to healing. The industry has divided the debate over cloning into two realms: reproductive and therapeutic.

What is Cloning?

Introduction What is Cloning? High Failure Rate Defying Human Dignity Patients' Hopes There is Hope Why A Ban Won’t Work High-Tech Slavery End Notes

Cloning is the creation of a being that is genetically identical to its “parent.” The common method, used with Dolly the sheep, is to extract the nucleus from an egg, inject a cell containing DNA from the donor, and then give the egg a shock of electricity to stimulate cell division.


In “reproductive cloning,” the new life is implanted in a surrogate mother and allowed to grow and be born. “Therapeutic cloning” uses the same method, but rather than implanting the clone and allowing it to be born, researchers use the embryo as raw material for experiments or to scavenge for parts, such as skin, muscle, nerve or brain cells. A “therapeutic clone” is no different from a “reproductive clone”—only the researchers’ intent on what to do with the clone changes.


The goal of therapeutic cloning is to obtain embryonic stem cells that, in theory, may develop into any kind of cell or body tissue. Scientists hope to use the stem cells to treat diseases. Since the embryo’s tissue would be genetically identical to the donor, it could conceivably avoid the problem of tissue rejection. However, in animals, it often takes 100 or more eggs to get one viable clone.¹ (After receiving hormone injections for days for in vitro fertilization, women will typically produce 10 to 15 eggs.²) Further, the success of these treatments is speculative. No disease or disability in humans has yet been cured through the use of embryonic stem cells.

The High Failure Rate of Cloning

Introduction What is Cloning? High Failure Rate Defying Human Dignity Patients' Hopes There is Hope Why A Ban Won’t Work High-Tech Slavery End Notes

Advanced Cell Technology, a Massachusetts bio-tech firm, claims it created one human embryo that grew into six cells before dying. Embryonic stem cells are not present at this early stage. Most of the eggs in the research died without dividing once. Despite the headlines that a human clone had been created, objective researchers noted there was more hype than substance behind the announcement, perhaps to gain attention and funding for the bio-tech firm.³

Regardless, Dr. Tanja Dominko, an Advanced Cell Technology researcher, said her work on cloning monkey embryos (before she joined ACT) resulted in gross abnormalities in most embryos, which died within five days—too early for stem cells to appear.⁴ Though they look healthy, Dr. Dominko said, a high percentage of cloned monkey embryos are really a “gallery of horrors” within.⁵


Most efforts fail, even in species that have at one time or another been cloned. Researchers who have occasional success cloning one species, like cows, are finding failure with others, like dogs. Cloning success is the exception, not the rule.⁶


Dr. Wilmut, the British scientist who successfully cloned Dolly the sheep, said, in general, just 1 to 4 percent of efforts in a species where cloning has worked result in the birth of a live animal. That, he said, indicates that cloning appears to create serious abnormalities in almost all embryos.⁷


Severe problems, including defects in the heart, lungs and other organs, are suffered by half of all clones of large mammals, like sheep and cows. Most die before they are born. Others that survive die suddenly and mysteriously weeks or months after birth.⁸

Reproductive Cloning Defies Human Dignity

Introduction What is Cloning? High Failure Rate Defying Human Dignity Patients' Hopes There is Hope Why A Ban Won’t Work High-Tech Slavery End Notes

While reproductive cloning of humans is nearly universally condemned, rogue scientists and their benefactors continue to attempt it. Rep. Dave Weldon’s (R-Florida) “Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001” (H.R. 2505) would ban all human cloning, while permitting the replication of DNA, cells or tissues (but not embryos) for experimental or therapeutic purposes. It passed in the House of Representatives, but Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota) continues to delay a vote in the Senate.

The United Nations condemned reproductive cloning in 1997 when it unanimously adopted the Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights. This states, “Practices which are contrary to human dignity, such as reproductive cloning of human beings, shall not be permitted.” In 2000, the United Kingdom passed a ban on reproductive cloning, but allowed for therapeutic cloning.


This revulsion for the cloning of humans is a natural response to the utter disregard for human dignity. Cloning inherently treats people as “replacements” or “extras.” This defies the uniqueness of each individual, using technology to manipulate and control human beings. It would create a class of humans deprived of a clear identity, parents and family.


Scientists who claim to be helping grieving family or friends by resurrecting a loved one through cloning are committing fraud. Experiments to create cloned humans carry unimagined, horrific physical risks to the clone and to the woman who carries it. Most animal embryo clones are horribly deformed and die. The few that live long enough to be implanted in an animal’s uterus die soon afterward. The anomalies that have survived to birth are prone to genetic defects. A cloned lamb born soon after Dolly displayed such severe respiratory problems that within a few weeks she was euthanized. An autopsy revealed that her lungs had not developed properly.⁹


Cloned cows, sheep, goats, and mice often have over-sized internal organs, limbs, and overall body, and the newborns are sickly. The large fetuses cause a risk to the mother during delivery. The dismal results of animal cloning have convinced many scientists that it is unthinkable to clone a human.¹⁰


Beyond the physical problems, the cloned human has no defined rights. Who is the parent—the donor or the scientist? Who is responsible when things go wrong? Could a cloned human be killed if he or she were found to be defective or unwanted? Would a clone be treated differently than humans with two biological parents? When would a clone have legal or human rights? What if a living or deceased person is cloned without his or her knowledge or consent?


It is wrong to treat a human as something that can be replaced, and it is wrong to treat another human as a mere substitute.