Re: What new ideas have scientist come up with in the medical field of cloning?

The first "answer" I'm going to give you is actually a link. Not long ago, we ran a feature article called Sheeps and Cows and Mice ... and Pigs, Oh My!. The article has an animation that explains some of the technical details involved with cloning, and there is a short write up of some of the interesting new questions (aside from the ethical ones) generated from use of this technique.

A brief summary of the more interesting questions/research:
1) Age -- there are still speculations as to the true cellular age of some of the clones. DNA have ends called telomeres which shorten with each cell division. This may be part of the cell clock used as a life span indicator. The shorter the telomeres, the older the cell. So, when you use the DNA of an adult animal with short telomeres, will the clone have a cellular age of the adult and thus have a short life?

2) Applications -- there are so many different ways the cloning technique can be used. Stem cell therapy is one of the most exciting. Stem cells are ancestor cells. Under the right conditions, they can "become" any cell type -- liver, kidney, muscle, nerve. Organ transplantation has always been a problem because of rejection by the patient's immune system. If the patient's own stem cells are cloned and used to produce the organs, there won't be an immune problem.

And there are lots of other possibilites. Cloning may be a possible way to save endangered species and/or improve breeding stock. Whether or not we should do any of these things is a matter of debate. And the best way to make a decision is to be informed. So I hope this answer is informative.