Question: What is your opinion on the ethics of cloning?

Sandra Greive answered on 8 Mar 2017:

This is a very complex issue. In a perfect world where everyone uses their powers only for the good of society I would say ‘bring it on!’ as the benefits from responsible use could be fantastic. However, there are both advantages and disadvantages to cloning and having individuals with exactly the same genes. These need to be carefully considered.

Crops or agricultural animals that always have the desired traits (food yield, nutrient content or flavour etc) would allow a lot more consistency for amount or quality of food supply. But only as long as the environmental conditions were kept constant. The advantage in genetic diversity is that some individual organisms (plants, animals etc) may be better able to survive changes in conditions (temperature, water supply, salt levels, parasites etc) than the rest of their friends. This ensures that those individuals that are best adapted to the new conditions survive and the species as a whole continues to thrive. Genetically identical populations might just all die. We are already seeing the effect of decreased diversity under changing climate conditions on coffee and chocolate production, as the varieties that have been chosen for yield or flavour only grow in a narrow range of environmental conditions and are very sensitive to changes in temperature or rainfall.

In humans, individuals created from cloning will be the identical twin of the donor of the cloned genes. This would bring the same advantages that having an identical twin sibling might bring – a source of donor tissue for kidney or bone marrow transplants. The only problem is that twins often both suffer from the same genetic diseases as well, so the chance of the cloned individual getting the same illness would be just as high as the genetic donor. A lot of these same benefits could also be gained from using stem cell technology.

On to ethics: any scientific experiment must be carried out according to a set of ethical guidelines and laws, usually defined by the country in which the science is done. These guidelines and laws are drawn up under discussion by the community as whole: including scientists, politicians, lawyers, ethicists, religious scholars and interested members of the general population, among others. These rules become more detailed and specific when the experiments involve animals, and more so if they involve the use of human tissue (cells, blood genes etc) or human subjects (clinical trials etc). We have learned from bitter human history that preventing this open and broad discussion leads to exploitation and abuse. Try reading ‘Secret Science’ by Ulf Schmidt or ‘The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks’ by Rebecca Skloot.

I personally have no problem with the idea of cloning as long as any work that is done is conducted open and honestly, involves the complete informed consent of any participants and follows the guidelines agreed upon by the community at large.