Should cloning humans be made legal?

I do not believe cloning will prove to be a viable option for people. While advances are being made, and I think the clonig of organs will be an effective use, the issues of problems with clones will outweigh the benefits. I think a modification of cloning the combines genetic material would be effective. A great fiction read on genetic engineering is "Beggars in Spain" by Nancy Kress, along with the first sequel, "Beggars and Choosers". There is a third book that I haven't read yet, so I cannot speak for it.

I'm against it. Though I do wonder if it's already being done. (Ugh!)

Totally against it.

I'm against it for several reasons, aren't there enough people in the world? Its playing with natural selection. The only ones that could afford it would be the more wealthy and who wants more.....("ex. Paris Hiltons") running around. It will cause mass confusion and identity problems... If it is just for organ transplant, thats just wrong on many levels....has anyone seen any sci-fi movies?..... There was one movie where the rich people of the world would grow a clone in a camp, until body parts were needed. Then the people in the camp thought that they were hitting the lottery and moving to paradise, when actually they were going to get harvest. (Freaky Movie) I'll try to find that movies name..... Any-Way - Great question!! For people who have lost love ones due to a needed organ, I am truely sorry, but I'm scared we are headed into shark filled waters with this technology.. take a look at the bigger picture. My father is really sick due to kidney problems and I will miss him terribly when its his time, but that's my point (when its his time to go)! Only god know when that is. Thanks

I have to jump in on the side of those who are against it. To many potential problems. We have enough problems with the world as it is, without trying to "make" new people!
I do wonder how close the "hidden" scientists are to actually doing it though.

I am very against it. The world does not need two of me!

Cloning a whole person is dumb.

Just cloning the organs would be fabulous.

No, definitely not. The world might end up with 2 of me for crying out loud!! LOL C):-)

NO some things like this should not be attempted or messed with even for non-religious types it just messes with the laws of nature and balance I think

I am for cloning organs and such, but ever since i watched that movie where the little boy is cloned because he died at an early age, i have had my doubts about human cloning lol

I don't think cloning should be legal.

Didn't Star Wars already teach us the perils of cloning? Look at the Emperor! Do we NEED clones of Bush?

I want a clone all I have to do is look at my kids they all look like me.. A clone wouldn't be adult size, it would have to grow, just like a baby. By the time it grew to adulthood, who ever it was cloned from could be dead or really old.

If we stopped the development of a technology just because it might be misused we wouldn't have anything. Should we outlaw spoons just because I can use one to scoop someone's eye out, or grind the edge down and use it to cut someone? What about the wheel? I can't even count the number of people who have been injured or killed as a result of the invention of the wheel.

Even should cloning a full human become a viable option, which it currently is not despite what the Raliens or those who think "secret" research is being undertaken seem to think, it wouldn't be much like what science fiction has pre-conditioned people to think. First, as has been mentioned above, the clone would start life as an infant. Secondly the clone would only be a genetic duplicate - unless it was somehow given the original subject's memories and its brain forced to become a physical duplicate of the original, which is functionally impossible with current technologies, it would be no more like its genetic donor than DNA dictates (which has significantly less to do with personality than some people like to claim). So what it would really be like is having a twin who just happens to be significantly younger than you, and has an entirely different set of life experiences and subsequently a personality that may have very little in common with yours.

Thinking that clones would somehow be raised to harvest for organs is also the worst kind of shortsidedness: should genetic engineering and cloning be allowed to advance it theoretically wouldn't be necessary to create an entire clone to harvest organs from, as perfectly matching donor organs could be specifically cultured to match an individual. (There's also the fact that should we be able to take cloning to that specific level it's entirely possible that food, such as meat, could be tank grown and distributed as needed.) It also opens up the potential to fix or prevent congenital defects. I'm not talking about using the technology to create ubermensch - simply to correct genetic malfunctions. Which isn't against the natural order or natural selection, at least no more than we as a species have already removed ourselves from the cycle of natural selection and stagnated that avenue for evolution.

As for what rights they'd have... this isn't the first time I've heard it mentioned, but it still boggles my mind. They would be human. Ultimately no different from a test tube baby, except their DNA would identically match someone else's. Do we deny identical twins any of their fundamental rights simply because they happen to be genetic duplicates? Discrimination against clones based simply on the circumstances of their birth would be no different than any other kind of racism, it would just be more socially palatable due to our ingrained xenophobia.

So, yes, cloning is open to potential abuse. So is everything else. However much like nuclear power when it is examined rationally I believe the potential benefits of cloning far outweigh possible abuses.