human cloning

The process of cloning a human is just the same as any other mammal. You get the nucleus from a cell of the organism you want to clone, put it into an empty host egg cell (sorry, I don’t know the real term) and hope that it starts growing. It’s basically genetically precise conception.

The thing that most people don’t seem to realize is that all this creates is a baby with the same genetic code which will translate into an identical body. It does not create an identical human. In order to create an identical person, that clone would have to go through the exact same experiences as the original, and that is, in reality, impossible. Furthermore, cloning yourself would not extend your life, because all you would have done is create another human that looks just like you. In order for that to actually be you, your brain would have to be transplanted into that body, as well as a few other, less important things (like memory cells your body creates after it attacks a virus). Talking your clone into giving up their body will be another challenge.

Currently, nobody has compleatly cloned a human being yet, or at least nobody has said anything, but it won't be long now.

If there is anything factually wrong with this write-up, please /msg me.

Cloning of humans, be it for reproduction or research, even for the purpose of finding cures for terrible diseases, could soon be forbidden by law in the United States of America as per the 31st of July, 2001.

At the time of this writing, this fact was recently announced by President George W. Bush who issued a statement on the 30th saying that "The moral and ethical issues posed by human cloning are profound and cannot be ignored in the quest for scientific discovery."

An important result of this bill, if it is passed, is that any embryo produced by human cloning would not be allowed within the borders of the US. Nor would any product from a cloned embryo. This will automatically deprive Americans from any remedies developed abroad by use of cloned products.

Instead of cloning human embryos, scientists are now looking at medical research on stem cells - the building blocks for all human tissue. A ban on human cloning would not affect cloning non-human cells - or stem cell research. However, the cells would ideally be attained through a process known as [therapeutic cloning, in which an embryo is created from one person, simply in order to obtain cells that can be used by scientiests. The process of therapeutic cloning does not involve sperm or eggs, but is more like a sample from an individual.

This write-up is an original work by me (the poster), but most of the material upon which it is based comes from MSNBC.com.