after watching for the 3rd time the movie "Island",ive wondered the consquences of making clones.....no,science didn't get there by now,but science did mangae to clone a sheep and a monkey....the obstacles that now face the scientific community from achiving their goal in this area is mostly moral and legal,than scientificly. i think that if law would allow it,scince would have reached by now cloning in man.....but i guess it's just a matter of time until they reach it,and i'd like to know what you think about the moral consequences in cloning. opinions?

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To be free people,in our own land,the land of Zion and Jeruaslem

Depends. I don't mind cloning a child for a couple that can't have one, but I'm a bit freaked out by customized children- primarily due to the way they would give so much more advantage to the kids of the rich and also that it might screw up the male-female ratio. But I have nothing against using cloning technology to get rid of actual genetic defects in babies.
I think that the Island was disturbing (good movie though). Even clones should not be human cattle. The rationalization we'd need to treat even clones like that is scary. But I see nothing wrong with cloning specific organs in a jar or something like that.

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"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside

Cloning people sounds fine with me, as long as its regulated to prevent abuse or over population.

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"The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. " — John Stuart Mill

How would cloning screw up the male to female ratio?

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Theodore Lamar Heiks
BA, History/Political Science, Western State College of Colorado, 1984
MBA, Entrepreneurship/Marketing, City University of Seattle, 1993

How the hell would cloning cause overpopulation?

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Theodore Lamar Heiks
BA, History/Political Science, Western State College of Colorado, 1984
MBA, Entrepreneurship/Marketing, City University of Seattle, 1993

Not cloning, but cloning-related technology. More specifically the whole manipulation of children before they're born. Most people would rather have boys for whatever reason. Although overpopulation is a concern, decreasing the ratio of females to males by too much could be detrimental in the opposite direction.
I doubt that many people could afford it anyway. But it is a possibility.

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"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside

Are you absolutely sure that most people would rather have boys? (yick!) Or are you merely arguing from gut impression?

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Theodore Lamar Heiks
BA, History/Political Science, Western State College of Colorado, 1984
MBA, Entrepreneurship/Marketing, City University of Seattle, 1993

It is statistical. I don't know the reasons. The sentiment is heavier in some other countries, but the US has a slight pro-boy stance. Though a lot of people want a boy and a girl for whatever reason. I think people tend to view boys as less trouble since girls are viewed as in need of protection even into young adult years. That's the only reason that's compelling to me anyway. I don't want to have to threaten teenage boys with a shotgun. Other than that I would rather deal with a girl because I can raise a smart, career-focused girl without social stigma but not a nonviolent, empathetic boy without him getting beat up. Boys tend to get into more trouble or become wimps if they don't. Of course, I don't want children so my reasonings probably don't match those of the people that do. But for whatever reason, most people would rather have boys. In the US it's not a huge thing though. But to see the problems that can be caused by too much favoritism for having boys, look at China's population dilemma. Right now they're overpopulated. In a generation they'll be underpopulated.

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"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside

Listen, cloning can be good and bad, but if a company actually attempted, or suceeded in cloning a human, the religous fanatics would drop on them with more force than all of our bombs... combined.
So with that in mind I have to ask, is it worth it? Cloning is very expensive, and as I said previously, very contraversial. As for the people who are unable to have children, have you ever heard of adoption agencies?

I feel foolish for asking, but what exactly is the debate here? There is nothing wrong with cloning, in fact it could be decidedly beneficial. It would be unlikely to create an overpopulation problem because the key people who would want clones would be the people who want a child already. They would just want to make sure that the child would be well constructed. They would want to make sure that their child would not have any defects. So the only concern there would be that people would not have natural children anymore. Which now that I think on it is not really a concern at all. The only things that continue to stop this bit of progression: People who are afraid of new things, outdated morals, and religion.