The Advantages of Cloning

Among the advantages offered by cloning are the following:

1. The possibility of producing not a complete body but just an organ to save the life of a human being who requires the transplant of that organ.

2. The cloning of a complete human being whose bone marrow would help to save the life of his brother ill with leukemia. The transplant of bone marrow calls for a close biological link between the donor and the beneficiary, which in the case of cloning is really the closest possible relationship. In England there was a case where a woman felt obliged to conceive another child who could provide bone marrow for her only son who suffered from leukemia.

3. The cloning of transgenetic animals, that is animals with modifications brought about by human genes, to use their organs in transplants in human beings and thus avoid their rejection. Once a prototype of this kind is got then its mass reproduction by cloning is easier. It's not necessary to go through the inevitable variations and unpredictable situations that attend sexual reproduction.

4. The reproduction of therapeutic human proteins in the milk of sheep or other mammals, introducing a gen that is active exclusively in the mammary glands of the animals.

5. Cloning also allows the propagation of animals facing extinction and thus maintains ecological balance.

6. Cloning permits a greater propagation of insects that help control plagues that damage agricultural products, thus reducing the use of insecticides and pesticides, improving the quality of human life and protecting the environment.

7. Through cloning the industrial method is applied to biology, in other words: quality control and prediction. The quality of the clone is known beforehand, and also it is known perfectly well that its characteristics are identical in 99% with those of the original (donor).

8. Cloning also permits that mankind could increase the benefits that would accrue to the human race with an eminent person such as an Einstein, a Newton, a Beethoven,or an Aristotle. But would we really reproduce Einstein himself, Newton himself, Beethoven himself, and Aristotle himself? From the biological point of view, yes, but as we have already seen, "the circumstances" have different effects on the genes, and for this reason Thomas Edison said that genius is the result of 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. This is an exaggeration, but without any doubt the extragenetic factors are very important.