There are many ethical issues surrounding the issue of human cloning. Reproductive cloning of humans is currently illegal in the UK, however, non-reproductive cloning is allowed under licence. Ethical issues include:

Some believe that it undermines sexual reproduction.
Some believe clones may have a lower quality of life due to social exclusion or difficulties developing their own personality.
Unknown psychological effects to the clone.
Puts both the surrogate and clone at risk as many cloning experiments have resulted in failures in the form of miscarriages, stillbirths, and life-threatening anomalies.
Some evidence suggest that clones may have shorter lifespans.
Might foster an understanding of people as objects that can be designed and manufactured to possess specific characteristics. Decrease the value of human life.
The use of human embryos as a source of stem cells is controversial as the embryos are usually destroyed after they have been harvested.

	Created by Jessica Phillips over 8 years ago

Animal cloning from OCR Biology Unit 5: Section 3 - Cloning and Biotechnology