When Ian Wilmut and his colleagues at the Roslin Institute announced that they had the successful cloning of a sheep from the mammary cells of an adult female, the world reacted with intense emotion. The arrival of Dolly made it abundantly clear that the possibility of cloning humans was not far behind, if behind at all. Some view this possibility with anticipation, some with fear, and others with grief; which leave questions burning in our minds of when, where and how, but perhaps the most pertinent, is this right?! After a careful evaluation of essays, documents, and books pertaining to reproductive cloning, I have concluded that under current conditions, reproductive cloning is impermissible because of its hazardous consequences. However, I argue that if and when safety is no longer an immediate concern, then reproductive cloning will be morally permissible. I do this by initially demonstrating the risks involved with cloning procedures, and then by rejecting two popular arguments opposing cloning, and conclude by briefly discussing beneficial opportunities of cloning.
The successful cloning of Dolly, the sheep, illuminates that we could potentially clone human beings. However, the highly complicated and hazardous process of nuclear transfer of somatic (non-sex) cells that generated Dolly should not be underestimated. To gain a better understanding of the hazards involved in this procedure, as well as my own convictions of the morality of cloning, it is essential to appreciate the convolutions of this process. Walter Glannon provides an excellent description that is both reader friendly and scientifically accurate. .
In February of 1997, Ian Wilmut and his colleagues produced "Dolly" by method of nuclear transfer. This process consists of transplanting, or injecting, the nucleus of an adult body cell into an enucleated egg (oocyte) of another animal or person. Convinced that past efforts to clone mammals failed because the donor cell that supplied the nucleus and the recipient egg were at different stages of the cell cycle, Wilmut et al.
