Human Cloning?

Just wondering everyone's thoughts on the topic. I'm sure you've all heard about it... The latest claim on human cloning. If not, read about it here.

Personally, I find it a little troubling and unethical... Why would anyone want to "manufacture" their child? I can understand some people's argument in that it can be a good thing if you could prevent your child from suffering health problems/defects... With that I don't find it to be that bad.

What I find troubling is when you hear how a child can be created to their parents' liking.

Just wondering what everyone thinks? It's all the buzz around here...

i agree...it is very unethical; if any of this actually happens (the cloning of fully-grown adult human beings or whatnot) then the human race will be back to where we started: total chaos. i cant even imagine the things some of the sick minds of the world would do if they had the ability to duplicate entire armies, it would be insane, more lethal than any nuclear bomb could ever be in the sense of intelligence . . . ill admit it was an interesting concept before it actually happened..then came dolly, another sort of interesting event but now humans...the human race just hasnt, obviously, proved to be able to act responsibly enough to handle self-clones...not to mention the already-overpopulated-world...we have not, as a race, even established 'colonies' on other planets, which i am sure will eventually happen if the world could keep out of war but, yeah, those are my thoughts on human cloning

I think it presents a number of positive aspects. For example, if we are able to achieve cloning of a whole body, then we can next look to advance our understanding of genetics in other areas and move forward to a time when perhaps we can "borrow" genes from other species. How about the red blood cell oxygen retention ability of an alligator? The ability to stay underwater for nearly an hour? Or the sharp eyesight of an eagle... Understand that like all things, progress deemed that this *was* going to happen. You can sit about and moan, or you can get up and start thinking about positive applications. What about the ability to alter genes such that *all* hereditary diseases are wiped out? Or that ageing is wiped out? Yes, that's possible too... There are a great many positive aspects that the moral majority are overlooking here.

of course there are positive aspects, as their are to most scientific things....but what i'm afraid of is the next time someone starts a thread like this the question won't be should we, but 'what' are the ideal qualities of a superhuman...and sure, becoming 'superhuman' through i suppose they would be called genetic transplants or something like that would sound nice at first...but we should at least until the human race has established itself on other planets since eliminating aging would most definitely effect an increase in population

then some country will create an army of super soldiers with superhuman abilities

err, wouldn't the world become seriously overcrowded if aging and diseases were wiped out?

Haven't the movies taught us anything?!

I see your point, and it's a valid one at that. The only thing that we need to look at is that there are many incompetent people who would use this technology for its un-intended purposes... And using any technology irresponsibly has very negative effects.

By being able to create a superhuman, so to speak, countries would be able to create a super-army... What would that lead to?

Anyone ever watch Dark Angel? Although it's a fictional show, it can become a reality.

On the brighter side, I see cloning as a major advantage for being able to clone organs... But that's a whole other discussion.

One of the only things that I could see positive out of human cloning would be for organ harvesting.. For someone like myself who lost an eye when they were an infant, or someone who needs a liver and can't find a doner, or a lukemia patient who needs bone marrow, etc... I don't think we should clone the actual person, but bringing things like their organs and cloning them, yeah.. That's something that I wouldn't mind..

I couldn't have said it better myself... To me that's the only field cloning should be used in.

Well, so far it seems as though this whole thing was a hoax... Nothing but a publicity stunt to get free exposure for the Raelian religion, errr cult! Lets see what happens.

I think human cloning or cloning period is wrong. I think there are positive aspects but there are also negative ones. Change can not come without compromise. History even informs us on this. Cloning is defying everything from religion to plain belief. I think cloning is a topic or experiment that scientist should just leave alone because of all of the work committed to such an advancement is something that they (scientist) just aren't ready for. This cloning thing should be done over a long period of time. Not a year, ten years or even twenty would matter this experiment should be conducted over a period of one hundred years or more.

Isn't that the same thing?

I think it is very unethical.
Did those terrorists really do it in the end or was it some kind of hoax?

As long as so many embryos/zygotes die in the cloning attempt, I don't see any moral distinction between cloning and abortion. Now if each embryo had a similar chance of survival as in unassisted pregnancies, why not? Oh, yeah -- you end up with an identical twin who's twenty to forty years younger and better looking than you are. Bad idea.

I also think human cloning or cloning period is wrong.
That is messing with human nature!! We should just clone organs if needed.

that is my opinion
thanks for reading :-D
Chris






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I Also agree with you Kanu
You are perfect right.

thanks
Chris