• Question: Will cloning become a standard thing?

    Asked by to Aled, Ellie, Fiona, Kev, Willem on 13 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Willem Heijltjes

      Willem Heijltjes answered on 13 Mar 2014:


      Hi morgantevans,

      This is hard to say, because we don’t know yet how well it works! If it works really well, then probably, yes. Otherwise, probably not.

      There are many things that could go wrong when cloning becomes standard. For instance, we reproduce the way we do (sexually) for a reason: it creates better defences against disease. There are probably many, many more things to think of before we can do cloning safely. So for the foreseeable future, our current methods of reproduction will be needed 😉

    • Photo: Eleanor Parker

      Eleanor Parker answered on 13 Mar 2014:


      Hi morgantevans,
      I think yes, it will certainly one day be possible to clone humans, but it will take a lot of money to figure out all the kinks. I think the bigger question is should we clone humans?

    • Photo: Aled Roberts

      Aled Roberts answered on 13 Mar 2014:


      Hi Morgantevans!

      I clone things all day (somedays!). I get to put things in different types of bacteria (which is a type of cloning!) – I even get to make some of them glow green or red depending on how I want to look at them!

      So in some areas of science cloning is VERY common… However as the others have said, human cloning has some big issues! And I think being physically able to do it will come LONG before being ethically allowed to do it!

      🙂

    • Photo: Fiona Heesen

      Fiona Heesen answered on 14 Mar 2014:


      Hi morgantevens,

      I really have no experience with cloning, so I was happy to read some of the other scientists answers! In terms of human cloning, I agree with Eleanor and Aled, perhaps we need to spend more time thinking about the ethics and whether we should clone humans, and how would having both cloned humans and ‘natural’ humans change our society?

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