There are many known issues related to the topic of cloning. Many believe that cloning does pose health risks. This is true especially when cloning is used for replicating animals. For example, many experts believe that in 2003, Dolly died young after developing a lung disease due to cloning. On the other hand, many scientists have conducted studies to understand the long-term impacts of cloning. Many scientists believe that many animals are cloned face several issues. These issues include an increase in birth size and a variety of defects in vital organs, such as the liver, brain and heart. Other consequences include premature ageing and problems with the immune system.
Therapeutic cloning which involves creating a cloned embryo for the sole purpose of producing embryonic stem cells with the same DNA as the donor cell. This type of cloning can be used for several purposes. Therapeutic cloning can help to learn more about the causes of disease by studying embryonic stem cell lines. There are several drawbacks associated with this type of cloning as well. Many researchers think it is worthwhile to explore the use of embryonic stem cells as a path for treating human diseases. A study conducted by researchers showed that after 60 cycles of cell division, stem cells can accumulate mutations that could lead to cancer. Therefore, there is a need to understand stem cells at a deeper level before it used to treat human disease.
Cloning also raises moral and ethical concerns as they are related to using cloning technologies even among humans. For example, reproductive cloning which creates the possibility of replicating another human being can lead to conflict. These conflicts include the efficiency of the method and also conflict with people’s religious, moral and social values about human dignity, possibly infringing upon principles of individual freedom, identity and autonomy. Other issues that are related specifically to human cloning includes cloning for destructive embryonic stem cell research, the effects of reproductive cloning on the interpersonal relationships, and the commodification of human life as a research product.
Religious beliefs also have led to opposition to cloning. For example, in many religion it is believed that human life begins at conception, this leads to conflict when it comes to cloning. In Christianity and catholicism, for instance, there is a shared belief that embryonic cloning is tantamount to live human experimentation and therefore contrary to God's will.
The efficiency of animal cloning has been questioned as well. It is believed that it can take a dozen or more embryos to produce a single healthy dog. Along the way, the surrogate mothers may be treated with hormones that can be dangerous for them.
