In bioethics , the ethics of cloning refers to a variety

of ethical positions regarding the practice and

possibilities of cloning , especially human cloning .
While many of these views are religious in origin, the
questions raised by cloning are faced by secular
perspectives as well. Perspectives on human cloning
are theoretical, as human therapeutic and
reproductive cloning are not commercially used;
animals are currently cloned in laboratories and in
livestock production.
Advocates support development of therapeutic
cloning in order to generate tissues and whole
organs to treat patients who otherwise cannot obtain
transplants, to avoid the need for
immunosuppressive drugs , and to stave off the
effects of aging. Advocates for reproductive cloning
believe that parents who cannot otherwise procreate
should have access to the technology.
pponents of cloning have concerns that technology
is not yet developed enough to be safe, that it could
be prone to abuse !leading to the generation of
humans from whom organs and tissues would be
harvested", and have concerns about how cloned
individuals could integrate with families and with
society at large.
#eligious groups are divided, with some opposing the
technology as usurping $od%s place and, to the
e&tent embryos are used, destroying a human life;
others support therapeutic cloning%s potential life'
saving benefits.
(loning of animals is opposed by animal'groups due
to the number of cloned animals that suffer from
malformations before they die, and while food from
cloned animals has been approved by the )* +,A,
its use is opposed by groups concerned about food
safety.
-he various forms of cloning , particularly human
cloning , are controversial. -here have been
numerous demands for all progress in the human
cloning field to be halted. .ost scientific,
governmental and religious organi/ations oppose
reproductive cloning. -he American Association for
the Advancement of *cience !AAA*" and other
scientific organi/ations have made public statements
suggesting that human reproductive cloning be
banned until safety issues are resolved.*erious
ethical concerns have been raised by the future
possibility of harvesting organs from clones.
Advocates of human therapeutic cloning believe the
practice could provide genetically identical cells for
regenerative medicine, and tissues and organs for
transplantation. *uch cells, tissues, and organs
would neither trigger an immune response nor
require the use of immunosuppressive drugs . 0oth
basic research and therapeutic development for
serious diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and
diabetes , as well as improvements in burn treatment
and reconstructive and cosmetic surgery , are areas
that might benefit from such new technology. ne
bioethicist, 1acob .. Appel of 2ew 3ork )niversity ,
has gone so far as to argue that 4children cloned for
therapeutic purposes4 such as 4to donate bone
marrow to a sibling with leukemia4 may someday be
viewed as heroes.
Proponents claim that human reproductive cloning
also would produce benefits to couples who cannot
otherwise procreate. In the early 5666s *everino
Antinori and Panos 7avos stirred controversy when
they publicly stated plans to create a fertility
treatment that allows parents who are both infertile
to have children with at least some of their ,2A in
their offspring.
In Aubrey de $rey%s proposed *82* !*trategies for
8ngineered 2egligible *enescence", one of the
considered options to repair the cell depletion related
to cellular senescence is to grow replacement tissues
from stem cells harvested from a cloned embryo.
-here are also ethical ob9ections. Article :: of
)28*( %s )niversal ,eclaration on the ;uman
$enome and ;uman #ights asserts that the
reproductive cloning of human beings is contrary to
human dignity, that a potential life represented
by the embryo is destroyed when embryonic cells are
used, and there is a significant likelihood that
cloned individuals would be biologically damaged,
due to the inherent unreliability of cloning
technology.
8thicists have speculated on difficulties that might
arise in a world where human clones e&ist. +or
e&ample, human cloning might change the shape of
family structure by complicating the role of parenting
within a family of convoluted kinship relations. +or
e&ample, a female ,2A donor would be the clone%s
genetic twin, rather than mother, complicating the
genetic and social relationships between mother and
child as well as the relationships between other
family members and the clone. <:=> In another
e&ample, there may be e&pectations that the cloned
individuals would act identically to the human from
which they were cloned, which could infringe on the
right to self'determination. <:?>
Proponents of animal rights argue that non'human
animals possess certain moral rights as living
entities and should therefore be afforded the same
ethical considerations as human beings. -his would
negate the e&ploitation of animals in scientific
research on cloning, cloning used in food production,
or as other resources for human use or consumption.