Where is cloning legal?

Fifteen States have laws regarding human cloning. The issue was first addressed by California, which banned reproductive cloning, or cloning to become pregnant, in 1997. Since then Arkansas, Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Rhode Island, New Jersey, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Virginia have created laws to prohibit reproductive cloning. Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, North Dakota and South Dakota laws extend their prohibitions to therapeutic cloning, or cloning for research purposes. Virginia's law also may ban human cloning for any purpose, but it may be open to varying interpretations because the law does not define the term human being, which is used in the definition of human cloning. Rhode Island law does not prohibit cloning for research and California and New Jersey human cloning laws specifically permit cloning for the purpose of research. According to Wikipedia, cloning is legal in most EU countries and therapeutic cloning is allowed in the UK.

Where do you think cloning should and shouldn't be banned? Give us your opinion please. Here is the link for the Wikipedia cloning page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloning

Is Cloning Really Worth It?

There is much controversy over the issue of cloning. Is it really worth it? Scientists say yes, but I think not. There are a lot of questions to be answered before we continue the process of cloning such as the animals’ safety, humans feelings, and the costs, both financially and emotionally. First of all, we must think of the poor, defenseless animals scientists are experimenting with. It is one thing to kill them for survival, but it is totally wrong forthem to die just to “experiment”. That is just as wrong as murdering an animal to make a few coats. Out of the many animals that the scientists have tried to clone, very few have survived and the ones that have are dependent on the scientists for everything down to oxygen. Let’s think about humans for a second. Say your son, daughter, relative, or friendhas passed away. Would you want his or her body cloned? A lot of people might say yes, but I give that a huge no. Even though the body of the loved one you lost is there, there is no way to really have them back. A clone is just another person that looks like them. A person’s character is built by experiences he went through and people he has met. I think many people would be disappointed at the fact that it’s just not the same person. Another thing to think about is money. The taxpayers are paying out millions of dollars on this idea that has no guarantee. What about the taxpayers who oppose cloning? I know I do not want my hard earned money invested against my will into something that I feel is wrong and unjust. I think that people should be informed on all of the negatives as well as the positives, although I feel that there are no positives. I think we as tax payers should have a say in what our money goes to. I would not want a cent of my money going toward the execution of innocent animals for something that has no real purpose, something that the world could totally do without, but that’s just my opinion.

The Real Risk of Cloning

Cloning may sound like it could save the world, but there is another side to it. Over 90% of attempts at cloning fail. Even if the cloning is successful, the living being is prone to more infection, tumor growth and other disorders. From Japanese studies, cloned mice were noticed to live in poor conditions and die much faster. Also, cloned animals are prone to dying mysteriously. An example would be that one of Australia's first cloned sheep was healthy the day she died. Her autopsy could not determine her cause of death.

What do you think about this? Cloning could help the world by helping cure diseases, but most cloning goes down the gutter. Do you think we should promote cloning to a higher level, or should we downgrade it for it being unethical and usually not successful?

Clicking on the link below will take you to the Human Genome Project Information site. Read the section that is labeled "What are the risks of cloning?" and make your own opinion on this and comment about what you think is right and wrong:

http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/cloning.shtml

Cloning Facts

Dolly the lamb was the first mammal to be cloned in the world. She was cloned in Ireland. She was born in 1996 and died in 2003.

There have been cases where scientists even cloned skin for people.

What is cloning anyway?

Cloning is the process of making an exact copy on something. Human cloning is illegal in many countries and is unethical. Animal cloning has been tried and has been successful in many species from fruit flies to water buffalo. The first cloning took place in 1952 on a tadpole but, the first result of the first cloning from adult cells was Dolly the lamb in 1996. Dolly lived for 6 years and died of respiratory infection in 2003.


Cloning could save lives, because if you cloned your heart at age 18, once your 40 if you need a heart transplant you will have a perfectly good working heart says Jennifer Chan . Cloning could also be the cure to infertility. Reproductive cloning or somatic nuclear transfer, which was how Dolly was cloned. Cloning technology offers infertile couples the promise of greatly improving the odds of having a baby.


Cloning can be used to save endangered species. Rather than breeding endangered species, why not just clone them? We could also use it to advance in medicine like cancer or Parkinson's. Although most states in the U.S. have banned reproductive cloning, there are still a few states that allow it and then we might have a chance to find answers and improve the human life.

Some say cloning is very dangerous. Most countries have banned it for religious reasons or they think that it is unethcial. Political wars have been started because of biological copying. If some future dictator got a hold of cloning technology they could wipe out anything by cloning toxins and selling it to every store in the world waltzing in and taking over!

http://nhitechnosavvy.wikispaces.com/Cloning