Re: Do you think that we as humans will ever be able to clone each other?

Dear Jasper,

Many mammals have been successfully cloned, starting with sheep in 1996. This was followed by cattle (1997), mice (1997), pigs (200), cats (2002), mules (2003), horses (2003), rats (2003), and others.

Here is a good summary from the Human Genome Project, with links to other summary pages:

http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/cloning.shtml

There are two aspects to answering your question. First, would it be possible to clone humans? It has proven difficult to clone primates, the group of mammals to which humans belong. However, most scientists tend to be optimistic, believing that with enough research many problems can be solved, with primate cloning falling into the category of technical challenges that appear to be possible.

The other question is whether anyone will ever clone a human being. From the link above:

"Physicians from the American Medical Association and scientists with the American Association for the Advancement of Science have issued formal public statements advising against human reproductive cloning."

The reason that physicians and scientists have united in opposition to human reproductive (as opposed to therapeutic) cloning is that there is a very low success rate, and cloned animals have health problems. With any medical treatment, we must balance risks and benefits. The risks to the health of cloned humans are well known. In contrast, there is absolutely no medical benefit to reproductive cloning. Perhaps some people would like to have perfect copies of themselves to survive after their death, but a clone is not the same person as the donor. We are a product of our experiences and our choices as well as our genes.

Because I have mentioned therapeutic cloning, I should explain this. It is discussed on the page that I cited above. In therapeutic cloning, a person in need of an organ transplant would donate nuclei to embryonic stem cells, which would somehow be guided into forming the appropriate organ. The success of therapeutic cloning is still a way off, but it does not pose the same kind of ethical difficulty for physicians and scientists that is posed by reproductive cloning.

So, the short answer to your question is no, it is not very likely that people will engage in reproductive cloning in the future, primarily for ethical, rather than technical reasons.

Thank you for an interesting question.

Yours,

Paul Szauter
Mouse Genome Informatics