Do you think cloning humans is a bad or a good idea and why?

Bad. Any time we start messing with nature we usually fuck things up badly.
Let god, the universe, nature alone, things are meant to be the way they are and cloning humans is about as smart as striving for people to live until they are 120. Science has moral limits IMO, and this is just a sampling of several very bad ideas.

@Coloma it may be true, but I think we gained the knowledge to do these things and perhaps we may have gone a bit over the line.

There are far too many implications of human cloning for which society would struggle to find solutions, Among these are ethical concerns of doing cloning, and a myriad of legal issues too many to enumerate here. It would certainly raise issues of who is authentically whom they claim to be. Issues of inheritance would be a major area of contention. I feel human cloning would be ill advised and unethical in nearly every case.

The use of DNA for crime-solving would immediately become obsolete. Good luck solving murders now.

“Begun the clone war has…”

With a world population of 7 billion, 23% of them suffering from malnutrition and most of these being children, why would anyone want any more humans on earth? More vanity?

Bad idea all around. We already have one of me! A clone doesn’t make me live longer, and really, I couldn’t use it for spare parts, it would be autonomous.

People think a clone would be just like them, but the upbringing would be different than the source’s childhood. So while it may have the same inherent talents, it would be, just as a child or a twin, a different manifestation.

I wish I had a clone of myself. I imagine how handy it would be. An unbeatable team although not sure how my wife would like it. And at least one more GA on here with every one!

This is one of those things that has me in a quandary.

I can see great medical possibilities in growing or replicating body parts to replace those damaged or missing but I don’t see a whole lot of good that could come out of cloning entire individuals (would that even be the right word). And, given the nurture side, could you even guarantee an exact copy, at least from the mental aspect?

Would cloning replace childbirth? Could you insert a cloned embryo into a womb and give birth to another you? Would that be weird?

@rojo Identical Twins are biological clones. Clones are not the same person. They are two different people with biologically identical DNA.

I realize that @Seek_Kolinahr what I was getting at was implanting the cloned embryo from a single parent (in this case the mother) back into the mother who would then give birth to herself.
The womb as a cloning tank and not some giant metal cylinder that spits out a fully formed clone.

My comment was in reference to your question about the clone being an exact physical and mental copy.

She would not give birth to herself, but to her twin sister.

Ah, I see your point. Well, could you say that of any clone from your DNA?

I think it would be a bad idea. Who would get to choose who gets cloned? If it was someone like Hitler, he would have cloned himself.

@rojo Yep. If they’re biologically identical, then they’re an identical twin, basically. @mattbrowne wrote a fascinating novel on the subject.

So we’d end up with a few million Angelina Jolee’s but still only one Janet Napolitano. Would that make the world a better place? Maybe.

Why contribute to an already exploding world population.population?
Problems will occur when the super wealthy want to clone themselves and can afford to have it done regardless of reasons NOT to have it done.
People have been known to have a second child when the first one had severe problems which might require parts from the second child.
I see no real benefit from cloning human beings.
Cloning bees might be a way to solve the problems their populations are having. Other species of animals who are necessary could also be considered after studying the interdependence of various animals.

Bad idea. We have enough poverty stricken people on the planet. There are too many humans as it is. Why would we add more when we are having issues with the number we already have?

This doesn’t even take into account the huge moral/ethical and legal issues that would erupt.
The cloning would only be available to the rich and powerful. Like we need 1000 Donald Trump’s putting their filthy greedy hands on everything. Personal identity would be not fun to manoeuvre. Then you have social status… Would these clones have the exact rights in which we do? Or would they be treated as we have treated minorities? Then there’s biological diversity…throw that out the window. And could these clones reproduce?

There are so many variables of negative outcomes that make cloning a bad idea.

I think it’s a bad idea altogether. Besides if you look around hard enough there are so many people in the world you could probably find someone who looks pretty close to you right now.

The other day I almost crapped my drawers I saw my dad at the grocery store working behind the flower counter—my dad has been dead for 4.5 years! We don’t need to clone people we already look alike!

We are headed to a population explosion and we should stop all activities that increase the population and promote a two child maximum. We also need to crack down on these guys that serially get multiple women pregnant. I believe that if they don’t pay or can’t afford to pay they should be sterilized.

I am really disgusted that science is working on increasing fertility instead of making a quick easy,side-effect free birth control system.

@Espiritus_Corvus I agree 10,000%. Where is the food, shelter and health care going to come from when we all are living to 120? What a joke! Yes, ego/vanity…whatever, I volunteer to make space for another few hundred feet of corn in Nebraska to feed the new Uganda of 120 year olds. I wonder if my carcass would be as nourishing to Monsantos super corn as a rotting salmon is to the pacific northwests rains forests? lol

I find the idea unsettling, but I can’t think of any specific legal or ethical violations. Do we have a right to a unique genetic identity, barring the occasional formation of identical twins? Imagine that you are one of hundreds of identical copies of someone. That seems really creepy. The population size issue is a red herring. A clone could simply be a substitute for a normally conceived offspring.

We’d need to kill human embryos for cloning. That’s bad.

Matt, What if it could be done without killing embryos? Also, are you opposed to in vitro fertilization on the same grounds?

If it could be done, we’d still face the other ethical problems mentioned above. I support IVF.