kwigibo

5 years since the first adult clone of an animal was created, what are your feelings on the progress of cloning research so far and the future of the process?

I myself am not against cloning, but can really only conceive of, essentially, novelty applications of the procedure. In what ways do you think cloning can have a large scale benefit to civilisation?

tronvillain

It's been five years already? Yes, I suppose I was in high school when it happened. Cloning itself has has little use other than creating another reproductive option. On the other hand, the knowledge and techniques gained seem extremely valuable.

David Gould

Organ cloning would be a fantastic development from this technology. There is amassive shortage of donated organs, and the only other option seems to be purchase from the third world, which raises far more ethical questions than cloning, IMO.

I think that research into cloning will help us understand DNA better and this in turn will have much bigger payoffs.

kwigibo

Yes, but what of the cloning of whole animals, i think we all agree that it's not entirely ethical to clone a person simplay as an organ bank.

David Gould

If you can do it without starting the higher brain functions, I do not see a problem with it. If it has no higher brain function, it is not a person, as far as I am concerned.

kwigibo

The question was, is there any point to cloning a 'complete' animal (including humans) beyond the novelty of, 'hey cool, it's exactly like that other one'

Peregrine

Sure.

Cloning animals used in labs would be a benefit -- being able to test on genetically identical organisms removes one variable.

Cloning endangered species for reintroduction into the wild. There has been talk about cloning the Dire Wolf (extinct, but there apparently is some organic material on ice).

And as someone said, to help the reproductive impared. Instead of trying to fertilize multiple eggs, a single embryo can be produced and cloned, kept on ice in case additional implantations are needed.

David Gould

I agree with Peregrine's responses. I also think that cloning may end up being a cheap way to produce animals for consumption than breeding them. For example, it may become more cost effective to simply clone genetically superior animals rather than have to depend on the random factors inherent in sexual reproduction.