• Question: Do you think we could clone humans

    Asked by highlyexplosive to Andrew, Emma, Marianne on 15 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by buzzers.
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Undoubtedly yes. The question is ‘should we clone humans?’ What do you think? maybe we could clone a body without a brain so that we could have spare organ parts for when things go wrong…..

    • Photo: Marianne Baker

      Marianne Baker answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      I think we can, yes.
      It’s been done with cats (copycat), sheep (dolly) and other animals so far.
      They have their problems; using adult DNA to create a new individual brings issues with ageing, because DNA has its own kind of fuse that eventually runs out so using old DNA to make new cells means the cells take on the age of the DNA, rather than starting from when they’re created. If that makes any sense.

      So if we used young DNA, then maybe there would be fewer problems.

      However, because we can, doesn’t mean we should.

      Many, many ethical issues come along with cloning – identity, rights, relationships…

      I don’t think it’s necessary or ethically acceptable to clone human beings, if we’re talking about them growing up (we already use a type of cloning, called somatic cell nuclear transfer, in embryonic stem cell research, for example – which I wrote a bit about here ).

    • Photo: Andrew Maynard

      Andrew Maynard answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Hi highlyexplosive,

      There’s no reason why we couldn’t (and some scientists claim they already can), but there are probably plenty of reasons why we shouldn’t.

      Should scientists clone humans, just because they can? What do you think?

Comments