Law Restrictions on Cloning!

Laws and restrictions on genetic research vary from state to state, below is a link to find the restrictions in your state and the restrictions in the state of Colorado.

State Embryonic & Fetal Research Laws as of January, 2008View 50-State Comparison
	CO	US
Permits research on fetus/embryo?	NA	8 Yes
Restricts research on aborted fetus/embryo?	NA	NA
Consent provision to conduct research on fetus/embryo	NA	NA
Restricts research on fetus or embryo resulting from sources ther than abortion	NA	NA
Restrictions of purchase sale of human tissue for research	NA	NA

Groups for cloning

Amongst the various groups against cloning, there are groups that are for cloning humans as well. Two of these groups that have become very big are; Human Cloning Foundation and the Clone Rights United Front. They work diligently to insure the legality of human cloning.
If you would like to find out more about these groups, here is a list of their websites:
Human Cloning Foundation- http://www.humancloning.org/
Clone Rights United Front- http://www.clonerights.com/history_of_the_movement.htm

Groups against cloning

There are many opposed to cloning for many different reasons. Some of the main groups include; Friends of the Earth, The Center of Bioethics and Human Dignity, ABC coalition and the Council for responsible genetics. Below are links to their websites:
Friends of the Earth- http://www.foe.org/about/intro.html
Center of Bioethics and Human Dignity- http://cbhd.org/index.html
ABC Coalition- http://www.cloninginformation.org/
Council for responsible genetics- http://www.councilforresponsiblegenetics.org/

Conflicting Morals

There is so much conflict with cloning because of the morals behind it. Most of the cons of cloning have to do with the moral values of creating a human being in a lab. While cloning is useful to develop new organs, recreating a person is wrong to many. If we clone humans, are they going to have the same basic rights that we do? Or are we going to use them for research and the valuable organs they have in them with the same genetic make-up as the person used to create them. This would cause many conflicts with equality in our society.

Cons of Cloning

Cloning is a very controversial topic and some people are opposed to it because it creates the same genetic make-up which weakens our ability of adaptation. Making the same genetic make-up also creates malpractices in society because it weeds out the "undesirable" traits. Another danger of cloning humans is that they would not necessarily have the same rights. If a clone human was created to give the other one things like blood and bone marrow, then it doesn't really have a choice on the quality of life. There would not be any laws prohibiting the destruction of one human being for another.

Pros of Cloning

There are many positive effects of cloning. It can range from scientific discoveries to helping someone live or give birth to a child. With cloning, scientists are able to re-create organs to replace failing ones. This can be helpful because there is a long waiting list for getting an organ from a donor. By cloning something, they are able to figure out the genetic make-up which makes it easier to understand certain traits of genetics and their affects. This is helpful for when someone substitutes the natural birthing process for cloning. They can give the child specific traits although it is very controversial.

Brief History of Cloning

There have been many important events in cloning history and they are still very progressive today. The idea of cloning something in a lab was first thought of in 1885 by August Weismann. He theorized that the information of a cell would diminish after it went through differentiation. In 1952 Robert Briggs and Thomas J. King cloned the first animals. They cloned northern leopard frogs. And in 1953 Francis Crick and James Watson figured out the structure of DNA. In 1978 the first baby was born using in vitro fertilization. 1996 the President passed a law stating it was illegal for government to produce any funding for cloning. A really important date for cloning was February 23, 1997 when Dolly the lamb was born by cloning adult cells was born.

This is a picture of the lamb they cloned, Dolly.

What is Cloning?

Cloning is a phenomenon that happens around us on a daily basis. According to Wikipedia, the definition of cloning is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms reproduce asexually. From that definition, when a woman is having a child and has twins it's like she cloned one of her babies. There are about 10 to 11 thousands babies born in the U.S. alone today. Through out those babies being born a large percentage of them are twins. Cloning is a natural process that we are learning to do in a lab. Scientists today have been able to clone many animals but it is unknown if any scientists have successfully cloned humans because it is so controversial.