Cloning FAQ

Is cloning "unnatural"?

Not at all - some organisms in nature only reproduce using cloning - not only bacteria and yeasts, but also larger organisms like some snails and shrimp. Because in nature sexual reproduction is the only way to improve the genetic stock of a species, most asexual species tend to die off, but at least one - a shrimp called Artemia perthenogenetica - has survived for at least 30 million years. Many more species, including the aphid, reproduce by cloning most of the time, only reproducing sexually every few generations. Perhaps one day humankind may follow their lead.
 

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Is an identical twin essentially the same as a clone?

Only if the clone is born at the same time from the same womb as its clone, as we now know that what a fetus is exposed to in the womb, in the way of nutrition or alcohol or drugs or perhaps even stress hormones, can influence its physical and mental development.

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Could some lunatic clone Hitler if human cloning were perfected?

Just possibly - but they wouldnât get what they wanted. First, they would need some living cells from his body - unless it was frozen or otherwise preserved soon after death they would probably be unusable. More importantly, because of differences in the environment of the womb and upbringing clone Hitlers would not act, think or even necessarily look like the original.

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Could clones be "farmed" to provide spare body parts for their "parent" clone without problems of tissue rejection?

Possibly, although we donot know enough yet to be confident that rejection would be eliminated entirely. You would also have to wait a number of years until the cloneâs organs were mature enough to transplant, and of course your actions would be highly illegal unless your clone was willing to act as a donor as a clone would be just as human as you or I. Even leaving aside the ethical concerns, with the progress that is being made in understanding and coping with tissue rejection, you would be more likely to have a pig's heart in your future than a clone's.

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Would a clone have a soul?

Though we are not theologians if you grant souls to identical twins and to the various kinds of "test tube babies" already being born then it follows that a clone would have one too. 
 

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No. For starters, whatever consciousness is, it doesn't reside in any one brain structure or set of genes that could be easily removed from the clone before or during its development. Moreover, attempting to surgically or genetically erase someones consciousness  is itself morally dubious. It would also be hard to know if your technique  worked. A person can look and behave like a mindless vegetable but have a very active mind--witness the paralysed French writer, Jean-Dominique Bauby, who dictated a 130 page novel by moving an eyelid.
 

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Could vital organs be grown using cloning without the rest of a body?

Possibly--but nobody is even close to knowing how. Contrary to scientists' expectations, the birth of Dolly shows it is possible to reprogram the cell of an adult (or at least its genome) so that it begins development all over again. This newly discovered flexibility means it may one day be possible to reprogram skin or blood cells so that they grow into "spare part" tissues and organs, rather than whole organisms. But the technical obstacles will be huge.
 

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Could cloning be used to create "super warriors" or super-intelligent people?

Possibly - though we donot yet know enough about human genetics to do much "improving" of people. So far, because of ethical concerns, geneticists are concentrating on finding the causes of genetic diseases and then curing them. While cloning makes it easier to meddle with human and animal genes, even before recent discoveries a considerable amount of genetic improvement of animals was already taking place. A thoroughbred horse is essentially genetically engineered, for example.
 

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Could cloning be used to save endangered species?

At the moment its success rate is very low (Dolly was only cloned after 276 tries) but if this can be improved on it might well turn out to be useful to increase the population of hard-to-breed animals. Extinct animals (or animals without females) would be more difficult. A female canot normally give birth to an animal of a different species, but it is not yet clear whether a female of a closely-related species could give birth to a clone of a different species.
 

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Could cloning help gay couples to conceive and make men unneccessary for procreation?

In principle, yes. Of course a clone would have to be the identical twin of one or the other partner - it would be difficult to duplicate any of the mixing of genes that occurs during sexual reproduction using cloning techniques.
 

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