Cloning in the context of medicine, biotechnology and molecular biology means the production of

entities, individuals and populations that are genetically identical or near identical with the original
organism or part of an organism from which they are derived. In its spontaneously occurring form,
cloning is the way in which bacteria and several plants and animals reproduce asexually. When we speak
of cloning, we typically think of organism cloning, but there are actually three different types of cloning.

 Molecular Cloning: Molecular cloning focuses on making identical copies of DNA molecules in
chromosomes. This type of cloning is also called gene cloning.
 Organism Cloning: Organism cloning involves making an identical copy of an entire organism.
This type of cloning is also called reproductive cloning.
 Therapeutic Cloning: Therapeutic cloning involves the cloning of human embryos for the
production of stem cells. These cells could be used to treat disease. The embryos are eventually
destroyed in this process.

The cloning of any species, whether they be human or non-human, is ethically and morally wrong.
Scientists and ethicists alike have debated the implications of human and non-human cloning
extensively since 1997 when scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland produced Dolly. No direct
conclusions have been drawn, but compelling arguments state that cloning of both human and non-
human species results in harmful physical and psychological effects on both groups. The following issues
dealing with cloning and its ethical and moral implications will be addressed: cloning of human beings
would result in severe psychological effects in the cloned child, and that the cloning of non-human
species subjects them to unethical or moral treatment for human needs.

Human cloning is morally wrong because it undermines the dignity of the human person.

Gwen: “Point, what made you think that human cloning undermines the dignity of the human person?”

Instead of cooperating with God’s will to procreate through the conjugal act of marriage, cloning
involves the creation of human life according to scientists’ will and predetermined specifications. The
creation of human life is reduced to a manufacturing process.

There is little interest in allowing a clone to develop through a complete pregnancy to birth. Human
embryos manufactured by cloning are created exclusively so they can be killed in experiments. Clones
are created so their body parts may be used by others. Cloning treats human life as a commodity,
another reason that human cloning is immoral. One of the major objections to cloning is couched in a
fundamentally Kantian framework. This is, we should not treat people as means. Kant thinks that what it
is to have moral status is to be a moral agent

Although many scientists claim that cloning will cure both common and rare and devastating diseases,
such as diabetes and degenerative brain diseases in the human race, it has very low percentages of
success and there are some medical concerns which cannot be overlooked. As Weldon writes: “Ninety-
five to ninety-seven percent of animal cloning attempts still end in failure, and the scientists who cloned
Dolly failed 276 times before they succeeded in producing a single live-born clone of an adult sheep”
This means that less than ten percent of the initial transfers survive to be healthy creatures.Imagine if
the failure rate was that high when we started to clone humans. More than 200 embryos, the start of
200 human beings, would die for the sake of just one embryo that would have the same DNA as
someone else.
Moreover, most scientists believe that the process of cloning humans will result in even higher failure
rates. Not only does the cloning process have a low success rate, the viable clone suffers increased risk
of serious genetic malformation, cancer or shortened lifespan. The likelihood of pregnancy losses and
abnormal births are very high, and this was observed by Wilmut and his team after cloning Dolly the
sheep.

The psychological effects of cloning are less obvious, but none the less, very plausible. In addition to
physical harms, there are worries about the psychological harms on cloned human children. What about
identity? What would happen if we overrode those rights by giving them someone else's genetic
identity? One of those harms is the loss of identity, or sense of uniqueness and individuality. Many argue
that cloning crates serious issues of identity and individuality and forces humans to consider the
definition of self. Gilbert Meilaender commented on the importance of genetic uniqueness not only to
the child but to the parent as well. Also, there is a large power struggle here. Cloning involves a degree
of power and control over another person's physical identity and that violates their rights and degrades
their unique individuality. The person doing the cloning would have more power than any parent would
have.

Before I end this I just want to borrow a quote from Cardinal Sean O’Malley stating that Human cloning
is immoral because it “treats human beings as products, manufactured to order suit to other people’s
wishes.”