Here are three reasons why we should say no to cloning: most people think that human cloning is not ethical to make a baby.

1.    Non ethical health risks from mutation of genes.

An abnormal baby would be a likely tragedy.  The technique is very risky right now.  A particular worry is the possibility that the genetic material used from the adult will continue to age so that the genes in a newborn baby clone could be - say - 30 years old or more on the day of birth.  Many attempts at animal cloning produced disfigured monsters with severe abnormalities.  So that would mean creating cloned embryos, implanting them and destroying (presumably) those that look imperfect as they grow in the womb.  However some abnormalities may not appear till after birth.  A cloned cow recently died several weeks after birth with a huge abnormality of blood cell production.

2.   Non ethical emotional risks

A child grows up knowing her mother is her sister, her grandmother is her mother.  Her father is her brother-in-law. Every time her mother looks at her she is seeing herself growing up.  Unbearable emotional pressures on a teenager trying to establish his or her identity. What happens to a marriage when the "father" sees his wife's clone grow up into the exact replica (by appearance) of the beautiful 18 year old he fell in love with 35 years ago?  A sexual relationship would of course be with his wife's twin, no incest involved technically.  You will not find a child psychiatrist in the world who could possibly say that there will not be very significant emotional risk to the cloned child as a result of these pressures.

3.    Non ethical risk of abuse of the technology.

What would Hitler have done with cloning technology if available in the 1940s?  There are powerful leaders in every generation who will seek to abuse this technology for their own purposes.  Going ahead with cloning technology makes this far more likely.  You cannot have so-called therapeutic cloning without reproductive cloning because the technique to make cloned babies is the same as to make a cloned embryo to try to make replacement tissues.  In any case it is a myth that you will get organs from cloned embryos.  At best you will get clusters of cells.  And at the speed at which biotech is accelerating there will soon be other ways to get such cells.  It is rather crude to create a complete embryonic identical twin embryo just to get hold of stem cells to make - say - nervous tissue.  Much better to take cells from the adult and trigger them directly to regress to a more primitive form without the ethical issues raised by inserting a full adult set of genes into an unfertilised egg.

Written 1998

Dr Patrick Dixon
Dr Patrick Dixon MBE

Futurist keynote speaker and author of 19 books. Thirty years forecasting global trends for more than 400 clients, in every industry.

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39 comments

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  1. Richard Faulkerson ·

    I made a perfect and improved clone of myself. What do you think? I cloned them for maintenance of peace and the replacement of the LAMPSTAND by a clone. I want a reply if destroying the clone is ethical?

    or destroying the pitiful orginal?

    I want to hear from you all.

  2. nbeyt87yyIYRIUHSAKJ ·

    this document barley gives information needed

  3. bob ·

    why it all nonethical?!?!??!

  4. bongiwe ·

    cloning humans is ethical coz it enterfere with god nature, who are we,to make humans.NO TO CLONING OF HUMANS

    1. peen ·

      Read a book and find out what ethical means.

  5. jonezberry ·

    The process of being natural is all that matters,, so that no body will be blamed of the outcome. even when parents are hiv positives..they stll allowed to bear children, i wonder if cloning can create a heathy race. then this sick populated world.

  6. Solo Tim V,Tukutukunga ·

    CategorisationWhat dignity of cloning? What makes human dignity. It is from what he/she gain, or made of, or the nature of creation. Do human cloning should have human right? Should they have soul?

  7. alexander ·

    CloningThis article is stupid, your argument is weak. Though there may be some correlation with abnormal cloning and what happened to Dolly, it is irrelevant because there is no human cloning. Your argument is vague because you don't go into specifics and you are not showing any evidence to your claims. You are using pathos to make your argument appealing to people so that they can sympathize with these "abnormal cloned babies" and feel frightened and shocked about what scientists are doing to "abnormal clones". Using pathos was weak because it makes you rely on human emotions rather than hard evidence making it seem that you hardly have any idea or information of what really is happening with cloning. I suggest if you want to affect people intellectually and make your argument stronger you need to show real evidence and statistics of theses so called "abnormal" clones instead of talking about cloned humans when there aren't any.

  8. sashi dahal ·

    cloningdoes cloning leads to any harms? can we get another clone from the cloned one? if any mistake arises during the cloning process who will be responsible for it? It is a controversial issue. is it in our favour to continue it?

  9. jhon ·

    question?is there a way in which a person could be cloned and the clone be exactly the same age? ( by means of a machine that makes the clone older or genetic adaptation) ................ it is still a BIG ethical problem

  10. logan crider ·

    helloto me cloning is humans trying to play god, but as i am a scientific person and have many family members that are in the medical field, i must say that if you could use the technology to clone organs for transplants then that would be ok, cause then you and science could save lives. i also think that scientist should come up with a way to create blood, pure and universal, so that you could "grow " or make vast amounts or it and save countless people. though i dont really like the idea of cloning, if it could be used to save lives, so be it. more power to you.

  11. lars ·

    NOB HEADS ! its good ;)

  12. Delorus ·

    cloningi dont think it is a natural world if there is lots of twins you would get confused about whos who hmmmmmmmm but i think they should bring big mamoths because they are fluffy and you can sleep on them cuz there are some frozon somewere so yerrrrrrrrr i do think its gd cloning animals because yes

    1. brookie cookie ·

      Re: cloningyou make no sense

    2. X ·

      Re: cloningthis is not a ethical question you do not uderstand what were are capable of we will perfect the ultimate cloning machine

  13. azoska isaac ·

    what is a cloneWhat will be the diffrence between a clone and a normal animal. Can an animal be clone whilst it is still alive.

  14. matthew ·

    2 side coingood side

    medic orgain made to dna match

    baby to people who can't have babys

    bad side

    army navy air force new men to train forces and

    no real human kill in wars head lines and

    no soilders pay and they would have no rights.

    born to go to war

    1. jake ·

      Re: 2 side cointhay are sill human not solgers

  15. Ollie ·

    BAD IDEA!cloning humans is a rediculos idea. we are made how we are for a reason. thats why we have evolved this way. the natural was of reproduction should be the one and only way!

    1. constancia lopez de la rosa morales ·

      Re: BAD IDEA!u are stuuuuupid!!!

  16. matthew ·

    cloningthis is good for us to know more about it

  17. Emma ·

    more infoi am doin human clonin as a case study an i was wonderin if u ad any more info for me thnx ps.. i think its realli wrong it messin wid the clones head

  18. Jacob ·

    i agree with pretty much everything you guys are saying but come on do you really believe that cloning to can really be stopped all that will have to happen is one great scientist finds away to make a perfect clone and present it and every one will fall for it forgeting all the other problems that comes later i for one am against it but look at the facts

  19. Shit Face ·

    Haman CloningI dont even no what human cloning is about but i think it is all a load of BOLLOCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!

    1. Anonymous ·

      Re: Haman CloningHow ignorant.

  20. Cal ·

    I wold like to know more about cloning and am looking into the subjest but i still have some questions:

    1. if the human clone lives pasted the age of a toddler and the person(s) in charge of the clone had high expations of the cone of a deceased person what would the stress leavles be?

    2. will coning research lead to other findings such as individual orgain cloing?

    thank you