Cloning humans - for and against

There are strong emotional reactions to cloning human beings, however there are also good arguments to be made both for and against cloning. These should be used to inform our thinking and moderate our emotional reaction.

For:

This could be used to counter infertility and or genetic disease. (Robertson J. A.¹)
It is little different from the birth of identical twins. (Robertson J. A.¹)
What is important is how a child is treated after birth. (Robertson J. A.¹)
Preferable to donor eggs and/or sperm for the infertile.
It meets the deep human need to reproduce.
As of May 2001, it may be that the survival rate of embryos (even in IVF) will rise to 75% (Beebe & Wheeler³)
This could be a source of genetically identical body parts for transplant treatment of injured individuals. (This is an argument for therapy not cloning.)

Against:

Cloning would devalue children and treat them as commodities. (Annas G. J.¹)
It would radically alter what it means to be human - we would lose something vital to the uniqueness of humanity. (Annas G. J.¹)
It is genetic reductionism. (Annas G. J.¹)
Cloning fixes the genome and creates genetic throw backs.
Family relationships are confused by cloning and it creates inheritance issues. (Wachbroit R²)
Cloning could be used to replace family members who have died in accidents.
Writing in 1999, P. Moore reported that cloned eggs only have a 1% survival rate. (P. Moore ⁴)
Consideration should be given to the negative effect upon the child of its origins.
There are uncertain genetic consequences: many of the early animal clones had clinical problems derived from genetic effects. For example, old age ilnesses in the youthful Dolly the sheep.⁵

Notes:

Robertson J. A. & Annas G. J., Human Cloning, New England Journal of Medicine 339, 1998, pp119-22
Robert Wachbroit: Genetic Encores: The Ethics of Human Cloning, Maryland School of Public Affairs, 1997.
Reported in New Scientist; David Beebe & Matthew Wheeler, embryologists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have produced a new IVF egg maturing device.
P. Moore, Babel's Shadow, pg 119, (quoting Teruhiko Wakayama and Ryuzo Yanagimachi published in Nature Genetics 22 1999 pp 127-28)
This article from the BBC on the death of Dolly (14/2/2003) indicates that at half a sheep's normal life expectancy she was suffering from age related illnesses. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2764039.stm

This is a page from www.genefaith.org created by A. J. Palmer.
It was reveiwed and ammended on 19^th August 2011.

cloneforandagainst.htm